The bench · call, parcel, files
Seven stages, two of them are yours to call.
Every job runs through the same seven stages in one fixed order, whatever the device is. The first one is a phone call. The last is you going through what came back and saying it is right. Below is that run, and the two points along it where nobody decides but you.
An engineer will take the details
0800 6890668
The order it happens in.
Ring us first
Phone the office, or put the quote form in. Tell us what the device was doing when it stopped, and which folders matter. You get a straight answer on the odds and exact packing instructions before anything is posted.
Get it to the lab
The intake lab is in the middle of Leeds, west along the M62 from Hull. Post it insured and tracked with the printed form beside it, or bring it in. Take the bare drive out of a laptop, desktop or recorder; a NAS or RAID comes as loose disks, labelled by bay.
A case number first, then a free diagnosis Free
We open the parcel and book it in under a reference of its own. Then an engineer takes it to the bench for a look: which part has failed, what the chances of getting the files off are, and how many hours the work runs to.
Your call
One figure comes back in writing, and it stays that figure. Say yes and the work starts. Say no and it goes back in the post, our findings with it. Either way the look itself has cost you nothing.
On the bench
Nothing is repaired until a full sector-by-sector copy is sitting on our own storage. Head swaps from a donor, firmware work, unlocking, putting an array back together — all of it happens to that copy. What you sent stays as it came in.
You check the list
Before an invoice exists you get the full list of what came off, and you weigh that against the folders you asked for on the phone.
Back in the post
What we recover goes out on media we provide, with the postage paid at our end. Our working copies are wiped after thirty days. The job closes when you tell us it is right.
Time on the bench, by fault.
| The fault | How it is handled | Days on the bench |
|---|---|---|
| Logical: deleted, formatted, corrupt volumes | The file system is rebuilt off the copy | 2–3 working days |
| Mechanical: clicking, knocking, dead still | Donor parts matched, then imaged slowly | 3–5 working days |
| Several disks: RAID, NAS, a server | Each disk copied, the array rebuilt in software | 3–4 working days |
| Encrypted volumes, and evidence work | The scope is agreed first, and the timing with it | Stated in the quote |
| Genuinely urgent | A business at a standstill, or a fixed court or audit date, is moved to the front of the queue | Tell us when you ring |
What goes in the box.
What people ask before sending it in.
Do you keep in touch while it is on the bench?
Yes. Every stage listed here ends with a message to you. Between them, ring the office and ask — you get an engineer, not a ticket in a queue nobody is watching.
What if nothing comes back?
On most jobs there is nothing to pay if we get nothing off it. Where another lab has a better chance with it, you get told which one to ring. And if the data has gone, you are told that once, plainly, rather than strung along week by week.
Who handles the drive itself?
Our own engineers, at our bench in the Leeds lab. No part of the job is farmed out and nothing goes abroad. The case number given when the parcel is opened stays on the device until it goes home.
How long do you hold the copies you made?
Thirty days from the day your files go back, in case you find a gap and want a second look. After that the images are wiped for good and nothing at all is kept here.
It starts with a phone call.
Ring, or send the form, and the case is open. Looking at it is free and you are tied to nothing.