The lab · start to finish
Seven steps, each one known in advance.
Every job takes the same route. It begins with your call and ends with a return you have signed off, which is how we would want a drive of our own handled. The full sequence follows, together with the two moments where the decision belongs to you and nobody else.
Describe the fault to an engineer
0800 6890668
The seven steps in order.
Make contact
Ring the office or submit the quote form, setting out the way the device failed and the files you need returned. What comes back first is a candid opinion and clear instructions on what to do next.
Get it to the lab
Post it tracked and insured to the intake lab in Guildford, printed shipping form inside the box. Pull the drive from a computer or recorder before posting; a NAS may travel whole. Call ahead about anything bulky.
Booked in, then assessed at no cost Free
The device is logged under its own reference the moment it arrives, then examined in full: the nature of the failure, the honest odds, and the work a recovery would take.
Your decision
A single price arrives in writing. Accept it and bench work starts; decline it and the device goes home with our findings. Either way, the diagnosis costs nothing.
On the bench
A full image is taken before anything else, without exception. Whatever the fault demands — donor parts, firmware work, decryption, rebuilding — is done on that copy, and the original is left untouched.
Verify the list
You pay nothing until the complete list of recovered files has been sent to you and checked against the folders you asked for.
The return
Your files come back on fresh media, carriage paid at our end. Thirty days later our working copies are securely destroyed. The case closes when you say so.
Realistic turnaround times.
| Kind of case | The method | Time on the bench |
|---|---|---|
| Software faults: deletion, formatting, corruption | File-system rebuild on the image | 2–3 working days |
| Physical faults: clicking, dropped and dead drives | Donor components, then a slow image | 3–5 working days |
| RAID 5 sets, NAS units, servers | Every member imaged, then a software rebuild | 4–7 working days |
| Encrypted volumes and forensic instructions | Scope defined per case, timing agreed first | Stated in the quote |
| True emergencies | A halted business or an immovable deadline goes to the front and runs continuously | Say so on the phone |
What travels with it.
The things people most want to know, answered.
Am I kept informed while work is under way?
Yes. Each stage above closes with an update from us, and the bench takes calls between times. There is no portal to sign into and no ticket lost in a queue.
And if the files are gone?
An unsuccessful attempt costs nothing on most jobs. If another laboratory has the better prospect we will say so, and we will say it just as plainly when nobody is going to manage it.
Who actually works on my device?
Every job is worked by our own engineers. Nothing is subcontracted, nothing leaves the country, and a single case reference covers the whole journey there and back.
What happens to the copies you have made?
The working images stay with us for thirty days after your files have gone back, in case a further pass is wanted; once that window closes they are securely erased.
Begin when it suits you.
One call or one form opens a case. The first stage is free and commits you to nothing.