One thing to know first
Not an emergency, but don't let anything try to fix it yet.
A device that is silent and cool is not degrading while it sits there, so there is no clock running on the hardware. The risk here is the next action rather than the passage of time: initialising the disk when prompted, letting a repair tool write a new partition table, or reformatting to make it usable will each overwrite the map to your files. Decline every offer to fix, repair or initialise until you know which fault you have.
Often fixable yourself
CCTV recorder not showing up
A CCTV recorder in this state is very often something you can resolve yourself, at no cost, and this page tells you how before it tells you anything about us. Where that doesn't work, the rest explains what the fault usually is and what recovery involves.
What this usually turns out to be
A recorder reporting no disk has either lost the physical connection to a drive that is perfectly healthy, or is failing to recognise a filesystem it wrote itself. Both are common, because these units sit in warm ceiling spaces where SATA connectors work loose over years of thermal cycling. The important point is that a recorder cannot tell the difference between a disk that is broken and a disk it simply cannot parse, and its response to both is the same: it offers to prepare the disk for use.
Recorders write in a manufacturer's own format and loop over the oldest footage continuously. The clock on a CCTV job is retention, not hardware.
Cable, port or enclosure faultbetter news
The single commonest cause, and entirely benign. The device behind the failed connection is untouched.
Partition table or boot sector damagebetter news
The drive is healthy and the files are all present, but the index that points to them is corrupt, so the operating system sees unallocated space.
Filesystem the operating system doesn't recognisebetter news
A drive formatted on a Mac, a Linux box, or a NAS will often appear unreadable or empty on Windows while being perfectly intact.
Controller or translation-layer failure
On flash media, the controller that maps files onto the memory has failed. The memory is intact but nothing can reach it without specialist work.
Degrading or failing media
The device is present but cannot complete the reads needed to identify itself. This is the case where time and power do matter.
What to check first on a CCTV recorder
- Power down and reseat the SATA data and power connectors inside the unit. This is the commonest cause and it costs nothing.
- Note exactly what the unit says on screen, word for word, before doing anything about it.
- Establish the retention window and the incident date, since that governs whether the footage is on the disk at all.
What not to do
Do not accept the offer to format, initialise or prepare the disk, however it is worded. That prompt is the unit's only response to any storage problem, and accepting it discards the recording index that maps timestamps to footage. Do not put the disk into a Windows machine to check it either, because Windows will make the same offer for the same reason.
Try this before you pay anyone
Two safe checks, and one very tempting thing to avoid
- Power the recorder down and reseat the SATA data and power connectors to the drive inside it. These units live in warm roof spaces and the connectors work loose over years, which is the commonest cause of this.
- Note the exact wording of the message on screen before doing anything about it, particularly any offer to format, initialise or prepare storage.
- Work out the retention window and the date of the incident, because that determines whether the footage is still on the disk regardless of the hardware fault.
Do not take the drive out and connect it to a Windows machine to see whether it is readable. Recorders write a proprietary layout rather than a standard filesystem, so a perfectly healthy CCTV drive always reads as unformatted on a PC, and Windows always offers to initialise it. That offer looks like the solution and is the single most destructive action available on a CCTV job.
How recoverable this is
The most optimistic group on this page taken as a whole. A large share are connection or filesystem faults where the data was never in danger, and a good number of those the reader resolves themselves in ten minutes at no cost. The cases that are genuinely media or controller failures are a different job, and the checks below separate them without risk.
What moves it, for your device specifically:
- Whether the device is detected at any level: BIOS, Disk Management, or not at all
- Whether anything has already written to it, including an initialise or a repair
- Whether the underlying media is healthy or degrading
- Whether the array members are all present and spinning, or one has dropped out silently
We will not give you a percentage for your device, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody can know what is recoverable until the media has been imaged and read. What is above describes this class of failure; your drive gets its own answer after an assessment, in writing, at no cost.
What it costs
Quoted after assessment
CCTV, NVR and DVR footage
Proprietary recorder formats parsed directly from the disk. Priced on recorder type, number of disks and the time window needed.
Nothing is charged until you have seen a fixed quote for your actual device and agreed to it, and the assessment that produces it is free.
Other faults on a CCTV recorder
Next step
Tell us what failed.
Free assessment. Fixed quote before recovery starts. No recovery, no fee. Sydney drop-off or Australia-wide by tracked post.