Ellon is a working town by the River Ythan with a large number of people who commute out to work and a brewery, but hardly any of them keep proper backups. Get a quote first, then post your hard drive to us tracked, or alternatively drop it off at our Edinburgh lab (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). Diagnosis costs nothing and the price is fixed in writing.
Free diagnostic for all Ellon jobs. A single price is agreed in writing prior to any work being carried out, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
AB41 work splits between the commute and the town. Many people in Ellon travel out to Aberdeen, Westhill or Peterhead to go to work, and therefore take laptop computers and portable drives containing project files that are stored in exactly one place. The rest comes from the town: production and quality data from the brewing and food businesses, farm records from the farms throughout Formartine, small practice servers, shop and hospitality till systems, and the golf and holiday trade along the coast at Newburgh and Cruden Bay. Households make up the balance, usually with a single external drive that has been asked to hold all their data since about 2010.
Failure can be predicted, along with what your answer should be. Any drive that produces a click, tick or beep is faulty mechanically and needs to be turned off immediately. If a drive comes on (lights up) but is never seen by the host PC, then there is a fault in the firmware, service area or board of the drive, and it gets read directly on equipment that talks to the drive below the USB layer. If a volume mounts and you see RAW, empty folders, or you get prompted to format it, then this is a file system issue; these are also the most recoverable jobs on the bench, as long as nothing writes to the disk in the meantime. Repair tools, chkdsk and initialise prompts are how recoverable jobs end up as partial ones.
Getting your drive to us is simple. First get a quote using our free online diagnostic or by telephone. Once you have your quote, take the bare drive out where you can (a single external drive comes whole, in its enclosure, with its own cable and power supply), make sure it is well packed so it cannot move, and send it to us tracked and insured by post from Ellon. The next working day it will arrive on the bench at Edinburgh Data Recovery. If you prefer, we are happy for you to use your own courier, and that booking and invoice remain yours. Alternatively, if you would like to visit us in person, the counter is at Edinburgh Data Recovery, 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. Nothing is fetched from Ellon or anywhere else, so there is nothing to wait in for.
The cost for recovery is agreed upon before the work starts, rather than after. A diagnosis is provided at no charge, is completed within 2 working days of receipt and results in a single fixed written quote. On logical faults, in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Impact, electrical, fire and water damage require payment of 50% of the quote before the mechanical or board stage, with the balance charged only if we recover your data. Work classified as forensic (ransomware, CCTV and DVR recorders, BitLocker) is due for payment in full before work begins, and we never pay the ransom on your behalf. Phones, tablets and anything with storage soldered onto a motherboard are not accepted; if you're not sure which kind you have, ring us first. Balmedie, Newburgh, Methlick, Tarves, Pitmedden, Udny and Cruden Bay all post in on identical terms. Call Freephone 0800 689 0668.
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.
Free diagnostics, the quoted figure in writing, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. This service is available online or over the phone.