How to Recover Deleted CCTV Footage From Hikvision DVR

Video surveillance systems have become integral to maintaining and monitoring security around our houses, offices, and workplaces. While CCTV footage used to be stored on personal computers, CCTV cameras nowadays record videos directly using DVRs or digital video recorders.

Hikvision is one of the world’s largest video surveillance manufacturers and a leading brand in the video surveillance industry. Their top-of-the-line IoT solutions and video security systems set them apart from other DVR brands.

But don’t start worrying just yet. If you find yourself in such a situation, go through our detailed guide on how to recover deleted videos from the Hikvision CCTV system or DVR without any complications.

Can You Recover Deleted Hikvision DVR Recordings?

Yes, using data recovery software, you can restore deleted Hikvision CCTV footage from different data storages like a hard drive, SSD, or Hikvision SD cards.

There are several available methods to assist users with recovering deleted videos. But before we dive into recovering corrupted or deleted videos from Hikvision CCTV systems, we must understand the various possible reasons for data loss and the corresponding solutions for data recovery.

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Hikvision DVR CCTV Footage

Before we look at ways to repair corrupted Hikvision DVR data storage, let’s go through what you can do to recover your data beforehand. Some methods used to perform hard drive data recovery can result in the deletion of your existing data. Thus, you must first retrieve your lost Hikvision DVR recordings.

Perhaps the best way to restore deleted Hikvision CCTV footage is to use trustworthy video recovery software. While several data recovery tools are available on the market, Disk Drill is one of the best data recovery apps.

Disk Drill also comes packed with advanced features like S.M.A.R.T. disk Monitoring (hard drive health checks) and byte-to-byte level backups that can be useful in retrieving data from corrupt hard drives. Here’s a detailed guide on how to recover deleted or corrupted videos from Hikvision CCTV using Disk Drill:

1. Before you begin the recovery process, unmount the Hikvision DVR hard drive.
2. Download and Install Disk Drill.
3. Connect the unmounted hard drive to your computer or PC directly or via an adapter.
4. Launch Disk Drill on your computer. Now, select the hard drive from the list of devices your computer can access. While Disk Drill selects the All Recovery Methods option by default, you also choose from other recovery methods – Quick Scan or Deep Scan.
5. Click Search for Lost Data. Disk Drill’s advanced algorithm will scan through data storage for your deleted Hikvision CCTV recordings. The software also allows you to pause, save or resume the scan whenever you want.
6. Once the scan is complete, you can filter through the results. Now, click Review Found Files. Disk Drill allows you to preview the files you want to get back and even recover up to 500 MB of data for free!
7. Once you’ve selected the videos you wish to restore from the Hikvision DVR hard drive, click the Recover button.
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   You can also use the filter option to quickly locate your CCTV recordings. For instance, key in “mp4” into the top right hand corner field box and hit Enter.

   

8. Type in the recovery location and ensure you’re restoring your files to a different device from which you’ve just recovered data. Finally, click Ok.

How to Fix Corrupted Hikvision DVR Data Storage

After successfully retrieving lost Hikvision DVR recordings, you can attempt to fix corrupted Hikvision DVR data storage. Follow our step-by-step guide to repair the hard drive without any hassles.

Method 1. Repair Partition Using TestDisk

TestDisk is a powerful, open-source data recovery tool primarily designed to recover lost partitions, fix partition tables and rebuild the boot sector. It’s available for free and can run on all major operating systems. Once you’ve recovered your deleted videos, you can attempt to repair the corrupted Hikvision DVR hard drive using TestDisk.

Here’s how you can repair partition using TestDisk:

1. Download and unzip the TestDisk folder. In our case, the folder was named “testdisk-7.1.win”.
2. Right-click testdisk_win and click Run as administrator.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the No Log option, then hit Enter. You can also click Create to create a log if you like, append info to an existing one, or not create one at all.
4. Now, select the Hikvision DVR hard drive and press Enter.
5. Select the partition table type. For Windows users, select Intel. Now, press Enter.
6. Next, select the Analyse option and hit Enter. On the next screen, click Quick Search to begin the partition recovery process.
7. After the scan is complete, the missing partition will appear on the screen. Select the partition you wish to recover and follow the prompts on the screen. Move to the Write option and press Enter.
8. Press Y to write the partition table and press Enter again.

Method 2. Scan Your Drive Using CMD (chkdsk)

The CheckDisk utility (chkdsk) is an in-built command in Windows that can scan and resolve any problems it discovers on your hard drive. If bad sectors or errors on your Hikvision DVR disk have caused data to be deleted or overwritten, they can be repaired using the CMD prompt.

Here’s how you can scan and fix the DVR hard drive with the CheckDisk utility:

1. Go to the Start menu and type in cmd. Now, select the Run as administrator option.
2. Once the Command Prompt window opens, run the following command: chkdsk F: /r (Remember to replace F with the drive letter assigned to your hard drive).
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   Here, we’ve used the /r parameter. It fixes any errors on the disk and searches for bad sectors.

   

3. The chkdsk utility will automatically fix the issues it finds during the scan. Once the process is complete, exit the Command Prompt window.

FAQ

Conclusion

The videos and recordings from CCTV surveillance systems often hold essential security information. The methods outlined in this article should answer all your questions on recovering lost or deleted CCTV footage from Hikvision DVR hard drive.

You can use these techniques to retrieve surveillance videos from any Hikvision CCTV camera model and even repair the corrupted DVR hard drive for future use.