Missing footage

[Djames210]

So my car was involved in an accident yesterday. Pulled the camera and guess what? The footage that was supposed to be “locked in” is not there, along with about 3 hours of footage that preceded the accident.

Camera is Viofo A129 Pro Duo
Card is Samsung 256GB MicroSDXC Evo Select

Both are fairly new, just a few months old.

I’m thinking the accident may have actually caused the footage to be erased (which is the exact opposite of what should happen).

Is there a setting that can prevent this from reoccurring? Can anyone help??

 

[Kremmen]

I've always been an advocate for turning all sensors off or min, depending on what's allowed. The number of posts I've seen here, from a range of manufacturers dashcams with similar stories where footage hasn't been saved where expected and/or pressing the emergency save button has done nothing.

My way all my footage is in the same folder, consecutive, and no special, often read only, folders are needed or created.

It's not difficult to find anything sequential, especially if you use a video program with associated mapping.

 

[DAP]

You should try an image recovery tool to see if it can find the missing footage. The "Testdisk" package on Linux has a useful tool called "photorec" that searches the entire disk for photo & video files. I'm sure there are equivalents on windows or mac.

If you do not have a hardwire kit installed, make sure the "parking mode" menu item is off. Otherwise the camera can go into parking mode while you are driving. I lost a video of a motorcycle accident because of this. If the camera went into parking mode while driving, it probably did not record anything, and you will not find anything on your memory card with photorec.

I also do not use the "save" button. I rely on using a large memory card to ensure that the recording of interest will not be overwritten before I have a chance to copy it off the card. 10 hours is plenty of time to get the data before it is overwritten.

 

[kamkar]

I have not heard of a camera deleting instead of locking a event triggered by something.
I too also do not use G-sensors ASO when driving, the camera record all the time, and little things i want to save i lock with the manual event button.

If you are missing 3 hours leading up to the accident something else are wrong, so i would test the memory card integrity, with programs like H2testw and SDformatter 5
Power source can also be a problem causing erratic recording performance, i experienced this myself getting rear ended and having a rear camera on a too long too cheap USB wire powered from the front of my car.
I assume you use the provided power source or the hard wire kit from Viofo ?
Sadly even new memory cards can go sour in no time, and thats not even factoring in the fake ones, i have had memory cards die on me before i got to fill it 1 time,,,,, genuine brand memory cards.

O and welcome to the forum Djames.

 

[Djames210]

I have not heard of a camera deleting instead of locking a event triggered by something.
I too also do not use G-sensors ASO when driving, the camera record all the time, and little things i want to save i lock with the manual event button.

If you are missing 3 hours leading up to the accident something else are wrong, so i would test the memory card integrity, with programs like H2testw and SDformatter 5
Power source can also be a problem causing erratic recording performance, i experienced this myself getting rear ended and having a rear camera on a too long too cheap USB wire powered from the front of my car.
I assume you use the provided power source or the hard wire kit from Viofo ?
Sadly even new memory cards can go sour in no time, and thats not even factoring in the fake ones, i have had memory cards die on me before i got to fill it 1 time,,,,, genuine brand memory cards.

O and welcome to the forum Djames.

Thanks for the reply. I use the hard wire kit from Viofo. How do these H2testw and SDformatter programs work? Do they just determine whether the card is good?

 

[Djames210]

You should try an image recovery tool to see if it can find the missing footage. The "Testdisk" package on Linux has a useful tool called "photorec" that searches the entire disk for photo & video files. I'm sure there are equivalents on windows or mac.

If you do not have a hardwire kit installed, make sure the "parking mode" menu item is off. Otherwise the camera can go into parking mode while you are driving. I lost a video of a motorcycle accident because of this. If the camera went into parking mode while driving, it probably did not record anything, and you will not find anything on your memory card with photorec.

I also do not use the "save" button. I rely on using a large memory card to ensure that the recording of interest will not be overwritten before I have a chance to copy it off the card. 10 hours is plenty of time to get the data before it is overwritten.

I do have a hardwire kit from the manufacturer (Viofo), so I imagine it’s acceptable to have parking mode on. I’m attempting to use data recovery software from wondershare recoverit. So far no luck but I may contact the company to see if they have other suggestions.

 

[Djames210]

I've always been an advocate for turning all sensors off or min, depending on what's allowed. The number of posts I've seen here, from a range of manufacturers dashcams with similar stories where footage hasn't been saved where expected and/or pressing the emergency save button has done nothing.

My way all my footage is in the same folder, consecutive, and no special, often read only, folders are needed or created.

It's not difficult to find anything sequential, especially if you use a video program with associated mapping.

Do you have a Viofo dash cam? It seems this stuff should be more reliable. What are the recommended settings to minimize the chance of lost data?

 

[LateralNW]

Thanks for the reply. I use the hard wire kit from Viofo. How do these H2testw and SDformatter programs work? Do they just determine whether the card is good?

The H2test writes and then verifies all the data is there.
If the SD card is counterfeit or faulty the test will fail.
Usually counterfeit cards have less storage space than advertised which makes them cheaper. Purchase from reputable sellers.

The SDformatter checks for embedded card information and also can do a special type of format.
The program will report the type of card you are using.
If the card is a good counterfeit I don't know if it would be able to detect it.

I have various models of Viofo dashcams including the model before your one.
A129 Duo that I paid for.
I don't have any problems with it. I don't use the hwk. I've found they can be a bit flaky if your battery is playing up or getting old.

I doubt you will find the footage you're missing but i want to be wrong.
My logic is that you noticed 3 hours missing prior to the accident which makes me conclude the dash cam has been off.

Another undelete program you might try is from easeus.com you can run it for free but it only allows a small limit of recovery. If you find it works then you might consider purchasing it.
I'm sure there are plenty of good free undeletes out there.

Cheers