DVR / CCTV DATA RECOVERY

As part of our premier computer forensics service, secure data recovery services offer professional DVR/CCTV video recovery. Our service is critical in investigations where security systems are being tested, for example to gather evidence of a crime, misconduct or to piece together the events leading up to an accident.

REASONS FOR DVR VIDEO LOSS

There are several situations that can cause CCTV/DVR video loss, including:

Mechanical failure of the recorder hard drive Damage to the hard drive firmware
The DVR does not have enough storage space
Reformatting or damaged disk
Accidental deletion of footage
Environmental hazards such as fire, moisture, dust or chemical exposure
Power outages
Secure data recovery services have years of experience recovering seemingly lost videos
DVR as a result of certain situations.

HOW DVR RECORDINGS ARE STORED

Without intervention, digital DVRs only store video until all remaining storage is exhausted. Preserving or recovering video of a person or event may be a limited option that eliminates legal options later if they are missed."

Modern digital DVRs typically store footage on separate hard drives or RAID arrays, and in both cases, Secure Data Recovery Services are experts in resolving data recovery cases involving computer systems. However, the format of DVR footage is very different from that produced by regular PC applications or operating systems.

Because the DVR recording format is specialized, often proprietary, and optimized for a single purpose, its analysis and data recovery is not as simple as simply connecting a hard drive to a PC and playing the video. One problem is that metadata related to the footage is inserted directly at regular intervals, which does not happen in PC video formats.

MULTIPLEX VIDEO

An additional challenge is that most security systems use multiple cameras in different locations, with each video stream directed to a single hard drive or RAID array. This video multiplexing is used to reduce disk congestion. This means multiple views are mixed together, making it very difficult to watch the entire stream as it quickly switches between camera views.

RECORDER RESTORATION PROCESS

Data Recovery Services employs several advanced techniques and tools in our DVR recovery suite depending on the situation. We can use the original DVR recorder first, but if there are logical corruptions, we must resort to direct analysis of the raw data on the disk.

Special software is applied to the DVR data copies to create individual video streams, stripping out the metadata so that the complete sequence from each camera is obtained. In cases where the desired material has been deleted or damaged, our data recovery specialists use additional techniques to recover that material before demultiplexing the streams.

EQUIPMENT FOR VIDEO RECORDS

Our recovery labs can recover video from all major DVR manufacturers, including BlueIris, Ispy, Zoneminder, Lorex, JVC, Q-See, Hikvision, Zmodo and more. We also handle any DVR video formats including but not limited to MPEG-2 .mpg, MPEG-2 .TS, MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, VOB and ISO images.