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EDR / Evidence & investigations / CCTV & DVR footage recovery

Investigations & evidence · CCTV and DVR footage

CCTV and DVR recovery, Exeter. The recorder is still looping; turn it off and the odds change.

Once a DVR has captured something, it doesn't take time to think about what was captured. Old footage is constantly being erased and reused as new footage is created in a continuous loop, day and night. The clip you're looking for will be the next in line to be recorded over. Shut off the DVR's power source and that loop is broken; once the drive reaches our workbench, we'll sort through the rest.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Treated as evidence Act fast — the loop overwrites

A quiet word, in confidence
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Recorder disks on this bench most weeks.

Hikvision and HiLookThese are the most common recorders in the UK by a distance. When we find an index for either of these recorders (if one exists), the returned video will have the channel number(s) and timestamp(s) on the clip.
DahuaThe other major manufacturer, but it uses different indexing methods to lay out its data. We can still recover from what is left, and if there is no remaining index data we can carve out the rest of the video.
Swann · Reolink · Annke · UniviewWe also support budget and small business type recording systems that are available under several different brands. Since inside they all repeat the same boards and disk formats, disk-level recovery works on all of them as well.
Unbranded recordersOld generic units installed years ago by companies who are long gone. Documentation does not exist and there is no support number to call, but the physical principles of physics still apply to every piece of video that sits on that disk, just like they do with all other pieces of video.

The faults that reach us.

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What's wrongWhat it usually meansStep one
Those clips were removed via the internal menu of the recorder unit.This will remove your index/clip entries, but the actual footage has not been erased.Cut off the power immediately when this happens.
In some manner, the disk was reformatted (either intentionally or unintentionally).Now you have a blank index. Your streams remain intact underneath it.We'll extract the frames from underneath the new index.
The body of the recorder has died.The unit contains a hard drive in which your video is stored, not in the case.First get a quote on how much this will cost, then simply send us just the drive and we can image it.
This incident happened several weeks ago.There is a possibility that the loop may have got to the footage before us. We will be honest with you about what is discovered.The free assessment/diagnosis will give you the answer.
Video playback appears to work fine but video export via USB does not.Your video is recorded using a unique/proprietary file format. Your software export tool is also very finicky.The disk is imaged and exported in an appropriate manner.
Footage has to be acceptable to police or an insurerPlayable MP4s, the native files, and a written noteSee the insurance and police page for details
Posting it to us: get a quote first, by phone or with the form. Then simply send the disk from your recording device (just the disk, not the recorder) or the memory card from your camera to our intake lab in Bristol via tracked, insured post, and we will cover the cost of return postage. Alternatively, you are welcome to drop it off there, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. Unsure about which way is best? Ring first and we will help you decide on the safest way to send it (we don't collect). More information is available on the contact page.

The job, stage by stage.

See the casebook →
01

Booked in, assessed for nothing Free

Your device will be logged under its own case number on the day it comes into our lab. The engineer who works on your device identifies the problem with it, clearly states what we think has a good chance of coming back and provides you with one fixed quote. There are no charges for this assessment; there is no obligation for you to do anything; and paid work does not begin until you authorise us to start.

The look is freeA single quote, in writingNo obligation
02

Stop the loop

First of all, do what we always advise you to do: unplug the power to the recorder or remove the hard drive. Each hour that the recording continues, more of the important video footage that you are interested in will be overwritten by further recordings.

Recorder shut offLoop halted
03

Image the drive

You remove the drive from the recorder; the recorder remains in your possession, and from this point the state of the DVR is unimportant (a dead unit is no obstacle). The drive is copied read-only here, and all subsequent work takes place against that copy of the data.

Drive imaged read-onlyWorks even on a dead unit
04

Read the index — or go frame by frame

If the catalogue of your own recorder remains in existence, we can then make this part of the recovery process by retrieving the clips with channel numbers and time stamps attached. In cases where there is no catalogue left on your own equipment, we will be able to scan the hard disk drive (HDD) and retrieve the H.264/H.265 video itself to create playable files.

Index read where it survivesFrame carving otherwise
05

Watched back, verified, returned

You have access to a complete list of every item recovered from your device, which you approve prior to any fees being applied. The files will be returned via new media (brand new) with the return postage paid by us, and the case remains open for as long as it takes to confirm that all the files open properly on your own machine.

You approve the file listReturned on new mediaWe pay return postage

Rules the bench works by

  • Windows can't talk to DVR hard drives: each of the major players in the DVR market (Hikvision, Dahua and the rest) has created its own proprietary format when it comes to how they store data on their HDDs. This is why, if you try to use a standard Windows undelete program on a DVR's HDD, it will report that the drive is empty.
  • The index creates the labels: with the index in place, recovered image segments are labelled with the original channel and clock information; without the index, carving still saves the image segments themselves, although they will lack labelling.
  • The system never knows what it is deleting, as all recordings are deleted based upon how long ago they were made.
  • Do not take the storage time shown on your CCTV recorder or DVR seriously (i.e. do not assume it will hold for thirty days): if you have too many cameras operating in high resolution on a '30-day' system, you may find it wrapping within seven days.

Everyone quotes the '30 days', but no such time limit for CCTV exists under the UK statutes. The 31-day cycle comes from data-protection law's storage-limitation principle. Systems often loop round well before they reach the end of their setting. Once something occurs, treat the clock as already ticking.

Fresh from the casebook.

EX · EDR-2026-2546VERIFIED ✓

An Exeter shop burgled, with the DVR still running

The insurance company asked to see the footage after the recorder had looped (and overwritten) for nine days. The DVR hard drive was copied in its entirety (imaged), its file directory was read (decoded), and the time frame of interest was located on sectors that were still intact, since they hadn't yet been overwritten. Two copies of this data were made; one copy is for review purposes and the other is for submission as part of an insurance claim.

What happened window recovered3 days in the lab

Before it leaves your hands.

Do

  • Shut off the power or remove the drive from the system.
  • Record the date, approximate time, and which cameras are involved.
  • Get a price quote first, then send us your DVR hard drive; do not send us your entire DVR system.
  • Specify what you intend to do with the captured material: for personal usage, for a claim, or for submission to the police

Steer clear

  • Keep it continuously running hoping to capture additional information
  • Clear out old recordings to free up memory
  • Have an installer reset the unit or replace the software (firmware) in the device
  • Count on a USB copy that has failed previously

Asked in private, answered plainly.

Can deleted CCTV footage be brought back?

Yes, generally speaking, provided the recording device was turned off before the loop began to run round again. The delete function will only clear the index information for the recording. Until another piece of footage is recorded onto the space taken up by the previous video, it will remain.

Can CCTV that's been overwritten be recovered?

No. When you have recorded over your previous videos, regardless of what the laboratory personnel do, they are going to be unable to recover that information, which is exactly why turning off the recorder is the most important thing for you to do at this time.

My DVR is dead — is the footage lost with it?

Almost never. All of your data lives on the disk in the unit, therefore we have everything we require in that disk: get a quote first, either over the telephone or with the form, then remove the disk from the unit and post it to us, or drop it off at our Bristol intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. We will create an image of your disk and complete all of our work on this image. The box that contains the disk is simply packaging for the drive.

How long have I got?

The amount of time that the loop takes to run around again will depend upon several factors, such as the capacity of the disk used by the recorder, the number of cameras being recorded from and the resolution/quality of those recordings; on a busy system the loop can come round in days. While the recorder is still active and being written to, every footage job will be considered an emergency.

More like this in the casebook.

Deleted & overwritten footage → Footage for insurers & police → Internal disks → Evidence & forensic work →

Evidence fades fast. Don't hang about.

When recorders overwrite on a loop, all recorded evidence will weaken and time limitations expire, so open your case now. The first review is completely free and confidential.

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