How To Access Files From An Unrecognized Disk Format?

We've got a cctv camera at home and need to look at something.

problem, the recording capacity is only a few days and what we need goes beyond that. (2 days. need to look at 3-4 days ago)

I figure we could look back at the old dates with some file recovery software BUT now that I've pulled the HDD from our DVR and put into an enclosure to plug into my pc, I can't read the disk. it says how big it is, i can assign a volume for it but I cannot "use" it. needs to be formatted. If I format this, I lose any hope of recovering some overwritten files (I've read somewhere that file recovery software can read overwritten and deleted files but not a formatted HDD).


Anyone have suggestions?

I'm running on win 10 home and I forgot my DVR's model. The disk is currently plugged into this PC I'm using and it can't be accessed/read/used. It can be detected as a raw unallocated disk but that's it.

 

You might try a file recovery program like Recuva from the makers of CCleaner. Wise Data Recovery is also popular.

But I would not get your hopes up. What typically happens with these type FIFO (first in first out) systems is after x number of hours of recording, the older data is overwritten with newer data. Once overwritten, no file recovery program will be able to retrieve the data.

A professional forensic data recovery service might be able to recover some of the data, but those services can cost $100s and even $1000s. And the capabilities showed by Hollywood are not reality.

 

I'd bet Linux can mount it. With the drive attached boot a live CD and see if you can browse it or get Linux reader https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/
But, no, you cannot read overwritten files, you can read deleted files because when you delete something the disk just removes the entry from the index, then the next time it is looking for free space it can write over that area.

 

More need for rollback means more storage space. WD makes a nice "Purple" drive, if you can upgrade storage on your DVR model. Can you provide your model info?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236659
+
P.S.

Recording channels 500G HDD 1TB HDD
4 channels 9.7 days Nineteen days
8 channels 4.8 days Ten days
16 channels Four days Eight days