I have a 4 camera with DVR system. (Monoprice cheap) It has a 1TB WD DVR drive in it. It has performed great for over a year. But now when the hard drive is full, it won't erase and record over properly. Instead of 1 hour video files it's making 1 minute length video files which is useless. I have to format the drive and then it records properly until it's full again. Any thoughts? HDD or DVR?
Security system HDD problem
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You might try changing the length of recycle time? I have mine set at 7 days; and after that it starts recording over the previously recorded info.
Mine doesn't offer an option like that. I can set the file quality and length in 15min increments to an hour. And I can turn "Overwrite" on and off, but cannot affect how much HDD is used. But after reviewing a lot of things I discovered that I had one channel set to record in a different format than the others. This may have been my issue. I will know in a couple of weeks or so when the HDD is full again. Thanks for your response 
That was it. Having the one channel set to record in a different format confused the OS of the DVR when it came to over writing the full HDD. All is good again
Rehashing an old problem. The security system recording problem did not go away/ get fixed 
But it takes a week to figure that out every time. I finally bought a new WD Purple HDD and put that in the unit and no difference. I started shopping for a replacement Security DVR and wasn't finding a lot of choice, and nothing inexpensive. So I started shopping new systems. But as a last resort I called Monoprice tech support. I know it was out of warranty but figured they put their name on it maybe they would be proud enough to talk about problems after warranty. Well I was pleasantly surprised. Not only do they have an English speaking tech support, they actually have people who care. Wow!! Being out of warranty was a non-issue. He attacked the problem with all his resources. I spent almost an hour working with him and checking things out. He thought of something I hadn't tried yet, but a week later still the same problem. But two thumbs up for Monoprice tech support. Hard to find that in a Chinese imported world. I decided to take out my new HDD and put it in the new system I bought. I put the old drive back in. It records a week anyway. And while I was swapping drives I noticed a hot spot on the circuit board inside. Sure enough there was a broken solder joint. Bad spot to try and repair though. So I improvised and made the circuit whole again. In a week I'll know 
But it takes a week to figure that out every time. I finally bought a new WD Purple HDD and put that in the unit and no difference. I started shopping for a replacement Security DVR and wasn't finding a lot of choice, and nothing inexpensive. So I started shopping new systems. But as a last resort I called Monoprice tech support. I know it was out of warranty but figured they put their name on it maybe they would be proud enough to talk about problems after warranty. Well I was pleasantly surprised. Not only do they have an English speaking tech support, they actually have people who care. Wow!! Being out of warranty was a non-issue. He attacked the problem with all his resources. I spent almost an hour working with him and checking things out. He thought of something I hadn't tried yet, but a week later still the same problem. But two thumbs up for Monoprice tech support. Hard to find that in a Chinese imported world. I decided to take out my new HDD and put it in the new system I bought. I put the old drive back in. It records a week anyway. And while I was swapping drives I noticed a hot spot on the circuit board inside. Sure enough there was a broken solder joint. Bad spot to try and repair though. So I improvised and made the circuit whole again. In a week I'll know 
Eight days later and the problem seems to be resolved. I found the stats for the HDD and found it wasn't actually getting full at all. It will hold 4 weeks of recordings before recording over old recordings at this resolution. The fault would interrupt the recording process after one week no matter the size of the HDD. I will keep an eye on this and see if it actually can properly manage the drive over the next couple of months. If so, I will call it fixed
I found the stats for the HDD and found it wasn't actually getting full at all. It will hold 4 weeks of recordings before recording over old recordings at this resolution. The fault would interrupt the recording process after one week no matter the size of the HDD. I will keep an eye on this and see if it actually can properly manage the drive over the next couple of months. If so, I will call it fixed 
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