When footage is deleted, overwritten or a recorder's drive fails, the recordings you need for an incident, an insurance claim or the police are often still recoverable. We work with the proprietary formats DVRs and NVRs use, rebuild the video from the drive and export it as standard, timestamped files.
$ bdr triage /dev/sdb → Device: Hikvision DVR HDD (4 TB) → Status: FOOTAGE OVERWRITTEN — recording loop → Target: 14 Mar, 21:00–23:30 · cam 3 $ bdr engineer-working → Read-only image: taken · DVR stopped in time → File system: Hikvision format · parsed → Streams: H.265 carved by timestamp $ bdr verify → ✓ channel 3 — 2h 30m recovered → ✓ exported — MP4 + timestamps → ✓ footage recovered — incident captured
DVRs and NVRs record in a loop, writing over the oldest footage to make room for new — so every hour a system keeps running, the footage you need is closer to being lost for good. If you need recordings from a particular time, power the recorder off or take its hard drive out straight away, and don't keep recording or reset the system. The sooner it stops, the more we can recover. And if the drive has failed, don't keep retrying it — bring it to us.
Whether footage was deleted, recorded over, or a recorder's drive has failed, the recordings are often still on the disk waiting to be carved out. These are the cases we recover most.
We recover footage from every common DVR, NVR and security camera system — whatever proprietary format it uses. If it recorded your footage, we can almost certainly get it back.
Analogue and IP CCTV · DVRs and NVRs · single and multi-drive systems · RAID NVRs · standalone and dashboard cameras · SD and microSD cards.
Recovering CCTV footage means understanding the recorder's own format, never writing to its drive, and carving the video back out by camera and time. We image the drive first, parse the format, then recover and export your footage as standard files.
Tell us the recorder, the camera and the date and time you need.
If the system is still running, the priority is to image the drive before the loop writes over more of the footage you need.
We take a sector-by-sector image of the recorder's disk and work only on that copy, even if the drive is failing.
We identify and parse the manufacturer's proprietary file system — Hikvision, Dahua and the rest — to find the recordings.
We rebuild the H.264 or H.265 video streams and extract the channels and time ranges you need.
We export the footage as standard, timestamped MP4 or AVI files, and confirm the incident is captured.
Your recovered footage is returned on fresh media or by secure transfer, ready to use or hand to your insurer or the police.
We recover footage from DVRs, NVRs, RAID recorders, security cameras and SD cards — working from a read-only image, parsing the recorder's format, and exporting your recordings as standard files.
Tell us what happened and we will get back to you, usually within one working day.
We will be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 0117 332 1137.
No hidden fees and no pressure — just a free diagnostic and a written quote before any work starts.
A snapshot of recent CCTV, DVR and NVR recoveries. Names redacted, footage delivered.
We powered the DVR down, imaged the drive and carved the H.265 streams for the night in question. The full incident was recovered.
We rebuilt the RAID from images of all four disks, parsed the recordings and exported the dates the customer needed for their insurer.
We imaged the card and carved the recorded clips by timestamp, recovering the footage the owner needed.
Reviews from clients whose CCTV, DVR and NVR footage we recovered.
Our shop DVR had recorded over a break-in by the time we checked. They recovered the night we needed and exported it for the police. Could not fault them.
An NVR drive failed right after an incident on site. They rebuilt the system, recovered the footage and gave us proper video files for the insurance claim. Excellent.
The SD card in our camera corrupted and we thought the footage was gone. They got it all back and exported it as normal video. Quick and very professional.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
Recovering your data starts with getting the device to us. Pack it safely, add your contact details, and send it over — after we run a free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work begins.
Posting it in? We recommend a tracked, insured service. Prefer to drop it off? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still package the device as above.
If you need more information on our data recovery service, fill out the form with more detail about your issue and an engineer will review it and give you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 0117 332 1137.
The questions we are asked most about recovering CCTV, DVR and NVR footage.
Often, yes. Deleted footage usually remains on the drive until the recorder loops back and writes over it, so the sooner the system is stopped, the more we recover. We rebuild the recordings from the drive and export them as standard video files.
Not necessarily. DVRs overwrite the oldest footage first, but recently overwritten data can often still be carved back out, and footage you stopped in time is very recoverable. Power the recorder off straight away and bring it to us.
Because DVRs and NVRs store footage in their own manufacturer file system, not a standard Windows or Mac one, so a PC sees the drive as empty or unformatted. The footage is there; we parse the recorder's format to get it out.
Yes. If the recorder will not boot or the disk is clicking or undetected, we image the failing drive read-only first, then parse the format and carve the footage — the same as any failed hard drive, but for video.
Yes. Tell us the recorder, the camera channel and the time window of the incident, and we target those recordings. We export the footage with its original timestamps so it is clear when it was recorded.
Yes. Multi-drive NVRs and RAID recorders are part of what we do: we image every disk, rebuild the array, then recover and export the footage.
Standard, timestamped MP4 or AVI files that play in any video player, so you can review them, keep them, or hand them to your insurer or the police without needing the recorder's own software.
Yes. Corrupted, formatted or unreadable SD and microSD cards from standalone and IP cameras are very recoverable — we image the card and carve the recorded clips back out.
Footage recovery is £400 + VAT for a one drive device, camera SD cards are cheaper at £300 + VAT. Failed drives and multi-drive RAID recorders will be more expensive, contact us for a custom quote.
You need to remove the hard drive or memory card form the system and send just that, fully insured, or drop the hard drive or memory card off at our Bristol premises Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it to us. Include your contact details and the date and time you need so we can book it in.
Free diagnostic, footage targeted by date, time and camera, and recovery from DVRs, NVRs and SD cards — even failed drives — exported as standard video. Talk to us today.