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Affected Roles: Administrator, Owner
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum® IPVMS
Complexity: Medium to High
Last Edit: July 15, 2021
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After adding a hard drive to a DW Blackjack® computer, the new storage drive will need to be initialized and a new partition must be created before it can be utilized for storage by the DW Spectrum® Server.
This article will outline how to initialize and partition a new hard drive using an Ubuntu/Linux operating system.
**NOTE: Linux commands are case-sensitive. Be mindful of the use of spaces, special characters, and capitalization.
**NOTE: For mounting a drive using a Windows OS, see Mounting A New Drive (Windows).
After physically mounting the drive to the Ubuntu computer, the new hard drive will need to be initialized and partitioned by the OS to create a partition for the DW Spectrum® Server to use as media storage. To do so, follow the directions below.
Before setting up the new hard drive, stop the DW Media Service program from running. This will prevent the DW Spectrum® Server from trying to write to an unavailable drive.
To stop the DW Media Service:
To gain root access as a Superuser, use the command:
sudo su
When prompted, enter the default password of “admin”, then press the Enter key.
admin
**NOTE: When typing the password, be aware that text will not display in the command terminal.
To stop the DW Media Service, use the command:
service digitalwatchdog-mediaserver stop
The DW Media Service will stop and the Server will refrain from writing to its storage drives.
After stopping the DW Media Service, the new hard drive will need to be initialized.
To initialize the new hard drive:
Using the Unity program, search for “Disks”, then launch the Disks tool.
When prompted, enter the system’s Administrator password and click on Authenticate to begin the initialization process.
**NOTE: Initializing the hard drive will completely erase all stored data on the specified drive. This should not be an issue as this is a new hard drive.
After initializing the drive, a storage partition must be created on the new hard drive.
To create a new partition:
To create a new partition, select the unallocated hard disk from the list of Disk Drives, then click on the add (+) icon
In the Name box, name the partition as “home1” (case sensitive), then click the Create button.
**NOTE: It is recommended to keep the Partition Size at the HDD’s maximum capacity when creating the partition.
The Mount Options window will display.
Toggle OFF the Automatic Mount Options setting.
Configure the following settings:
Once configured (see image below), click the OK button.
After the new hard drive has been initialized and partitioned, the DW Media Service must be restarted on the Server before the DW Spectrum® Server program can write to the new drive.
To start the DW Media Service:
To gain access as a Superuser, use the command:
sudo su
When prompted, enter the default password of “admin”, then press the Enter key.
admin
**NOTE: When typing the password, be aware that text will not display in the command terminal.
To start the DW Media Service, use the command:
service digitalwatchdog-mediaserver start
The DW Media Service will restart and the Server can begin writing to the new storage drive.