Montrose has a working port and a lot of businesses supporting it, and none of them can afford a week of guessing about a dead drive. Post it tracked, get it read on real equipment, get one price in writing.
Montrose jobs are diagnosed free. One fixed figure in writing before any work, and no fix no fee on the bulk of recoveries.
DD10 sits between the Angus farmland and the North Sea and the parcels reflect both. Port and marine support firms, offshore and decommissioning contractors working out of the harbour, and the engineering and logistics businesses behind them, all carrying job files, survey data and compliance records. Agricultural and seed businesses inland. Manufacturing and laboratory data off the industrial estates. Small professional practices and hospitality along the High Street and the front. Then the ordinary run of household drives and camera cards, including a steady supply from the people who photograph the Basin and its geese every winter.
Failures come in four flavours, and knowing which you have decides what to do next. Noise — a click, a tick, a beep — is mechanical, and the correct action is to unplug it and leave it unplugged. Silence with power but no detection is usually firmware, service area or board, and needs equipment that speaks to the drive underneath the USB interface. A volume that mounts but reads RAW, empty or unformatted is a file system fault and very often a complete recovery. An SSD that disappeared without warning has generally lost its mapping rather than its contents. Not one of the four is improved by pointing repair utilities at it.
Send the bare drive or SSD tracked and insured from Montrose and it reaches the bench the following working day. Use the firm's own courier if that is easier — that booking and that charge stay yours. Or hand it in at the counter yourself: Edinburgh Data Recovery, 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, straight down the A90. Nothing is ever picked up from a customer on this site, so there is nothing to arrange beyond a label.
Charges are set before the work rather than after it. Diagnosis is free, wrapped up within 2 working days of arrival, and what comes out is one fixed written figure including VAT. Logical faults are no fix, no fee. Impact, electrical, water and fire damage all take 50% of the quote before the clean-air or board stage, with the remainder owed only on success. Ransomware, CCTV and DVR recorders and BitLocker volumes are forensic-classed and paid in full at the start; paying a ransom is no part of the service. Phones and tablets are not accepted, and storage soldered to a motherboard cannot be taken. Ferryden, Hillside, Brechin, Edzell, Inverbervie, Friockheim and the Angus coast use the same footing, as does anywhere else in Scotland. Freephone 0800 689 0668.
Nearly everything on this bench came by tracked, insured post. It is the safest way to shift a failing drive, and a parcel handed in at a North-East post office is usually here the next working day.
Still bolted into a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR box? Get the hard drive or SSD out first. The bare drive travels on its own. Stripping machines down is not a job this lab takes on. Flash soldered to a motherboard, as on Apple Silicon Macs and a couple of very thin laptops, is our one flat no: if it will not unbolt, it cannot be worked on.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Address it for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. From Aberdeen that is roughly 130 miles and two and a half hours down the A90, or next working day by tracked post if you would rather not make the run. You get a call the moment it is booked onto the bench.
Not sure what belongs in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you tape it shut, or work through the free online diagnostic.
Free diagnosis, the figure written down, no fix no fee on most jobs. Online or on the phone.