scottlee

@Leo-> It says AVC_AP_JPEG.dll is missing from your computer. Program cannot start. If this is the video player from AVTech... I already have it. AV-Tech support sent it to me but this doesn't play the files I have extracted using data recovery software. These files show as .SWF which I believe is incorrect. Do you recommend any software which will allow me to extract the files from the HDD first and then I can use the player to play them. The disk tools are not detecting the hard drives not even the original PC hdd with the windows installation. Any pointers? Scott.

@Leo -> Thank you very much. I have downloaded the program and installed it. When I dbl click disktools it shows me a window saying HDD information. There is no HDD in the list and there is only one button called research. When I click that button it does nothing. I tried the hlp folder included in the install but that was no help either. Kindly guide me how to use this software. Thank you. Scott

@tomcctv -> I tried resetting the date to my desired day and even before. It responded back with same message "No Data". DVR was powered off for quite a few days before the HDD was taken out so that 2 min after power off is not the issue I believe. @Soundy -> I tried using that software but it somewhat went over my head and I was not able to make much out of it. Is there a windows based tool for this? thank you. Scott

Thank you all for your time. I really appreciate it. @Soundy -> Yes when I placed the file in Windows PC, it did ask me to initialize and I canceled that out as I knew about the windows overwriting the signature. But the HDD before coming to me, was also with another guy who tried to recover the data and I don't know if he was smart enough the cancel it out. I believe that he didn't that's why I see no data. OK, proceeding on the assumption that it has written the signature and hence rendering the HDD unrecognizable for the DVR. How can I reset that signature? The rough plan I have in mind is that I put another HDD in DVR and let it initialize it properly and then I bring that HDD into PC and see what signature is there and then overwrite the same signature on my original drive. Kindly guide me what software should I use for this process? I read in a thread on the same site already that it is a 4 byte signature on some off-set(which I can get from that thread again) and reset it to 0000 but I have not done this before so do not have much idea about disc-level editing. Any pointer in this regard is highly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you for your response. Although it is not much helpful in my scenario. AVC-770 does not have a network interface. Secondly the HDD already shows "Disk Empty" when connected to DVR. I need to understand what type of file format is stored on HDD and how to replay or recover it when HDD connected to a Windows PC. Thank you.

Greetings, I have already searched high and low for the solution but no luck so far. I have AVTech AVC-770 with 120GB HDD in it. I have some important footage in it. Last time I checked I was able to play it back without any problem. In fact, I played back and forth quite a few times and everything was perfect. Then as there is not DVD burner or any output component in it, I assumed I will have to take out the HDD to get the data off it. I opened it up and connected it to a PC but it showed as empty with no data. When windows asked to initialize the disk, I canceled out. Then I put it back in the DVR and the DVR started showing Disk Empty message. I am very upset with the situation. I have read few posts on this website mentioning the same situation where people have confirmed that merely attaching the HDD to PC will not wipe out the data. Now I have reconnected the drive with the PC and ran some data recovery software on it. It shows me 166 files on it identified as SWF shockwave files ranging in size from 60MB-5GB each. I recovered few of these files on the PC and tried running them using every possible player out there. I have even tried VideoLAN VLC player but those file simply won't play. Any assistance and/or guideline in proper direction is highly appreciated. Regards, Scott.