Recovering last unbuffered video clip.

[mac]

I have been using Viofo cameras for some time and upgraded to an A119 V3 a couple months ago. The unit has performed flawlessly and records with fantastic resolution.

However, this past weekend someone egregiously hit me while traveling at freeway speeds. My A119 V3 captured everything except for the last 30 or so seconds. My car ended up hitting a concrete barrier with such force that it's a total loss. Having the last 30 seconds of footage would have been *very* beneficial - according to the State Patrol who is investigating the incident. I have the camera configured to record in 2 minute file chunks, and I'm assuming the video that was in memory didn't get flushed/written to the card after the severe impact.

Hopefully this information will help Viofo fix the issue so others who may need to rely on footage while dealing with the aftermath of a serious incident.

p.s. The camera still operates and and I'm still alive.

EDIT: I FOUND THE MISSING FILE! Thank you Nigel.

 

[Nigel]

Normally it will keep everything until a couple of seconds after loosing power, can you give it a test and see what happens if you just pull the power? See if there is a fault with the normal operation or if something unusual happened, maybe the issue was excessive g-force? Presumably the memory card was still in the slot and the camera still on the mount?

Where there any corrupt files that wouldn't play? (They may still have recoverable video in them.)

 

[mac]

Thank you for the tip! I found the file using a recovery utility - Recuva.

 

[Nigel]

EDIT: I FOUND THE MISSING FILE! Thank you Nigel.

Was it in the protected RO folder due to the g-sensor being triggered by the concrete?
Or was it actually lost due to not being closed properly and needed recovery software?

(We don't often test these things in real crashes, so this information is useful for improving future cameras.)

 

[Tractor]

You don't say what file format you were using.
If it was mp4 a cut to the power could lose a file where as .TS are still likely to be intact and easily recovered.
When choosing a file format it is a play off between MP4 files being more compatible and they keep GPS info for graphical playback. Against. TS which save guards the files but at the lost of any usable GPS graphical info due to all known .TS players not recognising the GPS data.

 

[mac]

It was in mp4 format. The file has all the remaining footage I was missing. It was in the RO directory.