Our server has failed — what do we do first?

Power it down and leave the disks in their bays. Don’t let a rebuild run, don’t re-create the array, and don’t restore over the original volume until the data is secured. Most of the damage we see was done in the first hour.

Do you sign NDAs and invoice businesses?

Both, as standard. NDAs signed as a matter of course, work through a single named contact, data kept in the UK, and established businesses invoiced rather than paying up front with PO references carried through.

Can you recover databases so they actually mount?

Yes — that is the distinction that matters. A byte-perfect file can still refuse to attach if captured mid-transaction or holding damaged pages, so databases are checked for structural consistency and affected objects reported by name.

How quickly can a business system be turned around?

The diagnostic is free and normally back within 48 hours. Straightforward array work usually completes in a few working days from approval; donor parts or extensive imaging take longer, and you get the timescale with the quote.

Will you provide something for our insurer?

Yes — a written account of what failed, what was recovered and what was not, written for non-technical readers, which is generally what insurers and boards actually want.

What does business data recovery cost?

From £500 plus VAT for servers, RAID, NAS and databases, from £800 for virtual machines and forensics, from £1,250 for enterprise SAN, and from £300 for a single workstation drive. Free 48-hour diagnostic and a fixed written quote before any work, with most jobs handled no fix, no fee.

Business · Cambridge

Business recovery, with the commercial side handled too.

Name: Cambridge Data Recovery
Address: Compass House, Vision Park, Cambridge, CB24 9AD, GB
Telephone: +441223655015
Price range: £££

When storage fails in a business the cost is rarely the recovery — it is the days spent unable to trade. We take servers, arrays, NAS units and workstations from firms across Cambridgeshire, with a named contact from the diagnostic through to handover, invoicing rather than payment up front, and out-of-hours collection where a room full of people is waiting on it.

Start a free diagnostic → 01223 655015

Free 48-hour diagnostic

Handled in-house

No fix, no fee · most jobs

// in short

Trading again, as quickly as the hardware allows.

Servers, RAID sets, NAS units and virtual machines — every member imaged read-only and rebuilt away from the controller that failed, by our own engineers, in the UK.

In-house

Never outsourced

NDA

& chain of custody

Invoicing

PO & 30-day terms

Priority

Business-critical

// what actually stops a business

It is rarely one laptop.

The jobs that halt an operation share a shape, and it is worth recognising before it happens to you.

What failedWhy it stops everythingTypical source

The array under the file serverEvery user, at once One RAID holding the whole shared drive. Nobody can work, and the backup frequently wrote to a share on the same array. Most common

The virtual hostSix machines from one failure Domain controller, file server, application server and test estate all as guests on one box. There is no fallback because the fallback was also a guest. Science parks

The line or warehouse systemMoney per hour, not per day Stock, dispatch and process control. An operation that cannot see its inventory is losing money continuously rather than on a deadline. A14 corridor

The one machine holding everythingA whole business on one disk Sole practitioners and small firms where accounts, correspondence and client files live on a single laptop with no server behind it. Market towns

// the commercial side

What matters to a business that does not matter to a household.

01 / ONE NAMED CONTACT

Diagnostic to delivery

The same engineer throughout, reachable directly, so you are not re-explaining the situation to whoever answers. On array work this matters considerably.

02 / WRITTEN ACCOUNT

For insurers and auditors

A technical statement of what failed, what was affected and what was recovered, in a form insurers and regulators accept. Included rather than extra.

03 / NDA AS STANDARD

Signed before media arrives

Confidentiality terms are routine rather than a special request, and we will work to yours rather than insisting on ours.

04 / INVOICING, NOT CARD

Terms for established firms

Purchase orders raised before work begins and invoicing on account, so procurement is not the thing delaying the recovery.

// what it costs a business

and what the downtime costs.

Array and server recovery starts at £500 +VAT, fixed in writing after the free 48-hour diagnostic. Priority handling is available as a surcharge, quoted at the same point, and we will tell you honestly whether it will make a material difference to your deadline.

The calculation worth doing is not the fee against the data. It is the fee against the cost of the hours you are not trading. On the A14 distribution jobs in particular, that arithmetic usually answers itself within the first morning.

// questions

Business recovery, answered.

Ring rather than emailing. Tell us the platform, the disk count and which system has to come back first — partial recovery of the critical database ahead of everything else is frequently possible and gets you trading sooner.

More common than anyone would like, and it is why total loss usually involves a backup decision rather than a hardware one. The array is still recoverable; it is now the only route rather than a convenience.

Yes, and before the equipment arrives. We would rather work to your terms than insist on ours.

A written technical account of what was found, what was affected and what was recovered comes as standard, in a form insurers accept.

No. Work is carried out in-house by our own engineers and data does not leave the UK. A good deal of UK recovery is passed onward, which means more hands and more transit.

Courier collection can be arranged same day for business jobs across the region. Inside about half an hour of Vision Park, driving it in is usually faster.