The bench · from first call to files
Seven stages, and two of them are your decision.
These are seven steps in sequence every time, whatever you send in. The first step is a phone call and the last is you opening what came back from us and confirming it is right. Below are those seven steps, and the two points during this process when the decision is yours alone.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
0800 6890668
The steps, one after another.
Begin with a call
Phone, or fill in the quote form. At this point there are two important things we need to know: what exactly was the device doing when it stopped working? And which folders do you really need recovered? We'll give you an honest assessment of the chances and exact packing instructions before the box is sealed.
Getting it to the bench
The intake lab is at Oxford Science Park, and the full address is on the contact page. Once you've got a quote, send it by tracked and insured post with the printed form in the box. If you prefer to deliver it in person, take it to the Oxford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed. The drives are removed from laptops, desktops and recorders before they are sent. All the disks from a NAS are sent, each labelled with its bay, if they come out; only if they won't does the NAS travel whole. The disks out of a RAID set or a server go loose, marked by bay.
Logged the day it lands, and the look costs nothing Free
First the box gets opened, and the parcel gets its own reference number. After that comes the bench time: which part has failed? What are the realistic chances of getting your files off? How many hours will it take?
Your call to make
You get one written figure, and it holds. Once you approve it, the work begins. If you refuse it, everything comes back to you (the findings included) and you don't pay anything. Either way, the diagnosis was free.
Work at the bench
Repair waits for a full sector-by-sector copy to be made onto storage of our own. All donor head swaps, firmware repairs, unlocking and array rebuilds are done using this copy, so what you posted is left exactly as it arrived.
You review the list
Before any invoice exists, we send you the complete list of what was recovered, so you can check it against the folders you named over the phone.
Back to you by post
Anything recovered is put onto media we supply, and we pay the postage. After thirty days our working copies are securely erased. We keep your case open until you confirm the contents are right.
How long, fault by fault.
| Nature of the fault | How it is tackled | Working days needed |
|---|---|---|
| Logical faults: deletions, reformats, corruption | Filesystem rebuilt off the image copy | 2–3 business days |
| Mechanical faults: ticking, knocking, silence | Donor parts matched, then a careful image | three to five working days |
| Multi-drive: RAID, NAS and servers | Every disk imaged, array rebuilt in software | four to six working days |
| Encrypted volumes and evidence work | Scope agreed first, and the timing along with it | Stated in your quote |
| A real emergency | Businesses that cannot trade, or with a court or audit date already in the diary, take priority | Flag it when you ring |
What to send in the box.
The questions that come first.
Will I hear from you while the work is going on?
Yes. We send a message when we've completed each of the stages outlined below. If you're wondering in between, please call us: an engineer will answer, so nothing is left as a ticket in some unread queue.
And if the files are truly gone?
You're given a clear answer once, rather than being strung along for weeks at a time. When your files have truly gone, that's what you'll be told. If another lab would stand a better chance, you will be given its name and phone number. And in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Who actually handles the drive?
Our own engineers. They work at our bench within the intake lab. We don't use subcontractors and we never send anything overseas. As soon as we open the parcel we assign it a case number, and it follows the device through until it arrives back with you.
How long do you keep the copies?
Thirty days from when your files reach you, allowing time to spot an omission that may need another look. The working images are then securely erased and none of your data is kept by us.
One phone call starts it.
Call us or complete our online form to open a case. The diagnosis is free of charge and commits you to nothing.