Widely available 2.5” drives are the basic storage medium for 4K Monitor recorder. We work closely with all the leading drive manufacturers to qualify as many options as possible. Hard drives / HDD or Spinning disk can only be used for HD recording. Solid State Drives / SSD are required for 4K recording or for more demanding production environments that may not be suited to HDDs.

See the section below about when you should consider using SSDs.

Which drives should you use?

There are so many drives available, and newer models appear all the time. We are not able to test all drives but here are some guidelines.

Spinning Disk Drives (HDD) are recommended for recording up to 1080p30/1080i60 HD video only

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are recommended for recording up to 4KUHDp30 and 4KDCIp30 from RAW

Speed and reliability are the main factors. Here are a few things to bear in mind:

• Disk drive data rates tend to be given in megabytes per second, and codec data rates are normally given in megabits per

It’s very easy to get confused. But there’s no need to be, because all you have to do to convert megabits to megabytes is divide by 8. So if you’re recording at 220 megabits per second, that’s going to result in 220/8 megabytes per second, which is 27.5 megabytes per second.

• We recommend at least 7200 RPM drives. Just remember that the higher the bit-rate of the codec you’re using, the faster the drive needs to be, with 4K recording your data rate is four times from that of HD recording, please ensure your drive is capable of keeping up with 4K write speed

Atomos regularly test hard drives – please check this link before purchasing drives: http://www.atomos.com/drives

Mechanical Shock and Vibration for Spinning Disk HDD’s

Hard disks are precision mechanical devices that need to be handled carefully. The use of mechanical drives or Solid State drives will vary depending on the intended filming application.

We can’t give rigid guidelines because there are so many different kinds of drives, each which has different mechanical properties. You may find variations between drives of the same type.

What we have found is that mechanical drives are suitable for most purposes that don’t involve harsh vibration or mechanical shocks. We would not advise using mechanical disks if there is a likelihood that they might be dropped onto a hard surface.

Here are some things that you should bear in mind when using spinning disks:

• Even though spinning drives can withstand substantial shocks when they are not in use, they are more vulnerable when running. Harsh treatment that may not actually damage the drive may interrupt recordings at a much lower level of We recommend that you experiment with your drives by testing them in the conditions that you normally work in.
• Do not bang or jolt the Sumo19 while

• Do not use spinning drives (HDD) for recording 4K video

• You will find noticeable differences in the ability of drives to withstand shock and to continue recording during vibration and