Digital Video Recorders

formatted hdd from DVR

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hddstudio - 20 Jul 2008, 02:13 am

Hi everybody,

I'm just a curious, if we format the hdd from a DVR, is it possible to recover the video using PC ? If not...then how do we recover it ? My friend has a DVR hdd formatted by WindowsXP and now all surveillance videos are lost :(. How do I supposse to help him ?

Thanks in advance

hddstudio - 20 Jul 2008, 02:55 am

More info :
1. Drive taken out from the DVR box, connected as external USB box to PC, initialized, but nothing shown
2. Formatted 0.1% stopped, connect again to DVR, no videos shown
3. Recovered using Easy Recovery and O&O = thousands of jpgs
4. Browse using TestDisk and Knoppix, no file systems mountable.
5. Using R-Studio, found many mpegs but can not be played back :(

Help please ? :(

hddstudio - 20 Jul 2008, 04:14 am

Last attempt :

cloning the formatted hdd to another new hdd with suitable capacity using HIE 400, I will try to scan the clone drive using Helix Forensics

hddstudio - 20 Jul 2008, 04:30 am

QUOTE:

5. Using R-Studio, found many mpegs but can not be played back :(

Any possibility of unsupported codecs or video encryption ?

Thomas - 20 Jul 2008, 05:23 am

[quote:1f7a297206="hddstudio"]

QUOTE:

5. Using R-Studio, found many mpegs but can not be played back :(

Any possibility of unsupported codecs or video encryption ?

Very likely. What DVR did it come out of?

hddstudio - 20 Jul 2008, 06:04 am

For friends who have experimented with this problem before, I'd like to know the file signature in hecadecimal code of .vse and vs4 files. Can anybody help me ? The file signature is the first 8 byte of a file shown in Hex Viewer, You can use WinHex or Hexworkshop and open file.

Many thanks before.

Thomas - 20 Jul 2008, 08:41 pm

QUOTE:
just found out. the file system is SnapOS (Unix) derivated from Linux embedded system in firmware of the DVR.

Really, a tough nut to crack. It uses proprietary algorithm to encrypt the video.

If you can extract the video files themselves, check the manufacturers website. They should have an application to handle viewing/decrypting the files.