longest recording time affects?

[takeru]

i am thinking about using a video capture setup for security recording. capturing straight to mpeg2, so it averages roughly 25 megs per minute at 640x480. my question though is, will maintaining a capture session like this for hours (lets say 10 hours straight daily) have any adverse affects on the hd?

[fellaw]

It depends on your hard disk.

Every hard disk has an MTBF(mean time between failure) of nowadays roughly 100,000h. After that time, they will very likely get physical errors. However, some brands incline to get louder when they're used too heavy for too long. It's also hardly predictable wether the bearing could take serious damage. I've captured quite a few times(10-20) for >6h with my seagate barracuda iv , without any harm for my disk.

I suggest you to read an up-to-date review of your or other hard disks.

edit: Using a raid 3 or 5 with 4-6 hard disks would be a good option. If one of the hard disks fails, the whole array will still work. You'll need SATA or SCSI for that.