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RDR / What we take in / Fujitsu laptop recovery

Business laptops · LIFEBOOK, CELSIUS, ESPRIMO

Fujitsu laptop recovery in Reading. A worn disk, not a worn-out machine: send the drive, keep the laptop.

£300 + VAT covers one drive, and the cost of looking at it first is zero; on a Fujitsu, that is nearly always the whole job. These are business machines purchased for long-term use, and they continue to be used beyond anyone's expectations: LIFEBOOK laptops still carrying a practice's correspondence and accounts, CELSIUS workstations holding drawings and models, ESPRIMO desktops in the corner of a stockroom. Four reasons bring them to us: a 2.5in disk worn out by hours of use, an M.2 SSD whose controller has stopped answering, a hard-disk password set in the BIOS years ago, and a lost BitLocker key. Which of the four is affecting your drive decides both the work and the price, so we settle that before naming any figure. Parcels arrive from Reading, and from Theale, Earley, Caversham, Newbury and Didcot.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs The diagnosis is free; then one fixed figure in writing Parcels arrive from Newbury, Woodley and Theale

An engineer answers, and looking is free
0800 6890668

Match the Fujitsu symptom to the fault.

Different fault? Begin at the triage →
What you are seeingWhat is likely wrongWhat happens next
The Fujitsu logo is displayed and that is where things endThe disk can no longer read the files it starts from. Generally your documents remain intactGet a quote, then send the drive
A tick or a gentle knock from a LIFEBOOKThe heads on a worn 2.5in disk are starting to failSwitch it off and leave it off
The BIOS asks for a hard-disk passwordA lock programmed into the drive's own firmware, not into WindowsTell us before you post it
An M.2 SSD missing from the BIOSThe controller is not responding. Typically the flash behind it is still goodGet a quote, then send the card by itself
BitLocker is asking for forty-eight digitsThe volume really is encrypted and wants its keyLocate the key before you post
A Windows repair has started by itselfEach repair pass writes back to a drive which is already failingStop it, and ring us
Packing and posting: first, get a quote, either by telephone or using the form. Next, make sure your package is packed securely so that nothing inside can shift during transit. Put a declared value on the parcel that reflects the data and not the hardware, and post it tracked and insured to the Oxford intake lab. You may also drop it off there yourself, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm; no appointment needed. We cover the cost of the return journey. If you wish to talk the packing over with an engineer before sealing the box, ring first. A detailed breakdown of every step is on the packing and postage page.

Four ways a Fujitsu stops, and what each one costs you.

LIFEBOOK, the office workhorseThis is the range that arrives most often, and why you are reading this page. Practices, surveyors and small firms bought them because they were designed to be easily opened up and fixed, then used them for ten years. Both the older machines (with a 2.5in SATA disk) and the newer ones (with an M.2 card) have the drive come out from underneath a single panel on the underside.
CELSIUS mobile workstationsThe heavier machines, used by people who model, draw or measure for a living. These machines store much more data, which means larger files, and the owners don't normally have a second copy of a point cloud or a central model. Where one of these comes in, the job is usually about size and time rather than difficulty.
ESPRIMO desktops, and AmiloThe tower and small-form-factor machines sitting under a counter running the stock system, plus the old Amilo laptops from the Fujitsu Siemens days. Ordinary SATA disks in both, ordinary work on the bench, and the machine itself never has to travel.
Locks, and what they actually meanFujitsu has offered a hard-disk password at BIOS level for many years, and many of these systems have been locked with a password that was long forgotten. The lock is stored within the drive's firmware rather than in Windows. BitLocker sits above all of it and wants its key. Neither is a reason not to call, and both are resolved honestly as part of the free look, before any price is agreed.

From your parcel to your files coming back.

01

Logged the day it lands, and the look costs nothing Free

A case number is assigned to your device when we receive it. An engineer then finds the real fault (free) before anything else occurs; you will be advised clearly of what will be returned and what will not, along with a single written price. Charges cannot begin until you have read this and accepted.

The look costs you nothingA fixed price, in writingStill nothing to pay
02

The drive leaves the laptop first

Nobody here powers a machine back up in the hope of a better outcome with the next boot. The drive (a 2.5in disk on the older Fujitsus, an M.2 card on the newer ones) is removed and connected to a write-blocked port. That settles the only relevant question at this point: was it the laptop, or the drive? If the laptop was the problem, the work simply becomes a plain copy, and that is charged well below the cost of a recovery.

Read on a write-blocked portLaptop or drive, told apart
03

Copied before anything is repaired

Every later step works against the image, not against what you actually posted. Where the heads have gone on a worn 2.5in disk, a donor stack goes in, matched for model and production batch. An M.2 card that becomes unstable when it warms up gets brief runs, each with a rest to let it cool down. The most difficult ground is saved for last.

Donor heads for worn 2.5in disksM.2 cards read cold, in bursts
04

Opened here before it goes back

Nothing goes back on our word alone. Everything that comes off is opened here on the bench: documents, spreadsheets, mailboxes, drawings. The folder structure is compared against the description you gave over the phone, and the files you told us were most important are opened right through, not ticked off a list.

Files opened, not merely talliedThe folders you flagged come first
05

The list first, then the bill, then the files

You look at the file list first and make a decision about what to do. We will never invoice anything until you have said yes, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. All of the information that we recover will be put on new media purchased by us specifically for this job, and our company pays the cost of postage back to you. The case stays open on the bench until you tell us the files open on your own machine.

Nothing billed until you say yesNew media, bought for the jobPostage home is on us

What goes wrong most often

  • The logo screen accuses nobody: it simply tells you that the machine could not read what it starts from. A worn disk, a damaged Windows installation or even a drive connector shaken loose in a bag will display the same picture, and only reading the disk tells them apart.
  • Business machines carry the only copy more often than home ones do: a LIFEBOOK used by a small office will usually have long outlived whatever backup was arranged for it, and the client files, email archive and accounts are all stored on the same drive. This is what we see most weeks, and it is ordinary work when the machine has been left powered down.
  • Fujitsu locks are real locks: a BIOS-level hard-disk password is stored in the drive's own firmware and is not a Windows setting someone can clear from the desktop. Neither is BitLocker. Both are answered honestly at the diagnosis, before you have anything to pay, as neither is something a lab can talk its way round.
  • An M.2 card is not the same job as a disk: when the controller has stopped responding, there are no heads to replace and no platters to read, so the work happens at the card's own controller, and what can be reached is settled at the free look rather than promised beforehand. Tell us the model number and the capacity of your card and we'll tell you which of the two you are holding.

Where this one stops: there are two hard edges here, and no lab argues either of them away. An encrypted volume will remain encrypted without its password or recovery key, here and at every lab, regardless of what any lab advertises. And the tracks on a platter damaged by a failing head cannot be retrieved; nothing recovers what is no longer on the surface. Overwriting is the same story: re-installing your operating system and then using the computer normally for a few weeks takes part of it permanently. Both of these things are said plainly while the work is still free. We take no phones and no tablets, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.

How one of these actually went.

RG · RDG-2026-2001ON FILE ✓

A LIFEBOOK that had been slowing for a year, then stopped at the logo

A consultant in Caversham had nine years of client work stored on a LIFEBOOK. The firm's IT staff did not know about it. For almost a year things took an increasingly long time to open, and then it stopped at the logo and stayed there. The 2.5in disk was removed and connected to a write-blocked port, where it could be read, slowly, with one band near the middle of the disk unable to read at speed. This band was left until everything else was safely copied, then taken in short passes over two nights. Each folder was opened on the bench before anything was sent home. The correspondence was opened first, followed by the working files, as these were the ones the client named on the phone.

Every single folder opened before it leftThe full disk copied first of all

What helps, and what makes it worse.

First things to do

  • Turn it off right now and let it stay that way
  • Say exactly what the screen is showing
  • Tell us if there is a BIOS or disk password
  • Get a quote, then post the drive to us on its own, in an antistatic bag

What makes it worse

  • One additional restart, in the hope that this time it catches
  • Installing Windows again on that same disk
  • Running a repair pass across a dying drive
  • Saving anything new onto the failing disk

Answers before you commit to anything.

It stops at the Fujitsu logo. Does that mean the disk has failed?

Often, though not always, and they may appear very much alike while you're sitting at your desk. A machine that cannot get past its own logo has failed to read the files it starts from; this is true for all three (a worn disk, a damaged Windows installation and a drive connector shaken loose in a bag). Instead of restarting it a dozen times, leave it switched off. Each time you try to boot the computer it reads the same weak spot over and over. Get a quote first, then post the drive by itself, and the free look tells the three apart within minutes.

The BIOS is asking for a hard-disk password nobody set.

Then the drive contains a lock built into its own firmware. Fujitsu has offered this option on their machines for many years now, and it is not to be confused with a Windows password. It prevents the drive from even responding to a standard port until it is resolved. Tell us before you post it, because it decides what the free look has to establish first. If the machine came from a previous employer or an office IT department, ask them: that is probably where you will find the answer.

BitLocker wants forty-eight digits and nobody has them.

Then the volume will remain closed, here and at every other lab, since BitLocker is real encryption, behaving exactly as someone once instructed it to. There are many places where the recovery key may still exist: within a Microsoft account, in an office's directory records, on a memory stick, or printed and filed by whoever configured the machine. Search those locations first. A locked volume can be imaged and the copy safely stored while you search. All of that is said while the work remains free.

Do you need the laptop, or only the drive?

The drive. Get a quote first, by phone or with the form. Most LIFEBOOK laptops have just one panel and a few screws underneath to remove, and the 2.5in disk or M.2 card will slide straight out. This then goes into an antistatic bag in a padded box, with nothing else, for posting. Posting the whole laptop is more expensive than the drive itself, more likely to suffer damage in transit, and gains you nothing. There is no collection, so post it tracked and fully insured to the Oxford intake lab, or drop it off there Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed.

If this sounds like yours, start here.

Servers that will not boot → RAID 1 mirrors → When ransomware has the files → Every device we handle →

Nothing gets worse while it sits switched off.

There is no charge for the look. You then receive a list of the files that opened, those that did not, and a fixed amount to complete the job. Keep it switched off until you have received that in writing.

0800 6890668

Get it looked at Posting it to Oxford