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ADR / Evidence, claims and footage / The disk from a recorder

Evidence work · the disk within a CCTV recorder

CCTV and DVR hard drive recovery. The drive has gone. What is on it usually has not.

Off mains. Remove the drive. Get a quote from us first (either by phone or using the webform), then send it in by post or hand-deliver it to our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). The recorder remains with you. Boot loops. No backlighting on the panels. Menu says there's no disk. Live video playing but silent playback behind it. In all of these, the issue is mostly with the drive and not with the recording box. This disk gets written to during every second that the recording box has power, and this is typically the least expensive item people specify. If the unit is left running, every time the loop restarts it uses up more of what you called in about. Looking at it doesn't cost anything. The work price is £400 + VAT, with half of it payable up front when a drive has to be opened.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Handled as an exhibit from the moment it arrives Each hour the loop covers more of what is left

Talk it over with an engineer, in confidence
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What actually goes wrong in there.

The kind of disk it isSurveillance drives are designed for non-stop writing; these include the SkyHawk range from Seagate and Purple from Western Digital. Compared with the cost of your surveillance cameras, these devices cost next to nothing, and ultimately it's the constant writing to which they succumb.
What the screen showsLooped boot processes. The backlight of the panel remains dark. Menus report no disk installed. Live video streams are fine, yet playback produces nothing at all, or stops a few seconds into the same hour every time it is tried.
Why a computer sees nothingMost recorders write their filesystems in ways computers don't understand, and many simply write directly to the raw device. Mount that disk on a Windows computer and you'll see a blank disk and an offer to format it. In reality things aren't quite so bad. Decline.
What cannot be got backData overwritten due to continuous looping. Encrypted files that arrive without their password file. Data residing on bands unreadable by the drive. If that happens, you're informed early, and on most jobs you only pay if we recover your data.

What the symptom usually means.

Not listed? Tell us what it does →
What is going onThe usual reason for itWhere that leaves you
It reboots and rebootsWaiting on a disk that refuses to answerMains lead out now
No hard disk found, according to the menu systemEither the drive isn't on the bus or the heads are deadDo not accept the reformat request; remove the disk
Live pictures fine, playback silentThe video itself is fine. The problem lies with the index which points to itPost the drive in
Clicks, or slow whirrs, from inside the boxHeads flat against the surface. Each start-up takes away a little moreKeep it off the power
A PC states that the disk is unformattedNo PC can interpret the layout that a recorder wrote onto a diskNormal. Decline the format prompt
There is already another disk in the recorderRegardless of where the original disk may be now, it is your evidenceGet it back intact. Get a quote first. Then send it to us by post or bring it to our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed).
How it reaches us: get a straight quote first (via phone or form), then send it via tracked, insured post or drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed); our Guildford lab takes it in, and the cost of sending it back to you is on us. Unsure what to put with it when sending it to us? Give us a ring before sealing your box and we'll put you through to an engineer who can tell you what you need to include and what needs to stay behind. All of this information is also outlined on our guide to packing and posting.

The sequence we follow.

Other jobs on the log →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

As soon as your parcel arrives here, an engineer assigns a case number that same day, prior to determining what has really failed, which is the first thing done and costs you nothing. In addition to a note of what can and cannot be recovered from your drive, you will receive at the same time the fixed, written price for restoring what can be recovered. You can accept this quote, or decline it, which will result in no further obligation on your part and nothing owed to us.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNothing owed at this stage
02

Stop it where it is

Off mains. Remove the drive. And disconnect any computer. If a disk does not respond to anything at all, the failure is identified prior to attempting to access the data (the heads, the motor, the circuit board, and/or the firmware on the drive itself), and only after that will anyone attempt to touch the data.

Nothing more written to itA read-only copy made
03

Repair only as far as the image

Repairs stop once we have been able to make an image from the disk, but go no further. A write blocker is put on. A copy is read off read-only. Weak ground receives short passes instead of force. Since everything else will be performed on a copy of the data, the original only needs to be handled one time.

Heads, board and motorRead in short passes only
04

Then lift the video

Where the recorder's layout made it onto the image, clips appear in order, and each includes both its channel and the time the recording was made. In areas where the layout did not make it onto the image, video is recovered from the image using the known fixed byte pattern which begins each compressed frame, and it plays without having any labels added to it.

Layout read off the copyCarved where none survived
05

You see the file list before you pay

You will see what has been recovered as a list first, after which a bill exists. Accepting the list means that a bill will be issued. Rejecting the list means that a bill will not be issued, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. The recovered data travels from here back to you via new media purchased specifically for your project, with the cost of postage paid by us. Your case is not resolved (i.e., "closed") until you personally view the files on a computer of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the jobThe post home is ours

What the bench has learned

  • This is not gentle duty: a typical surveillance recorder continuously writes to its drive throughout its operational lifespan, and these drives tend to be the cheapest piece of hardware in most systems. Continuous writing is what kills them.
  • A PC will call it empty: the layouts written by recorders are their own, and some write directly to raw devices, therefore Windows will see nothing it recognises and suggest formatting. Do not agree. All is still under there.
  • The copy is what gets worked: write blocker on, image off, and no file is opened until that happens. We do one careful run instead of fifty runs, since on a dying disk each pass could be the final pass.
  • Three things set the limit, and only three. Your hour had been reached by the loop. Or your hour is in a section of the disk that won't read. Or the recorder has kept going for another week. Skill has no impact on any of these, and which one applies is something you'll hear about before you pay.

Post the drive; the box stays with you: a recorder weighs a lot, does poorly in transit, and this bench doesn't need a recorder. Get the disk removed, mark the bay it comes from, get a quote first (by phone or using the quote form) and then send just that single piece of equipment in such a way that it cannot fall or move in transit. Alternatively, drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). Multi-disk NVR units are the exception, because the video is spread across the set, so every disk travels, in bay order; please contact us prior to packaging. The return postage is on us.

One job, followed all the way through.

LDN · ADR-2026-3419JOB LOGGED ✓

A yard gate recorder gone quiet, out at Rainham

No one had checked the night-time gate camera; its playback had quit working weeks before. Then a consignment became disputed. One head on the hard drive failed. Only enough repair was made to allow creation of an image, and the data was read back in small passes. Four of the eight channels came through with their times preserved. There was a band across the centre of the platter that would not read, and whatever was recorded in that area remains there. A partial recovery, and documented as such.

4 of the 8 channels back, times still attached72 hours at the bench

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Power off the drive first
  • Note make, model, and the date important to you
  • Get a quote first, then send the drive or drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed); keep the recorder with you
  • Identify the owner and who can authorise us to begin

What sets us back

  • Leaving it powered up and hoping it recovers
  • Agreeing to reformat it so that it boots
  • Sliding the disk into a PC for a quick review
  • Letting a replacement go in as the original leaves

The questions that come up first.

The menu says no hard disk. Has my video gone with it?

It doesn't prove any of that. It does report just one fact: the recorder can no longer see its disk. Your video is still on the platters, exactly where it has been all along. Before doing anything else, though, pull the mains lead. Each additional hour of recording by a bad disk costs you data.

Windows offers to format the drive. Have I harmed it?

No, but decline anyway. The way a video recorder writes files was never designed to be read by Windows. That's why your disk, full of video, appears empty. Decline, disconnect, and let us know when booking if a format has already been applied, because that changes the starting point of our search.

Do you want the recorder too?

Just the drive. A recorder is heavy, will withstand little abuse in transit and will do nothing for us here on this workbench. One exception: on a multi-disk NVR the video is divided among the disks, so call us first and we'll let you know what needs to travel.

Can the installer just fit a new disk?

Only if the old disk leaves for good. If the old disk goes back into any recorder, that recorder will start writing over it. Request the disk disconnected from power and packaged against static electricity. Keep it safe until you decide what you want to do about what is on it.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

What is still on the recorder → Copies the police and insurers take → What is left after a delete → Work that reaches court →

Off the mains first, because that is what protects the evidence.

Regardless of what contains the evidence, turn off electrical power to it before doing anything else: a recorder still operating overwrites its oldest evidence every hour. Once power is removed, secure a price quotation (either by phone or through submitting a form), then post us just the disk or drive (do not include the recorder or computer), or drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). Evaluation costs nothing; work on recorders costs £400 + VAT and forensic analysis starts at £800 + VAT, both prices agreed to in writing beforehand. What sits on that disk stays here.

0203 0868633

Price my job Sending it to Guildford