It takes less time to reach us from Renfrew, the Cradle of the Royal Stewarts, than from some parts of Glasgow: just 15 minutes over the water. The urge to continue trying to recover your failed drive is all that stands between you and a free answer.
From Renfrew you join the motorway at junction 26 of the M8 and drive straight to Charing Cross. Most days this will take around fifteen minutes from your door to the counter. There are no train stations within the town of Renfrew. However, there is a continuous bus service from Renfrew to Glasgow city centre and, like in many towns, parcels remain an equally accessible option: insured, tracked and padded. Next morning your parcel will be on the bench.
Casework for Renfrew has a similar airport and industry feel to that found along the riverside: laptop computers used in businesses, site machines from the trading estates, memory cards with footage taken by drones or while travelling, and all the family's data stored on their home computer hard drive which was never fully backed up. The journey is short and the standard is the same: image first, then fix 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.
You bet. Tay House is just two minutes from the M8 at Charing Cross. Once we've given you a price for your quote, our counter is open Monday–Friday 9am–5:30pm with no need for an appointment. Make sure the drive has been turned off and it's padded or cushioned in the car so as not to be bouncing about in a door pocket; nobody wants to deal with vibrations.
It's often when hardware weakness comes to fruition under an extended workload. The interrupted write may also damage the file system (two levels, each ordinary). Above all, the attempts at backing up should stop retrying. Get a price, take it in, and the free diagnostic will be honest about what layer of issues exists.
Before posting or dropping off your device, we would ask you to obtain an estimate from us either via telephone or with our on-line quotation form. Please then shut down your device, ensure that it is well padded and select your method of delivery: either drop it off at the counter at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (Monday–Friday 9am–5:30pm, no appointment necessary) or send by insured, traceable post from Renfrew. Regardless of which option you select, there will be no charge for diagnosis and all estimates are provided in writing prior to making a decision.
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.