Western Digital WD Purple surveillance hard drives are designed for continuous video recording, making them a preferred choice for CCTV and security systems. However, when a “SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk” warning appears, it often indicates imminent drive failure, leading to data inaccessibility and potential loss of critical footage.
This case study details how we successfully recovered CCTV video footage from an incident under police investigation from a WD Purple surveillance hard drive, after SMART warnings signaled imminent failure and data could no longer be accessed.
As Leeds Data Recovery, with 25 years of experience, we used cleanroom drive repair, forensic video extraction, and deep sector-level recovery techniques to restore lost CCTV footage.
SMART Failure Warning & Inaccessible CCTV Footage
A business owner contacted us after their CCTV system displayed a “SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk” warning, with the following issues:
- The CCTV system stopped recording and could not access previously stored footage.
- The WD Purple surveillance hard drive was detected but could not be opened.
- Attempts to retrieve video files resulted in system crashes or incomplete recordings.
- The footage was required for a police investigation of a security incident.
Since further attempts to use a failing drive could cause permanent data loss, an immediate professional recovery solution was required.
Diagnosis & Evaluation
When the WD Purple surveillance hard drive arrived at our cleanroom facility, we conducted a full hardware and data integrity diagnostic. Our findings:
- High reallocated sector count & bad sectors – Indicating advanced disk degradation.
- Firmware instability – Causing slow response times and video corruption.
- No severe mechanical failure detected – Meaning a logical and forensic recovery approach was possible.
Since surveillance footage is written in proprietary formats, we prioritized forensic video extraction before complete failure occurred.
The Recovery Process
1. Cloning & Imaging the Failing Hard Drive to Prevent Further Data Loss
To preserve the remaining data, we:
- Created a sector-by-sector clone of the WD Purple surveillance hard drive.
- Used advanced recovery tools to bypass degraded sectors and extract readable data.
2. Extracting & Reconstructing CCTV Video Files
Since CCTV footage is stored in proprietary video formats, we:
- Used forensic tools to recover fragmented and incomplete video files.
- Reconstructed damaged MP4, AVI, and proprietary DVR files.
3. Verifying & Restoring Police-Investigation Footage
Once data extraction was complete, we:
- Recovered and played back key video footage from the date of the incident.
- Enhanced low-quality and partially corrupted video files for clarity.
- Transferred the fully restored CCTV footage to a secure external storage device for law enforcement.
The Results: 98% Data Recovery Success
Thanks to our sector-level imaging and forensic video reconstruction techniques, we successfully recovered 98% of the lost CCTV footage, including:
✅ Full security video clips from the date of the incident
✅ Repaired and enhanced video evidence for law enforcement
✅ Intact timestamped video files for use in the investigation
The police and business owner were able to obtain clear video evidence, ensuring the investigation could proceed without disruption.
Why Choose Us?
With 25 years of experience and tens of thousands of successful recoveries, we are the leading CCTV hard drive data recovery specialists in Leeds and the UK. Our expertise includes:
✔ Surveillance video recovery from failing CCTV hard drives
✔ SMART warning & bad sector repair
✔ Forensic recovery of proprietary DVR/NVR video formats
✔ Secure & confidential data retrieval for law enforcement
If your CCTV hard drive is showing a SMART warning, failing to access footage, or has stopped recording, stop using it immediately and contact us for expert data recovery.