Data loss can sometimes wait until Tuesday. Some data loss truly cannot: payroll on a dead server, the court deadline for a corrupted drive, the only copy of tomorrow's deliverables. That type of emergency has a priority track. This page will be honest about what buying priority gets you, what it does not get you, and how to know whether you are having an actual emergency or just another problem that needs to be solved.
Priority places your job at the head of our queue when it comes into us. It allows your job to continue to move throughout the evening and weekend hours. When your issue arrives, priority allows one of our engineers to call you directly (as opposed to receiving a ticket). Diagnosing your issue occurs within hours after it arrives; imaging begins the same day; we report back to you as needed in plain English.
While priority gives you many advantages over the standard track, it does not alter the physical limitations of working with bad hardware. A weak drive still has to be imaged gently, because rushing reads on failing hardware can turn an emergency into a tragedy. Therefore, the honest commitment is using each safe hour, not cutting corners.
There are two ways to find out if this is an actual emergency. Does money or time (a deadline) have to burn because of lost information? If your business has come to a stop, there's a legal date approaching, or there's no way to replay some type of event, then this is a real emergency. Will waiting make getting back what was lost harder? When ransomware is still spreading, when one of your drives is making that awful degrading noise, when a NAS decides to "self-repair", these too are emergencies. If neither of those conditions apply, the normal path will get the same results for less money, and we'll say so on the phone rather than sell you urgency.
Regardless of how you want to proceed, the first consultation is at no cost: just call us, tell us about your problem and we will give you a straight reply as to which track is the best one for your job before spending any money.
Turn off (shut down) the affected devices, cleanly if they are still running. If the devices are already powered down, don't turn them back on. Remove any connections to the network or internet for devices that have been infected by ransomware. Take photographs of each server bay area where disk(s) will be moved. Do not start any rebuilds or reinstalls, or initiate any scan operations. Then call 0141 404 0294: after-hours messaging is available and actually checked, and priority jobs are called straight back with a plan and a realistic time frame for completion.
The premium service is priced differently than our standard pricing. The costs for our standard service are shown per device type as follows: single disk devices are priced from £300 + VAT, multi-disk systems are priced from £500 + VAT. Therefore, the price difference for our premium service is clearly stated and known prior to starting work. All work starts with a free diagnostic, and you know what you owe based upon the written price quote we provide you prior to commencing work. On most jobs nothing is owed unless the data comes back. We operate without hourly meters, evaluation fees, or percentages of value of recovered data. Our premium service operates in conjunction with our regular data recovery services, using the same professional techniques but on a condensed schedule.
Yes, the emergency track is operational during evening and weekend hours specifically for situations like these. Leave a message with your contact information. Priority calls are returned quickly along with an honest assessment regarding which items should be frozen, whether the situation requires the premium service, and when we can realistically begin imaging. Jobs involving a downed business will receive priority once received.
We will not attempt an "on-site" recovery, and this is due to the fact that safe recovery requires access to the imaging equipment and donor disks stored on the bench. Also, when someone says they can perform "an on-site recovery", this typically refers to unsafe or uncontrolled procedures on your original media. Instead, we assist you via telephone with safely shutting down and removing your disks and then we begin working on your recovery upon receipt at our facility at top speed.
Priority processing will improve the time-line (not the probability) and we would prefer to be honest about this with you. The exact process is identical regardless of whether or not your drive has been sent to us via priority; however, priority affords your drive immediate attention and out-of-hours assistance. In those instances where timely processing actually affects the preservation of your data (for example: a degrading drive or spreading ransomware), having your drive(s) arrive today is what provides the opportunity for protection, and priority processing enables this possibility.
We provide a diagnostic of your damaged drive within hours of its arrival; we may complete simple logical recoveries within the same day; we will image a failing drive as quickly as the nature of the failure permits (typically within 24–72 hours); and we will continue to work on multi-disk arrays (which take longer) until completion. Upon diagnosing your damaged drive(s), we will provide you with a realistic estimate of the expected time required to complete the recovery; we will also provide you with periodic status updates throughout the course of the recovery. We have no interest in providing unrealistic deadlines simply to acquire your business.
First of all there are the standard prices for single drive recovery (from £300 + VAT) and multi-disk recovery (from £500 + VAT). Then we add on to these our priority price. We'll show you both figures at the same time as well, before we begin working on your problem. The free diagnostic will tell us which one applies to your system.
Sufficient for a full lab, and there’s no point in us doing anything until you have an agreed price for the drive. Be wary of prices that change once the drive arrives; we don’t want our customers to be shocked by how much something will cost. Our prices are set before each job starts, with our charge for one drive starting from £300 + VAT, and we’ll tell you straight away whether or not what you’re experiencing qualifies as a “real” emergency (and therefore worth paying the extra for) when we speak to you for the first time.
Before you drop your device off or post it, please get a quote from us by phone or using the form first. Then there are two honest routes for dropping off and delivery. No vans. Hand in the device at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (right at Charing Cross, two minutes off the M8) Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm, without need of an appointment. Or wrap the device well and send by insured, tracked post from anywhere in the UK. All work is done in-house by our own engineers. We have documentation of the complete chain of custody and your data never leaves the UK.
Your free first conversation with us will determine whether or not you’re dealing with a serious issue (emergency) versus simply panicking about the possibility of losing all of your important files, and if it is an emergency, then everything else can wait. Emergency data recovery for Glasgow: 0141 404 0294, priority handling, honest physics.