Fitting a drive looks trivial, but getting the order or the details wrong causes recognition failures or data loss.

1. Power down: always disconnect the recorder before installing a drive. Hot-plugging SATA risks damage to the connector or the drive.
2. Fix and damp: secure the drive to the bay carrier with the supplied screws, tightening all four corners, and avoid resonance with other equipment in the cabinet.
3. Connect and power up: data cable first, then power. Confirm correct orientation before applying power, then open disk management to see whether the drive is detected.
4. Initialise and format: a new drive must be initialised and formatted. Formatting erases everything on it, so be sure it is new or already backed up.
5. Configure the recording schedule: set the recording mode (continuous or motion), stream type and overwrite policy, and confirm loop overwrite is enabled — otherwise recording stops when the disk fills.

Acceptance: confirm the status reads normal with the right capacity and model, then spot-check playback for the current day to prove recording is actually being written.