RG6, Lower Earley and Whiteknights · Earley
Data recovery for Earley. One postcode, three sorts of machine, each carrying the only copy of something.
RG6 sends three completely different types of problem, and they usually arrive within the same week. From the University of Reading's Whiteknights campus (there since 1947, with around 23,000 students from more than 160 countries and over 4,000 staff, and partly located in Earley) come PhD fieldwork on a single external drive with no second copy, and instrument PCs from the science departments. From Thames Valley Park, beside the Thames off the A3290, come encrypted, estate-managed corporate laptops, increasingly used by people whose employer is mid-move: Oracle is looking for new office space in Reading, Microsoft has consolidated into one building, and nobody on the campus knows what will become of it next. From Lower Earley, a very large 1980s estate, comes a wall of family external drives. Suttons Business Park adds the service and light-industrial layer, and from early 2027 the organisation that runs the world's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data will be working from Earley Gate. There is no counter in Earley, so get a quote first, then post it tracked to the Oxford intake lab: the look is free, and one figure in writing follows before any chargeable work begins.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
0800 6890668
What RG6 sends over.
Different fault? Begin at the triage →| What you are seeing | Why it lands on our bench | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| A laptop SSD that the BIOS has stopped listing | An estate-managed machine, encrypted, with work still stored locally | Pull the SSD and send that alone; keep the laptop |
| One external drive containing three years of fieldwork | No backup was ever created, and the submission deadline will not move | Stop using it and post it in; the free look will decide everything else |
| A desktop PC that gets slower month after month | All SMART warnings ignored, until the morning it fails to spin | Copy it off today |
| A lab instrument PC that will not finish booting | Acquisition software no one dared to patch, and all of the output is stored locally | Send us the disk and leave the instrument where you found it |
| A home NAS bought to store the family photos | Set up once, never touched or checked since, and now it won't mount | Power it off; remove the disks and label each with its bay if they come out, otherwise send the entire NAS |
From an RG6 counter to the bench.
Four things Earley asks.
There is client and research data on it. Is the post safe?
Yes. Only a case number goes on the job, not your name. The engineer accesses only the data necessary for the recovery, and all other data remains untouched. Any working copies still here are deleted thirty days after your drive goes home, and nothing recovered will reach anybody outside the lab. The privacy policy sets all that out.
What is the turnaround from Earley?
An engineer will normally have your drive the morning after you post it or drop it off at the Oxford intake lab, and the written figure will follow shortly. If you agree to it, most logical faults will be completed inside two working days. Any work that is waiting on donor parts (for example, a seized motor or a multi-disk set) takes longer, but you will be told which of these you are dealing with before you commit to anything.
What paperwork comes with it?
Everything is as per the quote, with nothing added on top. The price stays the same in writing throughout. You go through the list of what was recovered and sign it off before anything is paid, and you will receive an itemised VAT invoice. Where we have to open your drive, you pay 50% up front, which is clearly stated in the quote.
Could I take it to the lab myself?
You can: get a quote first, then drop it off at the Oxford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed. Exactly where is on the shipping form. In reality, sending a parcel by tracked, insured post will do just as well, with much less hassle, and the parcel is opened the working morning after it arrives. Return postage is ours either way.
Closest to what Earley describes.
Next door to Earley, on the same terms
Get a quote first, then send it from Earley and see the figure before you commit.
Leave the machine switched off; that alone protects what is still readable. After that, tell us the story of how it went wrong: what it was doing when it failed. There is no charge for the examination. The price is set out clearly in writing, and you accept it before a billable hour is spent.