A good share of what we do is for universities & research teams which generally has academic data that can’t be replaced. We operate out of Oxford and cover Oxfordshire and the UK, so whether your research array fails, your departmental server crashes, or your student’s hard drive dies just as they are about to submit their dissertation, we will recover it in confidence using our UK laboratory and engineers. All your data will remain in the U.K.
Our in house recovery team recovers departmental server based systems, student drives, research RAID and NAS file shares confidentially, to a level compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and none are ever exported out of the UK.
Most importantly, once you lose your research it will often be gone forever: you can’t run the same four year long field study again. The first thing you should do is turn the machine off as this preserves much of the data that would otherwise be lost.
All individual computers and departmental file stores.
Stating it simply helps in determining what a reasonable response is.
Most data loss is just inconvenient. A lot of research data is irreplaceable (fieldwork can’t be done again), has a limited time frame for data collection (longitudinal studies) or you’ve interviewed people who are long gone, or in many cases you’ve spent four years analysing it. That’s lots of potential academic and personal value, but little or no monetary value, which is a poor combination when deciding whether to risk a do-it-yourself fix.
The guidance is therefore very strong in this case: if your research hard drive is making an unusual noise, or if it’s been un-detected (not showing), you should neither use recovery software nor repeatedly restart it. Both actions can result in the loss of a year’s worth of recoverable research.
These two issues arise practically with nearly every academic job.
Deadlines. Please inform us immediately if there is a deadline for submitting work. We can then provide priority processing allowing us to complete the imaging of your thesis and data directory first and deliver it while the rest completes, enabling you to continue working within one day rather than at the completion of the job.
Encryption. Many university issued machines have BitLocker or FileVault encryption applied and many students may be unaware that their machine usually has a recovery key which can be retrieved by IT from Azure AD, Intune or the domain. Before you assume the worst please ask them to confirm whether they know where the recovery key exists; without the recovery key no organisation can unlock your volume. Single drives cost from £300 +VAT after a free 48hr diagnostic.
We will have an engineer review your device after you send it into our lab for a no-cost evaluation (free diagnostic) with a short note on what happened, and provide you with your exact quote in writing prior to doing any work.
Data recovery begins by sending your drive to us. When you do so, be sure to package it carefully, put a note in there with some information about what occurred (and include your contact info), and then ship it to us. Once we perform the diagnostic at no cost to you, we will confirm your exact price in writing before we start working on your device.
Sending it by post? We recommend sending via a trackable and insured delivery method. If you prefer to hand-deliver it, then you can do this Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5:30pm. No prior appointment is required; simply package the unit as described previously.
Want some additional details first? Please fill out the form on our website with a description of your problem. An engineer will then review your information and provide you with a customised quote based upon that review.
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Some quick answers to questions that are commonly asked of us.
Turn the machine off (and leave it off) as soon as possible, especially if it’s producing an unusual noise. Do not attempt to use recovery programs and do not restart the device repeatedly; each one can cause loss of recoverable data. If the hard drive is removable, the situation of the laptop itself is largely irrelevant.
Yes, clearly indicate at the outset that priority processing should be used. By doing so we can create an image of the “thesis” and “data” directories first, delivering them to you, whilst the remainder of the image processes, allowing you to get back to writing instead of waiting for the entire job.
Yes, but only once you have access to the recovery key, and in general, keys are stored within Azure AD, Intune, or the domain and can be accessed through your organisation’s IT department. Request assistance prior to determining that there isn’t one available; without a valid key it is impossible for any company to decrypt the volume.
Yes. External hard drives and media start from £250 to £300 + VAT dependent upon type. Please send all external equipment with enclosures attached; please do not remove the disk from the external casing unit.
Yes. The confidentiality rule will always apply whether or not an NDA has been signed, the data remains within the U.K., and any working copies are removed after an agreed time frame. If a department wishes to formally agree then this is also relatively easy.
Laptop/desktop drive from £300 + VAT; cards & USB media from £250; departmental servers & NAS from £500. Free 48hr diagnostic and a fixed written quote prior to any work being done; and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Free diagnostic, written quote; all processed in house; confidential; inside Britain.