A free 48-hour diagnostic, one fixed price agreed in writing before anything is opened, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. A small town on the A10 at the edge of the Cambridge technology corridor with a pharmaceutical presence and a scattered grouping of small engineering and technical firms.
It is approximately 28 minutes and 16 miles from our bench to Royston. Drop it off yourself or send it to us via post.
Covering Melbourn, Barley, Bassingbourn and the wider Hertfordshire area.
Sixteen miles south-west on the A10, under half an hour. Easy drive and simple drop-off.
Royston sits at the edge of the Cambridge science corridor but outside of it. Hence the overspill: smaller technical and engineering companies, some pharmaceutical firms, and commuters working in either Cambridge or London. The recovery work involves smaller technical jobs: design and development data, test results and machines from truly technically sophisticated product-based companies who have no storage arrangement skills.
This small town is located on the A10 at the border of the Cambridge technology corridor and has a pharmaceutical presence as well as a scattering of smaller engineering and technical companies.
Drawn directly from what has been done, not from some sort of capabilities list.
Small engineering and technical companies. Design, development and testing data; laboratory-generated data; engineering archives. The commonality here is a firm that clearly understands their own technology but has never thought about where their data sits.
Before you do anything else. If this equipment is used for development or testing purposes, determine if there are any items in version control prior to concluding that all of your data will be lost. Sometimes there is less to lose than initially believed.
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 Royston 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 Royston. 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 Royston.
None of these things are meant to aid in the sale process. All four of these occur most weeks; receiving this information before travelling saves time.
The drive still mounts and reads. You can copy that data off this afternoon. Get the most important stuff copied first and then don't use the disk any more. A lab adds nothing to a disk you can still mount.
It is a virtual machine and the base disk is intact. When you see an apparent complete disaster due to a snapshot problem, things often aren't as bad as they appear. Before assuming the worst, check if your original base VMDK or VHDX is readable. Frequently, it is.
A recent deletion from a healthy drive. Read-only software installed on a different drive will often work with this. We'll also let you know which read-only tools are worth your time.
Your BitLocker key is with IT. On corporate machines, your BitLocker keys are almost certainly in either Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) or Intune. One question resolves more of these than any technical solutions we offer.
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.
Obtain a quote (phone call or quote form) and then bring it to Compass House, Vision Park, Cambridge CB24 9AD, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5:30pm. No appointment needed. It takes approximately 28 minutes travelling from our location to yours (approximately 16 miles) using the A10. Alternatively, you can post it insured and we will cover return postage either way.
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.
There is no cost for diagnosis. In most cases, you only pay if we recover your data. Our office location in Cambridge is also approximately 16 miles away, rather than at the end of a courier chain. Obtain a quote and walk it into Compass House or post it to us insured. Both methods begin the process identically.