3 Working Ways to Recover Deleted CCTV (DVR) Footage
Having surveillance footage of your home or business can be highly beneficial, as it allows you to monitor the safety and security of your property. Unfortunately, CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) recordings can sometimes become corrupted or even deleted altogether. The good news is that a few tried and tested methods have been proven to recover deleted CCTV footage. But before we get into the specifics, let's look at why exactly CCTV video might get deleted in the first place.
Why Do CCTV Videos Get Deleted (Common Reasons)
Losing CCTV videos can be caused by a variety of factors. It is possible that the videos were lost due to the following reasons:
- Accidental deletion of CCTV footage
- A computer crash or power outage
- Defective hardware leading to malfunctioning cables
- Unexpected causes like water seepage and moisture
- Formatted hard drive, corrupt or damaged CCTV HDD or DVR
- Bad sectors and virus attacks on CCTV hard drives or SD cards
Whatever the cause, it is vital for users to take appropriate measures to protect their footage from any of the risks associated with lost CCTV videos. Follow the solutions below to run CCTV DVR data recovery from your hard drive.
Method 1. Recover Deleted CCTV (DVR) Footage with Software
Recovering deleted CCTV footage can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Qiling Data Recovery Wizard provides an effective and reliable solution that quickly restores lost or accidentally deleted surveillance videos. This user-friendly software can scan both internal drives and external storage devices to recover damaged or missing videos.
- It can recover deleted videos in various formats, such as MP4, AVI, MPG, MOV, RMVB, and more.
- This video repair software can repair corrupted, damaged, and unplayable videos with simple clicks.
- Qiling Data Recovery Wizard supports Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003.
Download this data recovery software and follow the steps below to restore deleted CCTV videos and footage.
Step 1. Run Qiling Data Recovery Wizard and select the location or device where you lost/deleted videos. Click "Scan" to find the missing videos.
Step 2. After the scan, choose "Videos" in the left panel. Go to "Lost" or "All" to find the wanted videos. Select the found videos and click "Preview".
Step 3. Select the video files that you want to restore. Click "Recover" to save them to another secure location on your PC or external storage device.
You can also watch this video to get more help on video recovery.
- 00:00 How to Recover Photos and Videos from Camera SD Card
- 00:19 Causes of Camera Data Loss
- 00:40 What to Do When Lost Damera Photos or Videos
- 01:05 How to Get Reliable Camera Photo Recovery Software
- 01:44 How to Use Qiling Data Recovery Wizard
Method 2. Recover Deleted CCTV Footage with Data Recovery Service
Recovering deleted CCTV footage doesn't have to be intimidating and can be quickly done with the help of a data recovery service. Qiling also offers a variety of data recovery services, including RAID recovery, disk repair, and system repair, that are simple to use and provide excellent results.
Contact the data recovery experts and recover and repair CCTV videos.
Consult with Qiling data recovery experts for one-on-one manual recovery service. We could offer the following services after a FREE diagnosis
- Fix HDD, SSD, external hard drive, USB flash drive, and pen drive issues
- Fix disks that cannot be read or accessed because of bad sectors
- Fix disks that become GPT-protected partitions
- Repair damaged RAW drive that needs to be reformatted (BitLocker encrypted drive is also supported)
- Repair wiped data, unformat hard drive, install/uninstall software or driver, etc.
Method 3. How to Recover Deleted CCTV Footage with Backups
Things could be easier if you created a video backup in advance. When your CCTV footage gets deleted, follow these steps to run CCTV footage recovery with these steps.
Step 1. Locate the CCTV footage backup folder and open it.
Step 2. Please search for the erased files and transfer them back to the original storage disk or SD card.
Bonus Tip: How to Avoid CCTV Camera Video Loss
Protecting your CCTV footage can only be easy with the right resources and safeguards. It is crucial to follow a few simple steps.
Make backups: It is helpful to create backups of all your video recordings for quick recovery in case something happens to the original content.
Check the cameras regularly: You should always make sure the cameras are placed in locations that are hard to access or out of sight.
Use passwords: Using passwords and encryption protocols are also essential in safeguarding the footage against unwanted viewing.
Protect access: Enabling two-factor authentication or restricting access via safe-listed IPs will also help secure your video feed.
These steps can help ensure any CCTV footage collected is kept safe and secure from malicious actors and provide peace of mind against theft or unauthorized access.
Conclusion
Most CCTV users must learn ways to recover lost or deleted surveillance footage. This can be important in an accident, break-in, or another incident where video footage is needed for evidence. These video recovery solutions vary depending on the type of system that you have and how it is set up.
With the right video recovery software and procedures, it is often possible to retrieve deleted CCTV videos. However, the best way to avoid losing your footage in the first place is to create backups regularly. This way, even if something happens to your primary records, you will still have a copy of the footage available.
How to Recover Deleted CCTV Footage FAQs
If you still have problems, read the questions and answers below to get additional help.
1. Is it possible to recover deleted CCTV footage?
Yes. You can recover deleted CCTV footage with data recovery software, services, and backups.
2. Can I recover overwritten CCTV footage?
Yes, you can. There are a few ways to recover overwritten CCTV files, and the most effective one is using Qiling data recovery software:
- Run Qiling Data Recovery Wizard
- Select the location and click Scan
- Recover lost video recordings
3. Can you get CCTV footage back after one year of an incident?
If your system was built with the specs in mind, you could only get the video back. If the CCTV system you have can store data for two weeks before it gets overwritten, then by one year, it has been overwritten a dozen times.
But if the CCTV system stopped working for one year and the storage device was never touched, you can regain the CCTV videos.
4. How long do public cameras keep footage?
Different systems have different rules. In America, it is common for local governments to hold public CCTV videos for six months from the date it was captured.
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