Bell PVR deleted my recordings. How can I recover them? If you’re asking this question, then you’re like many other Bell PVR users.
In this post, we’ll review several different ways to recover deleted/lost recordings and which approach to use depending on your situation.
To recover lost Bell PVR recordings you’ll need to understand whether they were saved on external storage or within your PVR. Check the recently deleted folder and if it’s empty then you’ll need to remember where you’ve stored them and hopefully get them back with a recovery tool.
Make sure not to skip the section of this post so you can understand whether your recordings are recoverable or not.
Can You Recover Deleted PVR Recordings Bell?
If you’re wondering whether you’re able to recover deleted files from Bell, yes, it is possible!
The easiest way to recover deleted files is if they are on an external hard drive. If they are not saved you can check in your backup folder or use a Data Recovery Tool.
You can also recover a lost file from the PVR if it was previously uploaded to a computer, which also counts as a hard drive carrier.
Alert: You should know that some of the encrypted files that were deleted, might be unrecoverable even with the data recovery tool.
Also if the storage were Overwritten with other recordings/files, the recovery might NOT be successful.
Next, we’ll review how to recover lost files from your PVR and external storage. You only need a computer and 5 minutes to read the post.
How To Recover Deleted Bell PVR Recordings?
You will have two available options for bringing lost PVR recordings data.
The first way is using an online recovery tool, which can bring both deleted or lost files and the other way is checking the backup.
We’ll start by checking the recently deleted files on your PVR, let’s find out how!
Data Recovery Via Backup Folder
If you can’t manage the online recovery tool, don’t worry because there is another way of bringing some of your PVR recordings back.
You will be looking forward to bringing back lost data using a Backup folder. Also known as “Recently Deleted”.
Open the Bell PVR menu on your TV screen and search for the Backup or Recently Deleted tab. Then simply choose a recording you want to recover and hit the recover button.
If your lost recordings are NOT there, it means that they were deleted really long ago, or they were never actually deleted.
Note: If your recordings are not in the backup folder they could have been initially placed on an External Hard Drive.
Data Recovery Using Online Tool
The first way of bringing lost or deleted recordings on your PVR is using the services of an online tool.
You will be uploading the data recovery tool on your PC from the PVR and you will be able to choose which lost files to bring back.
Here are the steps:
Step #1. Get The Data Recovery Tool
A suitable online tool that will help you bring back all of the Eligible PVR recordings can be downloaded here.
The excellent rate left by the users convinces us that this tool is legit and will help you scan & recover files that were deleted or lost on your PVR.
Step #2. Apply The Tool
Once you have downloaded the tool to your PC, run the executable file and choose which location you want the software to scan for lost PVR recordings or show.
If you were using a USB drive at the moment of recording simply plug the USB and choose to set it as a recovery location (same for portable hard drives).
You can run the check by clicking on the “Scan” button within the executable files.
Once you’ve run the tool, wait for a couple of minutes based on the size of the location the tool is scanning.
Step #3. Preview Recovered Data
After waiting for the tool to recover the lost data, you can preview potentially lost recordings.
Here is how it is done:
- Wait for the checker to finalize.
- Preview the lost data on the hard drive.
- Choose which files you’re willing to save from the temporarily recovered data.
- Click on the Upload process and select the destination on your PC.
- Wait for the files to finish uploading.
Using this tool you should be able to recover any lost data if that data was not overwritten!
How To Recover Recordings From External Hard Drive?
If you’ve deleted the recordings on an external hard drive, there is a relatively easy way to bring them back and view them on your TV.
Keep in mind that for the process you will only need a cable to connect your external hard drive to your receiver.
Without any further ado, let’s proceed with the steps on bringing lost PVR recordings from an external hard drive.
Step #1. Connect The External Drive
The first step is to get the external hard drive connected to your receiver. Plug your external hard/flash drive into the USB port of your receiver and jump to the next step.
Step #2. Manage Content
To gain access and manage the content, follow the instructions:
- Once you’ve connected your hard drive, turn on the TV.
- Wait for the attention message to appear.
- Check if the code on the message window is “852” and confirm the window.
By doing this, you will allow the USB to manage content.
Step #3. Restore The Data
Once you have allowed the USB to manage the content of your DVR, follow these steps to restore the data:
- On the following window, find and select “External hard drive”.
- Go to Manage recordings.
- Select the recording you’re willing to restore.
- Scroll down and click on Event Mgmt.
- Click on Restore and wait for a couple of minutes.
The average wait time is going to be based on the size of your file, so if the file is larger than a few GBs.
You should know that if your recordings were recorded in your PVR and deleted really long ago, they are most probably gone forever.
On the other hand, if you’ve accidentally deleted them you can easily get them back regardless if they are on external storage or not.
Read Next: How to Fix Bell PVR Freezing Issue?
To restore lost or deleted recordings from your DVR, you can either use backup or an online recovery tool. If your files were stored and deleted from your PVR, check the recently deleted files. In case you were using external storage, use a recovery tool to bring any data back if it was not overwritten.
Bottom Line:
People state that Bell PVR deleted my recordings, but the truth is that users often record them on external sources and then look for them in the in-built PVR storage.
The most important thing is to remember whether you’ve deleted the recording or just removed the storage they were saved into.
When you’ve got that cleared, you’ll know if you need to use a recovery tool or simply check in the recently deleted folder.
Finn Wheatley holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from UCL, London. He helped small data science consultancy firms, helping large corporations to grow their data capabilities, deploy advanced machine learning-based analytics and troubleshoot tech-related issues. Check out more about him here.