We offer a free 48-hour diagnostic, a single fixed price agreed in writing prior to opening anything, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Essex is the most economically diverse county we cover: science and pharma on the M11 corridor, law and administration at Chelmsford, university and garrison at Colchester, and manufacturing and distribution on the Thames side.
South of us is Essex along the M11. Saffron Walden is a 30-minute journey. Chelmsford is an hour's journey. The Thames corridor is beyond that. Both post and drop-off options are available depending upon which part of the county you are located in.
Covering Chelmsford, Colchester, Harlow and the rest of the county.
South of us is Essex along the M11. Saffron Walden is a 30-minute journey. Chelmsford is an hour's journey. The Thames corridor is beyond that. Both post and drop-off options are available depending upon which part of the county you are located in.
We find that Essex has the greatest diversity of economy of all the counties we currently serve. The M11 corridor (at the northern end of the county) is primarily home to science and pharmaceuticals. Chelmsford is home to the legal and administrative sectors. On the other hand, Colchester has a university, a military garrison and a coastline. And lastly, the land on the River Thames is primarily used for manufacturing and distribution. Each sector produces a different type of data loss problem, and therefore each requires a corresponding level of handling. For example, forensic documentation matters in Chelmsford, whereas security handling matters in Colchester, in ways they do not elsewhere.
The most economically diverse county we cover is also where the variety of economic activity is greatest: science and pharmaceuticals along the M11 corridor, legal and administrative activities in Chelmsford, university and military/garrison-based activities in Colchester, and manufacturing and distribution on the Thames side.
Drawn directly from what has been done, not from some sort of capabilities list.
Data related to pharmaceuticals and laboratories from the M11 corridor, legal/disclosure materials from Chelmsford, research and defence-adjacent work from Colchester, and manufacturing and logistics systems from the Thames side.
Before you do anything else. Handling requirements will vary enormously within this county. If your project includes any (disclosure, security, pharmaceutical validations), please raise those early and well before the media moves.
In addition to that, we also receive many examples of standard day-to-day household computer problems, which occur within every community, such as laptops that won’t start again, external drives containing your family photos, and memory cards formatted by mistake on one of your cameras. The cost for these items ranges from £250 to £300 plus VAT, and they are often amongst the fastest services we provide. Business and array work from Essex and throughout Cambridgeshire begins at £500 plus VAT.
It makes no difference if you hand-deliver the item or send it via courier.
First get a quote either by using our form or by phoning us. We will then ask you to deliver your drive to Compass House, Vision Park, Cambridge CB24 9AD, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm, without needing an appointment. Alternatively you may post the drive insured from Essex. Only send the drive, as we don't accept complete laptops, PCs or Macs.
Whether the fault is classified as mechanical, electronic, firmware or logical will determine the route for repair, cost and real probability of success.
There is one number agreed prior to opening up the device. The number never changes after that. Instead, if there is software available to accomplish this task, or if nothing can be salvaged, then you will hear this.
Imaged read-only, rebuilt using the image, checked by accessing files rather than counting them, and copied to new media and delivered via free shipping back to Essex.
This will cost us the job. This is still the correct choice. We get every one of these via telephone most weeks.
The drive still mounts and reads. You should back up your files from that drive yourself, the critical information first, and then cease use of the drive entirely. The only thing that a laboratory brings to a working drive is its price tag.
The files are in a backup you forgot about. Some examples include: cloud version history; Time Machine; Previous Versions; a copy sent via email to someone else. A meaningful share of our enquiries resolve to a forgotten backup in 5 minutes, for nothing.
A recent deletion from a healthy drive. If you install reputable read-only software to a different drive, it will often do the job at a small percentage of what we normally charge.
Your BitLocker key exists after all. At work, your IT department has almost certainly stored your BitLocker encryption keys within Azure AD or Microsoft Intune. One question will answer more of these than anything we can do technically.
Get a quote first. This can be done by phone or with our online form. Send the device to us with a brief account of what happened to it. The diagnostic is cost-free and obliges you to nothing. The figure that follows will then be fixed in writing before anything is opened.
Once you have a quote, nothing else can be done until the device is on the workbench. As such, this is the only step that needs anything from you. Pack it properly, add your details and post/deliver it with no appointment required. All that follows is a free diagnostic and a written quotation price, in that order.
Using postal services? Please use a method that has tracking and insurance; the value of what is on the drive far outweighs the cost of postage. If bringing in personally, please bring this item Monday to Friday, from 9am until 5:30pm without requiring an appointment, but again, please pack items carefully for transport.
Please provide information about the unit including what it is doing and any troubleshooting performed prior to contacting us. An engineer will then contact you to outline their professional assessment of the prospects along with a price range prior to you sending anything.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01223 655015.
Get a price first, via phone or using the form, and then take your drive to Compass House, Vision Park, Cambridge CB24 9AD from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5:30pm. There are no appointments required. We also offer free return postage whether you choose to send your drive by post (insured) or to drop it off locally.
We will provide the price band immediately: the listed costs begin at £250 plus VAT for card data and £300 for a single drive. The exact cost is fixed in writing after the initial 48-hour complimentary diagnostic, and this cost will not change.
Switch it off immediately and leave it off. Clicking means the heads cannot find their servo data, and every time you turn it back on again there is an increased risk of damaging the hard disk drive surfaces. The length of time it was running after its first audible click will have a greater effect on recovery success than anything else we can do.
We do, regularly. We use NDAs by default, one named point of contact from diagnostic through to delivery, invoice established firms instead of using credit/debit cards, and provide a detailed report describing what failed (for audit and insurance purposes).
Our pricing starts at £250 plus VAT for cards and USB drives, then from £300 plus VAT for a single drive, or for laptops and Macs equipped with removable storage, with £550 plus VAT being our flat price for a Fusion Drive. Our prices for RAID, NAS and server systems start from £500 plus VAT; each quote is made in writing after we complete your complimentary 48-hour diagnostic.
It's rare, but possible with a logical error on good hardware dropped off early. We cannot compress a physical recovery that far: although priority treatment puts you ahead of everyone else in line, it does nothing to speed up how quickly your bad drive reads.
The diagnostic is free, and in the majority of situations you only pay if we recover your data. Our laboratory located in Cambridge can be reached by car, which allows you to avoid having to use courier services to get your item(s) to us. Get a quotation and then either bring your item(s) into us or post them to us using postal insurance. Both ways will begin in the same manner.