Dumbarton's unique advantage when it comes to data recovery is a nice way to travel to the solution of your problem. As in other parts of the world, data loss occurs through the same means in Dumbarton: a drive that stopped working after one click, a dead laptop, or a memory card which was just fine yesterday but today will no longer be recognised by your camera.
A82 and A814 follow the River Clyde all the way to the Expressway. Thirty to thirty-five minutes via good traffic will get you to Charing Cross. Stations at Dumbarton Central and East are directly connected to the North Clyde line, which goes straight into the city. For those who would rather avoid the journey, an insured padded parcel posted from your local Dumbarton counter joins every other parcel in our queue the next morning.
The Vale & Rock casework reflects a wide variety of types that exist within the area's character: business machines from distilleries and industry, large amounts of data taken during tourist season using photography by the terabyte for example, laptops from schools and colleges, and household external drives that contain pictures taken with digital cameras since film has run out. The method is the same whatever arrives: one careful image, then all work on the copy.
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.
Neither of you should "try" to run any software on it. Each time that you mount a corrupted card there's the risk of losing frames. Do not continue to use this camera card (stop taking photos), cap it and ask for a quote. Then either send it or bring it in as is. The cost to recover data from a damaged memory card will be £250 + VAT, but with the same free-look-first policy. To recover shots off the card, we carve them frame-by-frame out of an image.
We have never met a drive that was too obsolete for us to read, whether you are looking at an IDE relic, a laptop drive made by a company no longer in business or one of the first external drives with a forgotten connector. The bench has the adapters and the time. Once it is handled correctly, an old medium often reads beautifully, so bring what you have and let the free diagnostic tell you.
Before you send or bring your device to us, we request that you call or fill out the quote form so we can provide you with a quote. Once this has been done, turn it off and pack it as if it were fragile. Now, decide on how you wish to deliver your device: bring it to the counter at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (Monday to Friday 9am–5:30pm, no appointment needed) or send it via insured tracked post from Dumbarton. Either way, you will be charged nothing for diagnosis and you will get a written quote prior to deciding on what needs to be done.
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.