When a drive fails in Didcot, you don’t have to ship it off to London or hand it to some faceless national chain. Oxford Data Recovery sits just 12 miles up the A4130, and we’ve been lifting data off servers, NAS boxes, camera cards, SSDs and hard drives on our own benches since 2002. Pop in on your way past, or send it by post — either way the diagnostic is free, and most jobs are no fix, no fee.
Roughly 25 minutes and 12 miles separate Didcot from our bench — drop it in yourself, or put it in the post.
Didcot sits at the centre of Science Vale, around 30,000 people with Milton Park and Harwell Campus on the doorstep and a research and laboratory workforce to match. Between them they generate a great deal of data that would be painful to lose — accounts, client files, photos and years of work.
A drive that has failed usually still holds every byte intact — the trouble almost always lies with the heads, the controller board or the file system rather than the data itself, which just has to be read off with care by people who do it day in, day out. Oxford Science Park is only 12 miles off, so calling in is straightforward — though the post works just as well, and the return trip is on us.
Bringing data back since 2002 — a written diagnostic at no charge, a set price agreed before we start, and no fee on most jobs unless we succeed.
Most of the time, no. A drive that looks “dead” has usually kept its data whole — the failure sits in the heads, the board or the file system — and that data just needs reading off cleanly, right on the first pass, by someone who handles these day in, day out.
We’re in Oxford, about 12 miles from you, and we’ve been doing precisely this for people in Didcot since 2002. Being close by gives you a choice: swing past the Oxford unit if it suits your route, or send it fully insured through the post. Every job opens with a free diagnostic and a set price, and for most there’s no fee unless the recovery works.
The postcodes we see most from here — and the surrounding villages and estates we cover just the same.
Alongside Didcot itself (OX11), drives reach us from right across the surrounding area — Milton Park, Harwell, Sutton Courtenay, Long Wittenham, Ladygrove and Appleford. Whether you’re in the centre of Didcot or out in one of the villages, the drive can come to our Oxford unit or travel by tracked post — the free diagnostic and no-fix-no-fee terms are exactly the same either way.
Affluent, rural and increasingly home-working — a lot of professional data on home setups.
Didcot, OX11, sits at the far south of the county — rural, well-heeled, and home to a large number of people who work remotely at a professional level. The jobs reflect that home-working base: home NAS boxes and external drives doing double duty as work storage, SSDs in home offices that have failed, and consultancy or creative work that exists in exactly one place. Around Hindhead and Grayswood there are the usual family machines and camera cards too.
When a drive holds the only copy of someone’s livelihood, the read-only method isn’t optional — the original is imaged and never written to. Didcot is around twelve miles south on the A4130; tracked post suits the distance, though drop-off is always welcome, and either way the diagnostic is free, the quote fixed, and most jobs no fix, no fee. It’s worth backing up before it’s needed — but when it wasn’t, that’s exactly what we’re here for.
Didcot is near enough that plenty of people just carry the drive in — but if the trip doesn’t suit, the post is every bit as simple.
Ring or message with the device and the fault, and we’ll put a likely figure to it straight away.
Bring the device — or, for laptops, NAS and servers, just the drive — to the Oxford unit, weekdays 9am–5:30pm, or send it fully insured.
We look it over, generally inside 48 hours, and send a fixed quote in writing before a thing is done.
We run the recovery, check it against a file listing, and you either pick it up from us or we ship it back on fresh media.
Bring it in and you skip the postal leg altogether. Pressing cases can usually jump the queue — just say so when you ring.
A quick look at what we take on for Didcot — follow any one through for the detail.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01865 593000.
We’re in Oxford — about 12 miles and 25 minutes from Didcot on the A4130 — and we’ve served Didcot from there since 2002. Call in weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm, or send your device to us fully insured.
Take your pick. Didcot is close enough that many people leave the drive with us as they pass through Oxford — for laptops, NAS and servers, bring the drive alone, labelled. Prefer not to travel? Send it insured and tracked. Both ways begin with a free diagnostic and a fixed quote.
Anything that stores data — databases and servers, NAS units and RAID arrays, external drives, laptops and Macs, camera cards and USB sticks, SSDs and hard drives. Formatted card or dropped drive, failed array or ransomware, all of it is worth a free look.
The whole of Didcot and everything around it — Shottermill, Hindhead, Grayswood, Beacon Hill, Fernhurst, Chiddingfold and Camelsdale included. Wherever you are, the service and the pricing don’t change.
Most recoveries land inside three to four working days, and the free diagnostic is usually done within 48 hours. As a rough guide, a memory card or USB stick starts at £250 + VAT, any single hard drive or SSD at £300 + VAT, and RAID, NAS or a server from £500 + VAT — always quoted in writing first, with no fee on most jobs unless we get the data back.
A written diagnostic for nothing, no fee on most jobs unless we recover it, and more than twenty years of doing this just 12 miles up the road. Call into Oxford, or send it in fully insured.