Burns country now has far more manuscripts in existence than it did: guest house booking records, links course photographs, family history archives etc. All this data is mostly stored on some form of hard drive somewhere in Ayr. When one of those drives goes quiet, the distance will be covered by either the A77 or first-class post, and then our no-cost diagnostic will cover the rest.
Ayr to Charing Cross (via the A77 and M77) takes approximately fifty minutes as long as there are no major delays. Once past the Kingston Bridge, you will reach Tay House. There is also a direct and frequent train service from Ayr to Glasgow Central railway station by way of the coastal route. But at these distances it can be better to use the post; it is fast, insured and tracked; and once posted (well padded), your drive is on our bench the next morning while you keep your day.
The casework for Ayr has a seasonal pattern to it: hospitality machines with many bookings and accounts, race day and golf course photo shoots by the cardful, retirees working on project archives, and the laptops of students returning home for their breaks. However the method of data recovery does not change throughout the year: one gentle image, then everything done on the copy, verified before return.
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.
Gladly: an unpowered hard drive in two inches of padding, insured and tracked, will have a less stressful ride than any car passenger. It’ll arrive first thing the next day, go through the same check-in procedure as all other items and you’ll still have two hours of your life. The drive keeps its platters undisturbed. Most of Ayrshire uses this method.
Yes, if your business is genuinely stopped due to the loss of service then contact us on 0141 404 0294 and state as much. The emergency route for revenue-down situations is in place and operates outwith normal office hours (evenings & weekends) where appropriate. If however bookings are able to be managed for a short period by alternative means then you will receive the same resolution through our standard route at a lower cost to yourself and we will advise honestly on which option would best suit your requirements.
Prior to sending or dropping off your hard disk, please first obtain a price quotation for your hard disk from us either via telephone or using our quote form. Next power it down and wrap it up as thoroughly as possible, then select how you wish to send it: either through the counter at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (Monday to Friday 9am–5:30pm, no prior appointment required) or insured, trackable postal services from Ayr. Irrespective of which method of transportation you use, we will diagnose your failed hard disk completely at no cost to you and quote for all work in writing before we do anything else.
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.