Emergency · video recording card
Accidentally deleted videos: stop using the recording card
How can I recover videos I just deleted?
Short answer
Yes, if you record nothing else: deleted MP4, MOV or MXF clips often remain intact, but a single new clip can reuse their extents. Keep the card out of the camera, scan it read-only for your exact container and export elsewhere. For MXF, contiguous clips are found, but not every OP-1a index or footer is rebuilt.
The situation
Camera clips were deleted before they reached the edit drive.
A deleted clip is far larger than a photograph, so it occupies a long run of sectors that the camera will hand out again to the next take. The bytes are still there after the delete command, but only until recording starts once more.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
Clips were removed on the camera or in the ingest dialog before anyone confirmed that the edit drive had them. Deletion clears the exFAT entry and marks the extents free. Because a minute of high-bitrate footage can fill hundreds of megabytes, a single new take can land directly on top of several deleted ones.
Large MP4, MOV, or MXF files can remain recoverable after deletion, but new recording data can quickly reuse their extents.
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Take the card out of the camera now and label it, so nobody loads it for the next setup by mistake.
- 2
Note the container your camera writes, MP4, MOV or MXF, plus the usual clip length and folder, such as DCIM, PRIVATE or M4ROOT.
- 3
Read the card through a card reader and scan it read-only for that one container, so the result list is not flooded with proxies and thumbnails.
- 4
Export the clips onto the edit drive and play each one through before the card goes back into the rotation.
Do not put the card back in the camera to check whether the clips really are gone. Playback mode alone can write a database file, and a single accidental record start will overwrite exactly the long stretch of sectors the deleted footage still occupies.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
Contiguous clips are the realistic case. File Recovery Hero recovers whole files from exFAT and FAT32 cards, but it does not rebuild an OP-1a index or a missing MXF footer, and a clip split across reused extents may come back only in part.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
Scrub each recovered clip from beginning to end in a player, not only the first few seconds. Duration, frame rate and audio should match the shooting notes, and an MXF file should carry its expected timecode and reel name when it opens in the editing application.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can video recording card be recovered in this situation?+
A deleted clip is far larger than a photograph, so it occupies a long run of sectors that the camera will hand out again to the next take. The bytes are still there after the delete command, but only until recording starts once more. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not put the card back in the camera to check whether the clips really are gone.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
How do I know whether the result is complete?+
Scrub each recovered clip from beginning to end in a player, not only the first few seconds.