Sometimes the job isn’t just getting data back — it’s being able to prove, later and under challenge, exactly what was found, where, and that nothing changed along the way. That’s the difference between recovery and forensics: the same technical skill, wrapped in discipline a courtroom can lean on. Our data capture service exists for solicitors, employers, insurers and individuals in Glasgow who need the evidence to survive scrutiny, not just the files to exist.
Every exhibit is acquired behind a hardware write-blocker — the original medium physically cannot be altered by the process — and imaged completely, deleted space included. The image is hash-verified: a cryptographic fingerprint taken at capture proves, forever, that the working copy matches the source bit for bit. From arrival to return, a chain of custody logs who held what and when, exhibits are stored sealed, and all analysis happens on verified copies.
The recovered material — live files, deleted files, fragments — is then reported with its provenance: not just what was found, but where on the medium and how.
Forensic work begins with authority, not equipment. Your own devices, your company’s devices with proper policy behind them, media supplied under a solicitor’s instruction, exhibits with the owner’s consent — all workable. A partner’s phone, an ex-employee’s personal laptop, anything that smells of covert access — declined, plainly and early. It protects you as much as us: evidence gathered without lawful basis tends to die in the room it was meant to win.
Unsure where your situation sits? Ask — the answer is free and honest, and if the basis is sound we’ll document it as part of the file.
An employer needing a departed staff member’s company laptop preserved before the machine is reissued. A solicitor requiring deleted correspondence recovered and reported for a commercial dispute. An insurer wanting a drive’s condition and contents evidenced after a loss. A family needing a deceased relative’s photographs recovered with the estate’s authority and dignity intact. Each ends the same way: verified data, a plain-English report a non-technical reader can follow, and an engineer who can stand behind it if asked.
Because these jobs vary enormously in scope, the price is quoted individually — in writing, after the free assessment, before any paid work begins. Everything starts with a free diagnostic, the figure goes in writing before work begins, and on most jobs nothing is owed unless the data comes back. No hourly meter, no evaluation fee, no percentage of what the files are worth.
Standard recovery optimises for your data back; forensic adds verifiable integrity — write-blocked capture, hashes, custody logs, reporting — so findings survive challenge. That documentation is the extra cost, quoted per instruction. If no one will ever dispute the result, standard recovery is the honest cheaper answer, and we’ll say so.
Not without their consent — covert access to another adult’s device has no lawful basis we can work under, whatever the suspicion. Where consent exists, or where a solicitor instructs within proceedings, the work proceeds properly documented. We’d rather lose the job than hand you evidence that collapses.
Everything, untouched: don’t reissue the laptop, don’t let IT “have a look”, don’t reset the accounts yet. Power the machine off and record who has held it. Forensic value decays with every well-meant login; a preserved device captured properly can show copying, deletion and exfiltration timelines cleanly.
It’s built for one: methodology, hash verification, custody record and findings in plain English, exhibits referenced throughout — the structure solicitors and tribunals expect. Where oral evidence or clarification is needed, the engineer who did the work is available. Tell us the forum at instruction and the report is shaped to it.
Two honest routes, no vans. Hand the device in at Tay House, 300 Bath Street — right at Charing Cross, two minutes off the M8 — Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm. Or wrap it well and send it by insured, tracked post from anywhere in the UK. The work is done in-house by our own engineers, with a documented chain of custody, and your data never leaves the UK.
The worst evidence is the well-intentioned kind — handled, booted, and hopelessly altered. Forensic work is priced from £800 + VAT, fixed in writing after the free assessment. Forensic data recovery and data capture for Glasgow: write-blocked, hash-verified, custody-logged, and reported so it stands up.