NDR / Claims, court and footage / Overwriting, and why the timing decides it

Investigations & evidence · halting the loop before it gets to your clip

Overwritten CCTV, Nottingham. Right now it is recording over itself; one switch on the wall stops that.

Switch it off at the wall. That takes ten seconds, costs nothing, and beats everything else on your list today. Nothing here is a delete, and no bin holds the missing clip: the disk fills, the unit returns to block one, new video goes across the old, and that repeats while the power lasts. How much time it leaves you is not a thing anyone can decide at a distance. Quote a figure down the telephone and you have not seen the system. Stopping the clock, though, is yours to do, in Nottingham or anywhere else — and it can be done before you ring.

On most jobs, nothing to pay if no files come back Treated as an exhibit from the moment it lands Every hour, the loop writes over more of it

An engineer will talk it through, in confidence
0115 8220606

What the recorder is doing to the disk.

What the loop actually doesRecording works down the length of the disk, gets to the end, returns to the front and writes new video where the old video sat. Leave the unit with power and the cycle simply goes round again. Nothing is deleted, nothing gathers anywhere for you to retrieve, and no undo exists to reach for.

Nobody can quote you a windowNot down the telephone, and not from a model number. The answer comes out of which disk was fitted, the number of cameras writing onto it, the resolution and frame rate, the codec, and whether recording runs continuously or on movement. A figure offered without sight of the system is a guess.

The one place with the answerOn the unit itself. The playback calendar will show an oldest date for each camera: note them down. That is where you stand today, and it advances with every hour the recorder keeps its power. Do this before you touch anything else.

What being written over really meansOne value at a time is all a block on a disk holds. The moment new video takes that block, what was in it is finished, and no earlier layer sits underneath waiting to be recovered. Cross part of your period and fragments usually remain, which we go after. Cross the whole of it and nothing at all comes back — whatever any firm may tell you.

What the symptom points to.

Something else? Say what it does →

What is happening	What usually causes it	What that means for you
The recorder is still switched on	Every hour it runs costs it the oldest hour on the disk	Pull it off supply now
Nobody ever told you how far back it goes	Capacity, camera count and the settings all move it	Look the earliest date up
One camera goes back further than another	A quiet view on movement-only recording fills next to nothing	Each channel gets read on its own
The unit stopped working a fortnight ago	A unit that stopped writing stopped overwriting as well	Leave it off and send the disk in
The date you want is no longer in the list	Pieces often survive beyond the index	A yes or a no comes out of the free check
No claim has been opened, and no enquiry	The disk moves a great deal faster than paperwork	Take the copy now, not later

Getting it here: tracked, insured post to the intake lab, and the return leg is at our cost. Unsure what belongs in the box? Ring before it is taped up, and an engineer will run through what to include and what to keep at home. The rest of it is set out on the packing and postage guide.

The order we work in.

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Booked in the day it arrives, and the first look is on us Free

Your device picks up a case number the day it arrives, and an engineer then establishes what has genuinely gone wrong — at no cost, and ahead of everything else. Two things come back to you together: a plain account of what can be lifted and what cannot, and one fixed figure in writing. Agree to that figure, or turn it down and pay nothing.

The first look is freeOne fixed figure, in writingNo charge at this point

Not another byte goes on

The recorder is stood down before anybody plays anything back on it. Out comes the disk, and every sector of it is cloned through hardware that has no ability to write. With that clone made, nothing about your position can change again: everything the loop had not got to is inside the image, beyond the reach of whatever happens next.

Mains off before anythingImaged on hardware that cannot write

What the dates really show

What the image genuinely holds is then established: earliest recording, latest recording, and every gap lying between. Where the loop has taken part of your period, the list marks each half-hour present or absent, and you get it in writing before anything else is attempted. That part costs nothing. The work itself is £400 + VAT, with no charge on most jobs where nothing comes back.

Oldest and newest dates set outEvery gap listed

Exported, hashed and handed across

Anything legible goes out on fresh media as an exhibit: the native recorder files, a copy that plays on any computer, MD5 and SHA-256 against both, and a dated log of everybody who has had custody. Adjusters and investigating officers know that package and expect to be given it. A second benefit follows. Because the footage now exists somewhere the recorder cannot touch, the box can go back up and the loop no longer gets a vote.

Hash values, an index and a dateKept where the recorder cannot reach

The file list comes before the bill

The file list reaches you before any invoice does. Say yes and it is billed; say no and it is not — and on most jobs, if nothing comes back there is nothing to pay. Whatever comes off goes home on media bought in for your case, carriage at our end. Nothing here is closed until you have opened those files on your own machine.

Nothing is charged until you agree the figureNew media, bought in for your jobWe pay to send it home

What turns up on recorder disks

Hardware outpaces paperwork — a claim or an enquiry runs into weeks. Have the footage copied first and argue about the invoice later.
A unit that has quit is often the fortunate one — a box that stopped a fortnight back stopped overwriting a fortnight back, so it still holds what it held then.
The cameras are not equal users of the disk — a lens over the street door and one watching a back stockroom consume space at completely different rates, and on movement-driven recording the quiet one will be sitting on much older material.
Look for a second disk — bigger recorders take two or more. One may be an archive; one may hold a retired set of channels going back further than anything on the live disk.

Only one thing stops it: taking the supply away. Not a setting, not a menu item, not a message left with the installer — the switch on the wall. The system must be yours, or one you are entitled to have examined. After that, the pace is yours to set. Where a site truly cannot go dark, have the hours you want put onto a USB stick in the recorder's own native format rather than a conversion, and talk to us before anybody else touches the drive. The option that fails is leaving it powered and hoping: each hour it runs spends an hour you had.

One of these, from start to finish.

NG · NTG-2026-2025ON THE LOG ✓

A Lincoln trade unit, unplugged by nine

There had been a break-in overnight. The manager found the shutter up, went for the socket before unlocking anything else, and pulled the recorder off supply. Then he rang. The disk reached the bench on the Tuesday and an image was taken before a single clip had been played back. The full night came through with camera and timestamp on every clip, and a copy was with the adjuster inside the week. The only shock was quite how little the disk had been holding.

The video came back completeHash-checked export supplied

What helps, and what does damage.

Worth doing first

1. Take a photograph of the live view with the clock visible
2. Unplug the recorder at the wall socket
3. Ring us before anybody opens the case
4. Put it in writing to your insurer that it is safe

What makes it harder

Leaving the power on
Waiting until somebody asks
Raising it with the installer, then waiting
Plugging the disk into an office PC

What gets asked before posting.

How far back does my recorder still go?

Not from here, nobody can say — and the model number will not settle it. Five variables between them fix the window: disk capacity, the number of cameras writing onto it, the resolution and frame rate they run at, and whether recording is continuous or only triggered by movement. The recorder itself has the answer. Its playback calendar shows an oldest date for each camera, and that is the honest figure for today. Tomorrow it will be a day later.

Once something has been recorded over, is anything left?

None of it. New video in a block ends the recording that was in it, and nothing in software or on a bench reverses that. Part-covered is a different case: where the loop has taken some but not all of what you want, fragments frequently survive outside the index and are worth going after. Which of the two you have is what a free check tells you.

Should I cut the power to it?

Yes, if the site can manage a day or two with no cover. Nothing else reliably halts the loop, and pulling the mains costs nothing. Where the cameras have to stay live, get the hours you want exported to a USB stick before anything else, saved in the recorder's native format and not a conversion, and ring us before the unit is opened.

The insurer has not asked for it. Does that matter?

Secure it regardless. A claim or an enquiry takes weeks to move; the recorder moves at the speed its settings set, which is nearly always the faster of the two. Requests turn up in writing naming dates that have since been round the loop again. A copy taken today is cheap and closes the question whichever way it falls.

Start here if the same thing is happening to yours.

Copies insurers and police accept → When a card reads blank → Sticks and pen drives → Jobs that end up in court →

Power the recorder down before the loop reaches your clip.

Cut the power to the DVR before anything else — while it runs it keeps writing, and the oldest footage goes first. Then post it in. The first look is free, CCTV and DVR work is £400 + VAT quoted in writing before anything starts, and what is on that disk goes no further than the bench.

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