Three questions: What is this device? Who built it? What is it doing? Back comes an engineer's readout: likely fault; the one thing worth doing before anything else; realistic timeframe for fixing. Leave your phone number and an engineer confirms the information.
Free answer, with nothing to pay here or at the laboratory. We charge money only after you agree to a fixed quote for the recovery work, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Your actual figure will be provided to you in writing after our free diagnostic is completed. No money is due at all for this service. For logical recovery scenarios (deleted, formatted or corrupted files), in most cases you only pay if we recover your data; however, drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work, so a deposit of 50% of the quoted amount is due upfront, and each term will be clearly stated in writing before a case is opened.
Post to: Edinburgh Data Recovery, 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ — marked for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. Paperwork: ↓ shipping form (PDF) · ↓ terms & conditions (PDF)
Leave your contact information and an engineer will call back to detail the next step and provide an honest assessment as to the chances of a successful outcome. No payment will be made by you, and no assumption will be made by us about further work.
An engineer reads it himself and gets back to you shortly. Packing the device now? The address is 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ, marked for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery.
Would rather speak to someone about this issue? Phone 0800 689 0668, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Describing the problem over the phone can be just as effective.
Three bands which are fixed take in almost every piece of equipment that arrives at our laboratory. The hardware and the fault set the number; how bad your week has been does not come into it. A single written number is provided by the free diagnostic, and on logical recovery jobs, in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Invasive work is required with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, therefore 50% of the quoted amount will need to be paid upfront (see detail below).
Pen drives and memory cards, SD and microSD through to CompactFlash.
One hard drive or solid state drive out of a laptop, tower or Mac. Internal or external.
Arrays, NAS boxes and server devices; each disk is imaged and the cost is based upon quantity.
A CCTV/DVR recorder drive is a fixed £400 + VAT, and a standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT, 100% paid upfront; larger case scopes will be written up and quoted in writing. For logical recoveries, in most cases you only pay if we recover your data: deleted files, formats or corrupted data, or a working hard drive that the system cannot see. The above does not apply to drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage; these require invasive repairs, e.g. a new PCB or controller, head/motor repair, NAND chip-off or firmware/service-area access, therefore 50% of the quoted price must be paid upfront for the required donor parts and laboratory time. Any work at the extreme end of recovery (e.g. a burned out board, media completely snapped clean in two, a rebuild requiring an entire shelf of disks) will exceed those prices. All figures will be clearly stated in writing at completion of the diagnostic, prior to any work commencing.
Your device is given a comprehensive inspection by an engineer, not five minutes with a downloaded scanner. Within 2 working days, these six questions are answered:
Electronic systems are examined first. The PCB, bridge chip and power rail sections are checked using a meter and before attempting anything else, the drive's unique read-only memory (ROM) is saved.
All components of the head stack, spindle motor and platters' surface condition are inspected prior to asking for even one difficult read from the disk.
Both service area and translators are evaluated using the PC-3000. Faults at this level cannot be identified by any software that may have been downloaded.
A controlled read of the disk (platter or flash) is done on lab-grade imaging equipment. This determines which areas of the disk or flash will provide data in any form.
The contents of the volume are then documented; i.e., which parts survived, which parts are damaged, and which of your original folders will be restored.
There is only one price charged for recovering your data. Based upon our findings, you either accept it or reject it. In either case, no money is owed.
Get a quote first by telephone or use our free online diagnostic. Most of what you see on this bench will then be delivered via tracked, insured post. This is one of the safest ways to move a failing drive and packages handed in at a North-East post office are normally delivered here the next working day.
Still attached to a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV/DVR unit? Remove the hard drive or SSD first. The bare drive travels on its own; when removing disks from a server remove all the disks and label each disk by its bay. This lab does not take machines apart. Any storage that has been soldered onto a motherboard (as in T2 and Apple Silicon Macs and a couple of thin laptops) will not be worked on: if it will not unbolt, we cannot work on it. If you're not sure what type of machine you have, ring us first. Phones and tablets are also not taken on.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Your parcel should be addressed to Edinburgh Data Recovery, approximately two and a half hours (and 130 miles) from Aberdeen via the A90; alternatively it can reach us the next working day by tracked post if this journey time / distance is prohibitive to travel. As soon as your drive has been scheduled in we will contact you.
Still unsure about what should be placed inside of the packaging? Please call us first on 0800 689 0668, or use our free online diagnostic tool to assist you in deciding which items belong inside of the packaging before sealing.
First ring us to receive a quote, then carefully pack the item. Place a slip with your name and phone number into the box. Post it tracked, or drop it off personally at the Edinburgh laboratory (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed).