The bench · enquiry to return
Seven steps, and two of them are yours.
Every case runs the same seven steps, in the same order. It opens with your call and closes when you have checked what came back — the way we would want our own drive treated. Below is the whole run, including the two points where nobody decides but you.
Tell an engineer what it is doing
0800 6890668
The whole run, step by step.
Get in touch
Phone us or fill in the quote form. Tell us how the thing failed and which files matter most. You will get a straight read on your chances and exact instructions for what to do with the device next.
Send it to the lab
The intake lab is in Manchester, up the M6. Send it by tracked, insured post, with the shipping form printed and packed alongside. Pull the drive from a laptop, PC or recorder first; a NAS can go as it is. Ring ahead if the item is awkward.
Case opened, and the diagnosis costs nothing Free
It gets a reference number as soon as the parcel is opened, then goes on the bench for a proper look: what has actually failed, how likely a recovery is, and the work it would take.
Your call
One price, in writing, with nothing added later. Agree to it and the bench starts; turn it down and the device comes back to you with our findings. The look costs nothing either way.
The work itself
Nothing happens until a full sector-by-sector image exists. Every step after that — donor heads, firmware repair, unlocking, array rebuilds — runs against the copy. The drive you sent stays as it came in.
Check the list
No invoice goes out until you have the full listing of what was recovered and have matched it against the folders you told us mattered.
Getting it back
Your files travel home on fresh media, postage on us. Our working copies are wiped thirty days after that. You decide when the case is finished, not us.
Time on the bench, by job type.
| Type of job | What we do | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Logical faults: deleted, formatted, corrupt | Rebuild the file system on a copy | 2–3 working days |
| Mechanical: clicking, dropped, dead | Donor parts fitted, then a careful image | 3–5 working days |
| Servers, NAS boxes, RAID arrays | All members imaged, array rebuilt in software | 3–4 working days |
| Locked volumes and forensic work | Scope set case by case, timing agreed up front | Given in the quote |
| Genuine emergencies | A stopped business or a date that cannot move goes to the front and runs non-stop | Tell us when you ring |
Send these with the drive.
What people ask before they post a drive.
Will I hear anything while it is being worked on?
Yes. Every step on this page closes with a message from us, and between those you can simply pick up the phone. Nothing to log into, no ticket number going stale in a queue.
And if nothing comes back?
On most jobs a failed attempt is not charged for. Where another lab stands a better chance, we will point you at them, and if the data has genuinely gone we will tell you that rather than string it out.
Who has my drive in their hands?
Our own engineers, on our own bench. No work is farmed out, nothing is sent abroad, and a single case number stays with the device from arrival through to its return.
What becomes of the copies you took?
Working images are kept for thirty days once your files have gone back, in case you want a second look at something. After that they are wiped for good and nothing remains.
The first move is yours.
A call or the form opens a case. The first stage costs nothing and ties you to nothing.