WD Purple Pro Surveillance Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch SATA, 7200 rpm, 8 TB to 26 TB

Overview

WD Purple Pro is a hard drive for demanding CCTV systems. It records around the clock in network video recorders (NVRs), AI-enabled recorders and video servers, and keeps up with video analytics running alongside the recording. Choose the capacity from the option above.

Is it right for you?

Choose it for business and multi-site systems: NVRs that run AI analytics (face, person or vehicle detection), video storage servers and video management software (VMS) servers, including recorders with many drive bays. For a home or small shop recorder, WD Purple is usually enough.

How to choose capacity: every camera adds to the amount of video written each day, so more cameras, higher resolution, higher frame rates or a longer history (retention) all need more space. A larger drive keeps more days of footage on the same cameras. The exact number of days depends on resolution, frame rate, compression (H.264 or H.265) and whether the recorder saves continuously or on motion only. Your recorder’s storage calculator gives a figure, or ask our team.

Key features

• Built for always-on video recording and AI video analysis at the same time.
• Records from up to 64 HD cameras (one 1080p, H.265, 25 fps stream per camera at 3.2 Mbps) and handles 32 AI streams.
• AllFrame AI firmware guides video, picture and metadata streams to the disk and helps reduce dropped frames.
• Workload rating of up to 550 TB/year for heavy recording and analytics.
• 7200 rpm and conventional recording (CMR); 512 MB cache on 10 TB and larger models, 256 MB on the 8 TB model.
• Helium-filled design on the 14 TB to 26 TB models, which also carry the higher 2,500,000 hour MTBF rating.
• No limit on the number of drive bays; rotational vibration (RV) sensors and tarnish-resistant components.
• Western Digital Device Analytics (WDDA) drive health monitoring with compatible recorders.

What else you need

• A CCTV recorder (NVR or DVR) or video server with a free 3.5 inch SATA bay that accepts the capacity you choose.
• Cameras and cabling for your system; the drive only stores the video.

Installation

Switch off and unplug the recorder, fit the drive in a free bay and connect the SATA data and power cables. Start the recorder and format (initialise) the drive from its storage menu before recording. Formatting erases anything already on the drive. Then set the recording schedule and turn on overwrite so the oldest footage is replaced when the drive is full.

Software and licences

Drive health monitoring (WDDA) works only on recorders and systems that support it. The drive records normally without it.

Before you buy

• Check the largest drive size your recorder accepts. WD Purple Pro has no stated bay limit, but the recorder sets the maximum capacity per bay.
• Capacity is in decimal units (1 TB = 1 trillion bytes), so the recorder shows slightly less usable space.
• Camera counts assume one 1080p stream per camera. 4K cameras, several streams per camera or high bit rates reduce the number of cameras one drive can record.
• The 8 TB to 12 TB air-filled models draw more power and run louder than the helium-filled 14 TB to 26 TB models. See the option description for each model’s figures.