The order of work · call, bench, files home
Seven stages, and the decision at two of them is yours.
Whatever arrives, the run is the same seven stages in the same sequence. It opens with a telephone call and closes with you opening the returned media and confirming that it reads. Here is that sequence, and the two points where the choice is yours alone.
Ask an engineer, and the first look is free
0115 8220606
The sequence, start to finish.
One call, or the form
Ring, or use the quote form. Two things count at this stage: what the device was doing at the point it stopped, and which folders you genuinely need. What comes back is a frank read on the chances, plus precise packing instructions, before the box is sealed.
Posting it to Manchester
The intake lab is on Oxford Street; the contact page carries the address in full. Insured, tracked, printed form inside. A laptop, a desktop or a recorder gives up its drive first. A NAS may travel whole. For a RAID set or a server, send the disks loose with the bay written on each one.
Booked in the day it arrives, and the first look is on us Free
The box is opened first and the parcel takes a reference number of its own. Then the bench work: which component has given out, what the realistic chance of reading those files is, and how many hours that will take.
The decision is yours
A single figure arrives in writing, and it holds from there on. Approve it and the bench starts; decline it and everything comes home to you with the findings and nothing to pay. The diagnosis was free whichever you choose.
What happens at the bench
A complete sector-by-sector copy goes onto storage of ours before any repair is attempted. Array rebuilds, unlocking, firmware work, donor head swaps — every one of them then runs against that copy, and the thing you posted is left in the state it turned up in.
You check the file list
Before any invoice is raised, the full list of what came off goes to you, to be checked against the folders you named when you rang.
Posted back to you
Recovered data goes home on media we supply, and we pay the carriage. The working copies made here are securely erased after thirty days. Until you confirm the contents are right, the case stays open.
How long each fault takes.
| Which fault | What is done | Time at the bench |
|---|---|---|
| Logical: deleted, formatted, corrupted | The file system rebuilt off the image | Around 2–3 working days |
| Mechanical: clicking, knocking, no spin | Donor parts matched, then a slow image | 3 to 5 working days |
| Multi-disk: RAID sets, NAS boxes, servers | All disks imaged, then the array rebuilt in software | 3–4 working days from arrival |
| Encrypted volumes, and work for court | Scope settled first, and the timing along with it | Named in the quote |
| Genuinely cannot wait | First place goes to a business that cannot trade, or to a court or audit date already fixed | Mention it when you ring |
What ought to be in the parcel.
What people ask before anything else.
Do you keep me posted while it is on the bench?
Yes. Every stage listed below closes with a message to you. In between, ring and ask: an engineer picks the phone up, so nothing is left sitting in a ticket queue nobody looks at.
Suppose none of it can be read?
You hear it once, in plain words, rather than being kept waiting week upon week. If the files really have gone, that is what you will be told. If some other lab stands the better chance, you are handed its name and its telephone number. And remember that most jobs carry no charge whatever if the files never do come back.
Who actually works on the drive?
Our own engineers handle it, at a bench in the intake lab. No part of it is subcontracted and none of it leaves the country. A case number goes on the parcel as it is opened and stays with the device right up to the day it is posted back.
How long do the working copies stay here?
Thirty days from the day your files reach you, which is long enough to spot a gap and ask for a second pass at it. After that the working images are securely erased and nothing of yours remains here.
The whole thing starts with a phone call.
One call, or the form, and your case opens. Nothing is charged for the diagnosis and none of it commits you.