Solved/HowTo: DVR Footage Recovery after HDD Format / Crash

[pdump2000 0]

Hello Guys,

 

When I accidentally formatted my Chinese DVR and wanted to get back

the footage. I looked at a lot of forums /support sites etc and did not find a solution. So I attempted to crack it . After some working time, I was able to recover all my footage.

 

I found that the harddisk strores the data as raw file on the harddisk, without any partition or filesystem and stores it in a different byte order. Extract the data switch the byteorder and you should be able to play the file on a PC using the player software that came along with the DVR. I have put up the program source and the procedure here.

 

http://sunraysols.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/cctv-dvr-harddisk-recovery-after-fomat-crash-etc/

or

http://sites.google.com/site/cctvdvrrecovery/

 

Thanks.

[friday 0]

Hello pdump2000,

 

I recently came across your post and had a quick question. I live in a building that has a significant amount of CCTV Camera installed. I was attack and assaulted a year ago in my building garage by a bunch of thugs. When i requested to get the video from the building management they refused and stated the camera footage over-ran itself and the footage was no long available. Well just recently a new management has taken over and i was wondering if i were to still be able to recover this footage from a year ago, since our court case is still pending and it was be extremely useful.

 

Thank you

[Soundy 1]

The OP's solution works because formatting a disk typically just erases the catalog or table that tells the system where the data is located, while the data itself is still there.

 

In your case, the data has been overwritten... replaced with new data. The chances of recovering anything are about one in ten thousand... and would probably cost about the same.

[papillon7777 0]

Hi,

I have tried to contact you elsewhere as well about this. Hoping you'll see one of the posts very soon because its urgent.

basically, my car was very badly vandalised. I know who has done it, but need the direct evidence. I have a case of ongoing harassment by this person which has included previous damage to my car and assaults including one where I had to go to hospital and have a brain scan.

There was a private CCTV camera where I had parked and the area was very well lit.the car was under a lamp. so I was initially overjoyed to find out. however, when the home owner got home he explained that he had just erased the disk the night before.he had noticed the time was out a few minutes and when he went to reset he was asked whether he wised to erase and happened to erase. I had not been near my car for 3.5 days. His cctv system is made in taiwan and loops on 30 days. Its made by Kguard and runs H-264. This is an add from the company where he bought:http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/kguard-4-channel-h264-dvr-with-remote-viewing-n29hu

he has kindly stopped recording whilst I try to figure out how to recover the data. I have a further problem that I have mac/osx 10.8.5. this is windows compatible cctv system. I got the 24 footage on a key, it played but crashed and could not be manipulated to stop to check frames, but I am extremely doubtful its the correct day anyways due to other evidence.

I really want to get this CCTV. The damage was extensive and took some time. most of all its about getting this person prosecuted for the harassment and damage. I would be most grateful for your advice. Im thinking that a possible problem is that i don't know where in that 30 day loop these 3 days were recorded and therefore according to your answer above, they could be completely irretrievable, but they maybe there. I am not tech-wise at all, though a friend maybe can get help at his uni and I have your article to pass. btw I contacted kguard in taiwan and they said it was impossible. I didn't bother to send your article because I would not trust their advice or effort after that.

ok sorry this is becoming long. thank you in advance for any help/advice you can offer. I'm london based.