CCTV and DVR/NVR systems record to a hard drive using their own proprietary formats — and they record on a loop, quietly overwriting the oldest footage to make room. So when you need footage back, time matters. Whether it's been deleted, formatted, overwritten or lost to a failed recorder drive, we recover CCTV footage in-house.
$ 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 continuously and overwrite the oldest footage as they go — so every hour the system keeps running is footage you may be trying to recover being written over. If the recording you need is at risk, power the recorder down and take the drive out. Don't let it keep recording, and don't format or “repair” the drive.
Footage goes missing from a recorder in a handful of ways — and the most common one is a clock running against you. These are the situations we recover from most.
We recover footage from every major recorder and drive — standalone DVRs and NVRs, and the hard drives inside them.
Standalone DVRs and NVRs · Hikvision, Dahua, Swann and OEM recorders · surveillance-grade and standard hard drives · internal and external.
CCTV footage lives in a proprietary format on the recorder's drive, so we image that drive and parse or carve the video from a copy — extracting the exact cameras and time range you need, without ever writing to the original.
Tell us the recorder, what happened, and the dates, times and cameras you need. We check what's recoverable and send a written quote.
We take a read-only image of the recorder's drive and work only on that copy, so nothing on the original is changed or overwritten.
If the recorder's hard drive has physically failed, we repair or stabilise it first — heads, board or firmware — so it can be read.
We interpret the recorder's own file system, or carve the video streams straight out of the raw data where the index is gone.
We pull the specific channels and time range you asked for — and everything else that's recoverable if you need it.
We confirm the footage plays and, where needed, convert it to a standard, playable format you can open without the recorder.
Your footage comes back on fresh media, or via our free download service for up to 75GB.
From deleted and formatted recordings to a failed recorder drive, we recover CCTV and DVR/NVR footage — parsing proprietary formats and carving video from a read-only image, then handing it back in a form you can actually play.
Describe what went wrong and an engineer will be in touch — normally before the next working day is out.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
A free diagnostic first, then a fixed written quote before any work begins. Footage recovery from a working recorder or camera SD card starts from £400 + VAT; failed and RAID recorders are quoted after the free diagnostic.
A representative selection of CCTV and DVR/NVR recoveries across different systems — system types and outcomes shown, customer details kept private.
The system was stopped quickly, so the footage hadn't been overwritten. We imaged the drive, parsed the format, and extracted the exact time range.
The heads had gone, but the platters were intact. We swapped them in clean-air conditions, imaged the drive, and recovered the recordings.
The footage index was gone but the video survived. We carved the streams out of the image and rebuilt playable clips.
Reviews from clients whose CCTV, DVR and NVR footage we recovered.
No invented reviews here. We're collecting verified, named reviews from our Belfast customers and will publish them here as they come in. In the meantime you're welcome to call and talk an issue through with an engineer on 028 9002 0144.
Post or drop in your device for a free diagnostic, with a note on what happened — an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
First step: get the device onto our Belfast bench. Wrap it well, tuck your contact details in the box, and post it over — the diagnostic costs nothing, and you’ll have a firm written price to approve before we touch a single sector.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is best. Dropping it off instead? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still pack the device as above.
Not ready to send anything yet? Use the form to describe the fault in your own words and one of the engineers will come back with a quote tailored to your situation.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
The questions we're asked most about CCTV, DVR and NVR recovery.
Often, yes — provided the recorder hasn't overwritten it yet. Deleting a recording frees the space, but the footage stays on the drive until the loop records over it. The key is to stop the recorder and remove the drive as soon as you realise, so the footage isn't written over.
Once the loop has genuinely recorded over it, that footage is gone for good — which is why time is so critical. If only part of the period was overwritten, we can usually still recover the rest. It's always worth having us assess it.
Yes. A DVR or NVR drive fails just like any other hard drive — clicking, not detected, or dead — and we recover it the same way, repairing the hardware and then extracting the footage from an image.
Usually just the hard drive from inside the recorder, which is all we need to recover the footage. If you're not comfortable removing it, or the recorder itself is the problem, send the whole unit and we'll take it from there.
Yes — tell us the cameras, dates and times you need and we'll target those specifically, and hand the footage back in a format you can play without the original recorder.
For a recorder that still runs, or a camera’s SD card, footage recovery starts from £400 + VAT with a free diagnostic and no fix, no fee on most jobs. Dead or RAID-based recorders are priced after diagnosis, and the figure is always confirmed in writing first.
Drop it in at our Belfast office Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it fully insured. Package and seal the drive (or the whole recorder), and include your contact details and the footage you need so we can book it in and quote after the free diagnostic.
DVRs and NVRs overwrite old footage on a loop, so recovery is a race against the recorder. Power it down, take the drive out, and send it in. Free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs.