Help on Avtech AVD717D, restoring footage of formated drives

[slam 0]

Hi All,

 

I stumbled across this forums and this is my first post. Hopefully someone out there experienced can help me out (thanks in advance).

 

My friend has given me 3 x 1TB drives, basically his apprentice he sent out accidently formatted a customers DVR. The Avtech AVD717D.

 

I work as a software developer so I thought I'd give him a hand to try and restore the data as its quite important.

 

I have done a few things and basically I have run into a dead end and have a few questions.

 

Does anyone know if there is a way to restore the data off the formatted drives. I tried running the drives through EaseUS Data recovery software, it detected SWF files however I cannot play them. So I think these are false positives.

 

Mainly my questions are:

 

1) What file system does this unit use? Is it a linux EXT3 file system?

 

2) My friend mentioned that there was 3TB, upon reviewing the DVR unit. The drives can be setup in JBOD or 2+1 array (I assume its Raid 5). This will make things more tricky. I think it might still be JBOD, so maybe I can restore the drives individually.

 

3) I dont have the DVR, its at the clients place. Could someone let me know what happens when you do a backup to USB from that unit. Does it copy MP4 files to a USB HD? Should I be expecting MP4 formatted videos (when I restore)?

 

4) The USB HD you plug in, can that be an NTFS HD? or does it have to have a strict partition type?

 

5) Is any of the data encrypted?

 

6) Does anyone know any software that can help me piece back these 3 drives as a single drive and let me do a deep raw scan/restore on the data.

 

Thanks in advance, any advice or help is greatly appreciated.

 

Slam

[scorpion 0]

If the hard drives are in a computer then you will have to create an emulator to act like the DVR. The software in the DVR is propietary, and they hard drives will not work in a PC.

 

If you have captured the data then perhaps you can mirror them, and place them back in to the DVR to see if they play?

 

There is no experience out there as this is not a hobby situation that would used, or is this common among installers.

 

I wish I could help you more.