Here is exactly what happens to your device from the moment it reaches us to the moment your files come home — the same sequence for a £250 memory card and a fifty-thousand-pound server, because the sequence is the safety.
Whether it crosses the counter at Tay House or arrives in the morning post, the device is logged into a documented chain of custody — photographed, condition-noted, tagged to you — and stored securely. What it is not is plugged in for a quick look: nothing receives power until it’s behind the right hardware for its type.
Behind a write-blocker, the device gets its one careful assessment: listened to once if mechanical, interrogated at controller level if solid-state, every member checked individually if it’s an array. The output is a plain-English diagnosis — what failed, what’s realistically recoverable — and it costs nothing whether or not you proceed.
The fixed figure lands with the diagnosis: £250 cards and sticks, £300 single drives, from £500 for arrays quoted to the job. You say go, wait, or send it back — and “back” costs only return postage. No work begins before your yes; no yes is extracted by holding the device hostage.
The fault gets its proper fix — donor heads under the laminar-flow hood, a ROM moved to a donor board, firmware rebuilt, NAND read directly, an array solved virtually from member images — and then the device is read gently, once, weak areas last. Every repair after that happens against the copy. The original is evidence, and evidence doesn’t get gambled.
Recovered data is checked — files that open, footage that plays, databases that mount — then delivered on new encrypted media with your original device alongside. Payment completes once you know what came back; no-fix-no-fee covers most jobs if it didn’t. Collect from Bath Street or take insured tracked delivery anywhere in the UK.
Yes — you’ll hear from us at the moments that matter: diagnosis with the written quote, any material change imaging reveals, and completion with what came back. Want more? Ring anytime and the engineer on your job answers in plain English — there’s no ticket wall here.
Then you hear about it before it costs you anything — the fixed band usually absorbs surprises entirely (that’s its point), and on quoted-to-job work any scope change is put to you in writing first. The rule is simple: no work you haven’t priced, ever.
On new, encrypted media — typically an external drive or USB stick sized to the job — checked before it ships, alongside your original device. Collection from Bath Street or insured tracked delivery, your choice. We’ll also talk you through the sensible next step: copying it somewhere second, immediately.
Drop it at Charing Cross or post it in — the sequence above takes over from there, and you stay in charge at every decision. Our data recovery process: five steps, zero surprises, one honest bench.