Investigations & evidence · erased recorder video
Ask one question first: is the recorder still switched on? Deleting a clip removes a line from the DVR's index. The video itself stays in place until the loop comes round to that part of the disk and records over it. Stop the machine early and most of it returns, times and channels attached. After an overwrite, nothing does.
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| The problem | What's behind it | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Someone deleted clips in the app or menu | The index lost a line; the video blocks are untouched | Power the recorder off now |
| The unit formatted its own disk after an error | A format writes a new index and touches little else | Carving deals with it; odds are decent |
| Nobody switched it off for three days | Every hour of recording buries another slice of the oldest data | Get it to us this week |
| Everything on the disk postdates the incident | Probably overwritten; the free look confirms it | We'll say so, free of charge |
| The clips play, but nothing is labelled | Carved video: pictures survive, labels don't | Expected, and told to you upfront |
| Files from a previous attempt won't open | Raw streams pulled off, never rebuilt into files | We turn those streams into playable MP4 |
Every item gets its own case number on the day it lands here. An engineer traces the fault, gives you a plain assessment of what is realistically recoverable, and puts one fixed price in writing. The diagnosis is free, you are under no obligation, and chargeable work starts only when you say go.
Power off, disk out, write-blocked image taken. From that moment the disk is a fixed object: whatever survived the loop is safe on our copy.
On the copy we hunt for the maker's own index — HIKBTREE on a Hikvision, DHFS tables on a Dahua. Read enough of it and clips come back with real channel names, dates and times: the version an insurer can use.
With no index left, we read the disk end to end looking for the start codes that mark H.264 and H.265 frames, then group them into files that play. You are told plainly which clips arrived with timing data and which came back bare.
You get the full list of recovered files first, and nothing is charged until you approve it. Data goes back on fresh media, return postage paid, and the job stays open on our side until you confirm every file opens at your end.
How the loop actually works: the recorder splits the disk into fixed blocks and fills them in order. At the end it returns to the start and reuses the oldest block, whatever it holds. A deleted clip lasts only as long as it takes new recording to reach it. Power off isn't caution; it's the recovery.
Someone on the staff binned a batch of 'old clips'. One held a theft. The recorder was switched off that same afternoon, which is why any of it survived: index entries still held four of the five lost days, timestamps and all, and carving brought the fifth back — playable, but with no labels.
Usually, yes. Deletion clears the index rather than the footage itself, so the clips stay on disk until the loop returns to them. Switch the recorder off and the odds hold up.
The new recording has physically taken the place of the old bytes; there is no layer beneath to read. Anybody claiming different is selling, not engineering.
Often, provided the recorder's index is still intact. Where we have to carve frames out raw, the clips play, but timestamps and channel names can be lost — and we tell you precisely which ones arrived that way.
Days, or a month, or longer: camera count, resolution and disk size between them set it. Busy systems overwrite soonest, so switch the recorder off and assume the clock is against you.
Loop recording writes over the old footage, and deadlines won't wait. Open a case now — the first look costs nothing and stays confidential.