OX11 and the campuses · Didcot
Didcot data recovery. Beamline output, sequencing runs, three years of results, all on one external drive.
The failures we receive from OX11 are not the national facilities' own storage. They are researchers' laptops, personal external drives, a group NAS that was never registered by IT, instrument PCs running acquisition software that nobody dares patch, and the machines of spin-outs and contractors working on the campuses. Harwell Campus, near Didcot, puts its own numbers at more than 7,500 scientists, engineers and innovators across over 250 organisations. These include Diamond Light Source, the ISIS neutron and muon source and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well as the National Satellite Test Facility and the National Quantum Computing Centre. Culham, also near Didcot, adds fusion. Milton Park, also near Didcot, counts around 250 to 280 organisations and roughly 9,000 people on the park's own figures, and sends us files from engineering simulation software, semiconductor project data, stock-image catalogues, and book distribution and warehouse systems. Didcot itself had 32,183 residents at the 2021 census and continues to expand, and a hyperscale data-centre campus is now consented here too. Get a quote first, then post the drive tracked to our Oxford intake lab. Diagnosis is free.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
0800 6890668
What OX11 sends in.
Different fault? Begin at the triage →| What you are seeing | Why it lands on our bench | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| A researcher's laptop that can't get past the manufacturer's logo screen | Three years of results, and the copy on this laptop is the only one | Leave the laptop off and post the drive alone |
| An instrument PC that stops before the acquisition software starts | Validated kit that no one dares update, with the output saved locally | Send the disk; let the instrument stay in its position |
| A group NAS nobody in the IT department knew about | A team bought it, set it up once, and never checked it again | Power it off; send the disks, labelled by bay, if they come out, or else the entire unit |
| An external drive of image sets that is currently clicking | Catalogue photography and scans that took months to create | Remove the power immediately: every additional minute will cost you |
| A warehouse server that failed in the middle of a rebuild | Stock, despatch and proof-of-delivery records are stored behind it | Turn off the power, label the disks by their bays, and post them |
Four things to get right before you post it.
What OX11 asks.
Is there anywhere in Didcot to drop it in?
There is no counter in Didcot, and none in Reading either, because everything a job needs (imaging hardware, donor stock and the bench itself) sits within the same building, which is why the drive makes the trip rather than you. That is the Oxford intake lab, and its address is listed on the shipping form. Get a quote first, then post it there tracked and insured, or drop it off, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed; as soon as it arrives it will be opened and assessed at no cost. Postage home is at our expense.
How soon does a drive posted from OX11 come back?
Send it in on a working day, and an engineer will usually have it in front of them the next morning. That inspection is free, and the price that follows comes in writing as one single figure. Most file-system and deleted-file recovery can usually be completed within two working days. Mechanical faults take longer, because matching donor parts have to be found before the actual repair. You will be told which type of problem you have at the very start of the process, never part way through.
The results are on an instrument PC that has stopped. What now?
Pull the power and stop there. Repair utilities will often make things worse, and reinstalling over a failing disk could finish it off before the recovery even starts. A read-only image is first taken from the drive, the recovery is attempted against that image, and your original disk goes home in the same condition as when it arrived. If particular files are needed by a specific date, name those files and they will be given priority above everything else.
There is a NAS in the office. How do we send it?
Call 0800 6890668 before you even touch it. A NAS sends its disks, each labelled with the bay it came from, if they come out; if they don't, it travels whole in its own case. Servers and RAID sets go the opposite way: remove the disks and label each with the bay it was removed from, so the correct order survives the journey. The member that dropped out first should also be included, only bare drives should be sent, and nothing should begin rebuilding while the box is in transit.
Start here if Didcot sent you this.
Next door to Didcot, on the same terms
Get a quote first, then post it from Didcot and the work starts on arrival.
Power it down and leave it alone. Tell us what the drive was doing at the moment it stopped; this is usually the most helpful information we can receive. Diagnosis is free, the figure reaches you in writing, and we will not begin work unless you agree to it.