I just went through the process of bricking and restoring a Swann NVR8-7200. I learned a lot and thought I'd share my story to maybe help others out there. Sorry this post is so long but I'm trying to put in as much detail as possible.
I was frustrated that Swann hadn't updated their swanview plus IOS app (they have as of 9/30/2017) to work with IOS 11. So I wanted to replace the Swann firmware with Hikvision firmware and possibly improve the performance and feature set along the way since it seems that Hikvision updates their firmware more often than Swann. I was inspired by this thread: Upgrade few on swann NVR
I downloaded the Hikvision firmware 3.3.4 and used the built in firmware update to load it. It seemed to load fine and rebooted. After the reboot the Swann logo splash screen was replaced by a Hikvision logo. So far so good. Then it asked for a new password to activate the system. I typed in a password and confirmed it. I revived an activation successful message. I forget if it rebooted at this point or not, but after that when I used the mouse to enter the menu, the password didn't work. What was odd at this point was that there wasn't any users listed above the password field. The user drop down was active but all values were blank. I tried to login using Swannplus on PC and iVMS and failed. The unit may not have been technically "bricked" but it was useless.
I then read a bunch of threads about resetting the password and used the suggested tools like SADP and iVMS to get the serial number and start date. I then used the tool from this thread to generate a reset password: Hikvision camera admin password reset tool. The password reset failed using both iVMS and SADP. I then called Swann support and had them generate a password to reset it as well, that also failed. (Error 2009 - whatever that means)
I think this all had to do with the first boot of the Hikvision firmware where I created a new password - I don't remember if there was an opportunity to type in a username along with the new password. To all outward appearances, there wasn't an admin user.
So then I thought I'd reload the Hik 3.3.4 firmware but no matter what I did I couldn't get the TFTP process to work. I used the Hik TFTP program, following the instructions from a couple threads. I tried with and without a switch, various file paths, firewall settings, rebooting at least a dozen times in a row, etc. The TFP program seemed to be running fine on 192.0.0.128. I got client connections from the NVR up and requests to download the AV_2000 firmware but it never seemed to request the digicap.dav (or.mav) files.
So the next thing I tried was the serial console connection. Luckily the NVR8-72000 has a DB9 connector. I successfully used a NULL MODEM cable to a USB to serial converter to get a connection on the PC using putty. From there I was able to interrupt the boot process with control-U and upload firmware from the TFTP server. I chose to reload to Swann firmware because I was tired of this whole process and just wanted to get back to a known, good state. After the load and a reboot, everything worked fine. The unit acted like a brand new Swann device. I had to re-import my cameras but I had a working unit so I didn't care.
And then I found that Swann had updated their IOS app for work on IOS 11 - so all this was for nothing.
At some point I might try to upgrade to the Hikvision firmware. Now that I know to use the console connection it would be easier to try again.
Lessons Learned:
1) Make sure there is a username when you update the password
2) Use a serial console if you can't get the TFTP firmware loading process to work
3) The NVR8-7200 needs a NULL MODEM cable for the console, not a straight through RS232 cable.
Thanks for all the previous posters on the forum, I would have ended up tossing the unit without their advice.
I was frustrated that Swann hadn't updated their swanview plus IOS app (they have as of 9/30/2017) to work with IOS 11. So I wanted to replace the Swann firmware with Hikvision firmware and possibly improve the performance and feature set along the way since it seems that Hikvision updates their firmware more often than Swann. I was inspired by this thread: Upgrade few on swann NVR
I downloaded the Hikvision firmware 3.3.4 and used the built in firmware update to load it. It seemed to load fine and rebooted. After the reboot the Swann logo splash screen was replaced by a Hikvision logo. So far so good. Then it asked for a new password to activate the system. I typed in a password and confirmed it. I revived an activation successful message. I forget if it rebooted at this point or not, but after that when I used the mouse to enter the menu, the password didn't work. What was odd at this point was that there wasn't any users listed above the password field. The user drop down was active but all values were blank. I tried to login using Swannplus on PC and iVMS and failed. The unit may not have been technically "bricked" but it was useless.
I then read a bunch of threads about resetting the password and used the suggested tools like SADP and iVMS to get the serial number and start date. I then used the tool from this thread to generate a reset password: Hikvision camera admin password reset tool. The password reset failed using both iVMS and SADP. I then called Swann support and had them generate a password to reset it as well, that also failed. (Error 2009 - whatever that means)
I think this all had to do with the first boot of the Hikvision firmware where I created a new password - I don't remember if there was an opportunity to type in a username along with the new password. To all outward appearances, there wasn't an admin user.
So then I thought I'd reload the Hik 3.3.4 firmware but no matter what I did I couldn't get the TFTP process to work. I used the Hik TFTP program, following the instructions from a couple threads. I tried with and without a switch, various file paths, firewall settings, rebooting at least a dozen times in a row, etc. The TFP program seemed to be running fine on 192.0.0.128. I got client connections from the NVR up and requests to download the AV_2000 firmware but it never seemed to request the digicap.dav (or.mav) files.
So the next thing I tried was the serial console connection. Luckily the NVR8-72000 has a DB9 connector. I successfully used a NULL MODEM cable to a USB to serial converter to get a connection on the PC using putty. From there I was able to interrupt the boot process with control-U and upload firmware from the TFTP server. I chose to reload to Swann firmware because I was tired of this whole process and just wanted to get back to a known, good state. After the load and a reboot, everything worked fine. The unit acted like a brand new Swann device. I had to re-import my cameras but I had a working unit so I didn't care.
And then I found that Swann had updated their IOS app for work on IOS 11 - so all this was for nothing.
At some point I might try to upgrade to the Hikvision firmware. Now that I know to use the console connection it would be easier to try again.
Lessons Learned:
1) Make sure there is a username when you update the password
2) Use a serial console if you can't get the TFTP firmware loading process to work
3) The NVR8-7200 needs a NULL MODEM cable for the console, not a straight through RS232 cable.
Thanks for all the previous posters on the forum, I would have ended up tossing the unit without their advice.