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RDR / Evidence and expert work / Footage recovered from recorder disks

Evidence work · the disks that come out of CCTV recorders

CCTV footage recovery, Reading. Cut the power to the recorder now; everything else can wait an hour.

When the DVR/NVR disk becomes full, it will then go back to the start of the recording sequence and lay new data on top of the old. It can't tell what is important, i.e. the 90 seconds you may need from a vacant stockroom at 2am. Disconnecting the power supply stops this process. After that, we do bench work on a duplicate of the disk. Looking is completely free; the recovery is £400 + VAT, with the figure in writing before anything chargeable starts. In most cases, you only pay if we recover your data. Many of our jobs come from small sites, such as a trade counter on one of the Reading estates, a camera covering a yard at Theale, or a retail unit at Calcot.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Logged as an exhibit from the start The loop is recording over it now

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Which recorders come through the door.

Hikvision · HiLookNo other brand arrives here in such quantities. The start of the hard drive shows a HIKVISION signature, a B-tree index behind it, and between the two the clips come back with their labels intact.
DahuaThe second largest in terms of volume on this bench, and with an entirely different layout: DHFS tables, with video stored as .dav files. Anything that can be parsed is parsed; everything else is "carved".
Swann · Reolink · Annke · UniviewThere are dozens of badge types, with only a handful of chipsets between them. Once the disk is out of its housing, the layout is generally one we have met many times, and it no longer matters what was written on the top of the box (the name of the manufacturer).
Generic unbranded unitsAdded many years ago by a company that has now gone out of business; no user guide; nobody to call. The work doesn't change. On the inside of the case lies a disk that breaks up the video into blocks, and reading those blocks is what we do.

Find the recorder's symptom, then the next move.

Not here? Tell us what it is doing →
What you are seeingWhat is likely wrongWhat happens next
The clips were deleted through the menuA single entry in an index went; the pictures didn't.Cut the power today
The installer put a new format on the driveA format writes a clean table of contents (the index) to the disk but leaves everything else as isFrames are carved out of the image
No lights, no picture, no reactionThe video is on the disk, not on the dead motherboardGet a quote, then post the disk
It happened a fortnight agoDid the loop cover it already? That is a question with an answerThe free look settles it
Playback works, export does notBad USB socket, or export firmware that has stopped functioningThe clips come off our copy instead
A loss adjuster or solicitor wants itExhibit bundle: native clips, MP4 copies, a hash for each, method noteMention it at booking
Sending it to the lab: get a quote first, by phone or using the form. Send it by tracked, insured post to the Oxford intake lab, or drop it off at the Oxford intake lab (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). The return leg is at our expense. Need help packing? Call us before sealing your box and an engineer will tell you what to pack and what to leave out. All remaining details are on our packing and posting page.

What we do, in order.

How other jobs ended →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the look costs nothing Free

A case number is assigned to your device when we receive it. An engineer then finds the real fault (free) before anything else occurs; you will be advised clearly of what will be returned and what will not, along with a single written price. Charges cannot begin until you have read this and accepted.

The look costs you nothingA fixed price, in writingStill nothing to pay
02

Power off, first of all

One instruction opens every footage call: have the unit turned off or remove its hard drive. No other piece of advice matters as much, because for as long as there is an electrical connection the unit will continue to overwrite the footage that you are trying to recover.

Power it down firstThe loop stops there
03

A copy that can only be read

The drive is read through a hardware write blocker and all sectors are copied off it. No bytes travel in the opposite direction. Once this image is captured the recorder does not matter. All remaining operations happen on the copied version of the data.

Imaged behind a write blockerA dead recorder is no barrier
04

The maker's tables first, carving after

Dahua stores DHFS tables while Hikvision stores HIKBTREE indexes. If enough of either table survives, every clip produced includes information about which camera made it as well as when it was recorded. When neither can be parsed the process moves down a layer to locate the byte signature that marks the beginning of each compressed video frame using H.264 or H.265 compression. Once the frames are located they are assembled into playable video files.

Manufacturer's tables read firstFrame carving where they are gone
05

The list first, then the bill, then the files

You look at the file list first and make a decision about what to do. We will never invoice anything until you have said yes, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. All of the information that we recover will be put on new media purchased by us specifically for this job, and our company pays the cost of postage back to you. The case stays open on the bench until you tell us the files open on your own machine.

Nothing billed until you say yesNew media, bought for the jobPostage home is on us

What we keep finding on recorders

  • A recorder disk does not carry a file system you would recognise: each manufacturer is free to organise its blocks as it likes. Put one into your PC and Windows will show you something that makes no sense to it, suggest formatting it, and any consumer undelete tool reports nothing at all.
  • The blocks contain the pictures; the index contains the labels: with an intact index, each clip arrives named and timed. If there is no index, the footage still returns, but none of the information in the file tells you which lens made it or when.
  • The recorder doesn't make a decision: the oldest block on the list is simply recorded over next. An empty room is worth just as much to it as the ninety seconds you need.
  • Authority is as important as the disk: whoever puts the job in needs to have the right to have this system examined. Name the owner at the time of booking; if there's a dispute over ownership, get some advice before proceeding.

Regarding retention: no general UK statute sets out a minimum time for how long CCTV footage must be kept (a 90-day rule exists for slaughterhouses in England, but this does not apply to shops, yards or homes). The number of days people refer to was taken from data protection guidance. This states that you should not retain footage for longer than you have a reason to retain it. It makes no reference to the recording hardware. How long your own box keeps footage is governed by maths: how many cameras are feeding into it, the bitrate of those feeds, and the capacity of the box itself. That maths cannot be done over a phone line, and every hour the unit stays powered the answer gets shorter.

How one of these actually went.

RG · RDG-2026-1696ON FILE ✓

A shop in Reading, and nine days before anyone asked for the footage

Nine days passed before the loss adjuster got round to asking, and the recorder remained powered throughout that time. We took out the hard drive, made an image of the data and read the index: the minutes in question were found to still exist, in blocks that had not yet been reached by the loop. We gave one copy back for viewing purposes. Another copy was placed into the claims file. It could just as easily have gone the other way, which is why we advocate turning the power off on day one.

The entire break-in window still existed on the disk3 days from arrival to return

What helps, and what makes it worse.

First things to do

  • Unplug the recorder from the mains
  • List the cameras and the time(s) you want
  • Obtain a quote first, then send the disk alone and keep the box
  • Identify who the copy is intended for and verify you can authorise the copy

What makes it worse

  • Leaving it running while you ponder the issue
  • Erasing older clips to free up space
  • Running firmware updates and factory resets
  • Trying the failed export over and over

What people ask before they send it.

Is CCTV footage that was deleted still recoverable?

Usually. It is all about one thing: did someone remove power from the unit before it cycled back round to that stretch of the disk? When you delete a clip, you are deleting an entry in the catalogue, but you have not touched anything else. Until something new overwrites it, the original picture remains on the disk.

What if it has already written across them?

Then you will have lost it. Whatever was in that block space has been replaced, so there is nothing to find underneath, neither on our bench nor on anyone else’s. That is why the single instruction we give with every call is "get the power off".

The recorder itself has stopped working. Does that take the video with it?

Not often. Strip down a DVR and you have a casing, a circuit board and a hard disk. There isn’t any video recorded on either the casing or the circuit board; all video is stored on the hard disk. If the board is beyond repair, it is an inconvenience rather than a problem. Simply take out the hard disk, get a quote, and post it to us, and we will make an image of it and work from the copy.

How much time do I have left?

It depends on your capacity, number of cameras and bit rate. No two systems will give you the same answer. A busy forecourt written to from morning till night will loop back to its own beginning far more quickly than the owner would guess. Assume that until that box is off, the clock is ticking against you.

If this sounds like yours, start here.

Deleted clips, and what is left → Clips for insurers and police → How much time you have → If the recorder's own disk fails → Nothing will open the disc → The disk inside the machine → Casework for court and claims →

Stop the loop before it reaches your clip.

It’s still recording, and every time it loops around it takes another piece of the information you require. Pull its power now, get a quote first, either by phone or with our form, and send us the disk. Your initial assessment is free, followed by a written price, and none of this information will go anywhere else.

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Get it quoted Posting it to Oxford