Emergency · priority · examined within 24 hours · next-day courier · what is realistic · what is not
Emergency data recovery. Priority, honestly described: what we can speed up, and the one thing you must do right now.
An emergency in data recovery is usually one of three things: a business whose work has stopped, a deadline that cannot move, or a single drive holding the only copy of something that cannot be lost. We take those cases as a priority, and we are honest about what priority means. A priority job is examined within 24 hours of arriving, worked ahead of the queue by the engineer best suited to it, and sent home by next-day tracked courier the moment the files are approved. What priority cannot do is change what the drive allows: a drive with failed heads needs its parts replaced before it can be imaged, a failing drive has to be imaged at the pace it can bear, and a drive someone kept running until the platters were damaged has lost what no urgency recovers. The most important part of any emergency happens before the drive reaches us: power it off, leave it off, and send it. Emergency service starts at £800 + VAT for a single drive, fixed in writing after the free first look, with no bill on most jobs if no data comes back, and we tell you what is realistic before you send it.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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What priority speeds up, and what it cannot.
What is realistic, by fault.
Tell us what it is →| The fault | What priority means for it | Honest timescale |
|---|---|---|
| Deleted files, accidental format, healthy drive | Imaged within 24 hours; files listed | Usually within one to two working days of arrival |
| Drive not detected or asking to format, otherwise healthy | Imaged within 24 hours; file system rebuilt on the image | Usually within one to three working days |
| Clicking, failed heads, not spinning | Donor parts first; repaired on the bench; imaged | Days, not hours; depends on parts |
| Failing drive with bad sectors | Imaged at the pace it can bear, weak areas last | Set by the drive; rushing it loses data |
| SSD dead in the BIOS | Chip-level reading | Days; the work cannot be hurried |
| Very large or multi-drive sets | Prioritised, but every member must be imaged | Longer; quoted at the first look |
How to get an urgent drive to us fastest.
Say it is urgent on the form, and why. Tell us the drive, the fault, what it holds and the deadline. The reply comes with the posting address, the nearest of ten drop-off points, and an honest word on what is realistic for that fault, so you can decide before you send.
Send it by next-day tracked courier, packed in an anti-static bag inside a padded box, with the booking sheet inside and your name on the outside. Handing it in at a drop-off point can be quicker still if one is near you; the reply tells you which is. Send the drive, not the computer.
Have your details ready. If the drive is encrypted, the recovery key; if it is from a NAS or RAID set, every member; if it is a laptop drive, the make and model. Missing pieces are the commonest avoidable delay.
The fee. Emergency service starts at £800 + VAT for a single drive, against £300 + VAT for the same drive at the ordinary pace, fixed in writing after the free first look, with no bill on most jobs if no data comes back; larger sets are quoted. The difference buys the examination within 24 hours, the place at the front of the queue and the next-day courier home, and if the honest timescale for your fault is no faster than the ordinary service, we say so and you can choose the ordinary price.
Questions answered before you commit.
Can you do same-day data recovery?
Sometimes, for a healthy drive with a simple fault that arrives early in the day. For most urgent cases the honest promise is priority: examined within 24 hours of arrival, worked ahead of the queue, home by next-day courier. A dead drive cannot be hurried past the parts it needs, and we would rather tell you that than promise what cannot be done.
Do you charge extra for an emergency?
Yes. Emergency service starts at £800 + VAT for a single drive, against £300 + VAT at the ordinary pace, fixed in writing after the free first look. It buys the examination within 24 hours, the front of the queue and the next-day courier home. Where the fault cannot be hurried, a dead drive waiting on parts, we say so, and you can choose the ordinary service instead.
Is there an out-of-hours number?
The telephone is answered during the desk's hours. Outside them, send the form; it is read first thing, and the most useful thing you can do in the meantime is keep the drive powered off.
Can you come to us, or can we bring it in?
We work by post and through ten drop-off points, and the reply to your form names the nearest. A next-day courier or a drop-off point is usually faster than any journey to us.
What is the one thing that most often ruins an urgent case?
A drive kept running while help is sought, or recovery software run on it. Power it off, leave it off, and send it; the data waits better on a switched-off drive than anywhere else.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Power it off, tell us why it is urgent, and it goes to the front.
The first look is free and comes within 24 hours of the drive arriving. The honest timescale comes before you send it.