At the eastern extremity of this urban sprawl lies Airdrie. It has a character all of its own and many hard drives containing the last twenty years' worth of photos, coursework and payroll. When one stops, the western route is a straight shot out of Airdrie, and there's no cost for your first answer.
By car you can follow the A89 out of town, then join the M8 heading west to Charing Cross, which will take you approximately half an hour depending upon your ability to get past the Baillieston junction. You can also use Airdrie railway station; it has plenty of regular and direct trains running into the heart of Glasgow. This is a great option if you have a padded, powered-off drive that needs carrying. And as with every other post office branch you go to there are options for tracking and insuring packages, all of which should arrive the next morning and join the queue.
The information arriving from Airdrie will be of a working-town nature: laptops from van offices with the year's invoicing, home PCs that have evolved into archives over time, SD cards from pitches and prams alike, and small business NAS systems which turned red at some point on a Monday. Every item receives the same service: it is imaged first, then repaired via the copy, and inspected prior to being returned.
No matter what device arrives, the prices do not change based upon your postcode. There is always a free diagnostic first. The fixed price of the recovery will be agreed to in writing prior to any work. The price is £250 + VAT for cards and sticks. Single drives cost £300 + VAT. RAID systems, NAS devices, and server hardware cost from £500 + VAT. In addition, in most cases you only pay if we have recovered your lost data. All data recovery jobs are completed in-house by our own employees (engineers), and your data never leaves the UK.
Only if the drive gets "tested" over the weekend. You won't lose any data from your failed drive by leaving it turned off in your desk drawer until Monday. Just complete the quick quote form to receive a price for recovery service, then simply post your drive first thing Saturday or drop it off on Monday. If this is an urgent business-down situation that can't wait, please phone our priority line or leave a message on it at the weekend and we'll call you right back.
Just the drive is fine. If it's an external drive, please send the entire unit with its own cable. The cable will help us to test the enclosure as well because that can be defective as often as the disk. Please include your contact information (your name & number) in the packaging so we know who sent it; no other paperwork is needed.
Before you post or drop off your unit, please call for a quote or use the form on this website. Please also turn the unit off, wrap each part of the unit that will go into shipping carefully so that they do not break during transit, then select which option best fits you: either take your unit to our counter at Tay House, 300 Bath Street Monday to Friday 9am–5:30pm; walk-in service does not require an appointment; or send it by insured, tracked post from Airdrie. Once we receive your unit we will diagnose it for free and give you a written price quote prior to deciding whether or not to proceed with recovery.
In every instance, all data recovery services, both diagnosis and imaging/data recovery, are performed at our Glasgow laboratory regardless of which city/region the client resides in.
Do not use your drive again. Each additional time you use your drive increases the risk that the remaining recoverable data may be overwritten. A faulty drive's head(s) are also at greater risk of coming into contact with its platter(s). If the system remains active, turn it off safely and then leave it turned off.
Do not run any data recovery software on the original hard disk. Most consumer data recovery programs create their own file indexes on the hard disk being scanned. While this typically does not harm a functioning hard disk containing deleted files, once the hard disk contains bad sector(s) or is mechanically failed, it will limit what was possible through data recovery efforts.
Do not open your drive. Even a small amount of dust entering a drive can damage the surface of the drive after only a few revolutions. If it has already been opened, tell us: it changes our approach, not our willingness to help.
Remove the drive where you can. Please send just the hard drive or SSD. We are not able to accept full computers (laptops/desktops). All computer shops can remove the internal drive from a system within minutes. External drives are the exception and need to be sent complete. Please include the external case/enclosure when sending the drive. This is because many external enclosures contain the bridge board which contains the encryption key. If the drive is sent without the case, then the drive will appear blank/unformatted.
Our diagnostic is free and is a real diagnostic. Our process involves putting your drive on the bench, not through a script, and identifying the type of fault. At this time, we determine if the media on your drive is stable enough to be imaged, and what information may actually be recovered before we discuss cost.
You get a fixed price in writing before work begins. Not a price range or estimate that changes once the job has started. Once you see the fixed price, you decide based upon the price you see. In most cases, no payment is due if we cannot recover your data.
We image first then repair from that copy. Your original drive is read only once using the least invasive method possible with the equipment. Every single repair operation is performed on the image of your original drive. Using this method ensures that your original drive is never damaged further than necessary.
Every step of recovery is done in-house. Your drive will never leave our facility while being worked on. Your data will always remain within the United Kingdom. Once your recovery is complete, you will receive a list of files found on your drive so that you may review them prior to receiving your completed recovery. 30 days after you acknowledge receipt of your completed recovery, all copies of your data stored on our servers will be deleted securely.