Not the plan — the day after. When the array, the NAS or the server has already gone down, after a fire, a flood, a power event, a rebuild that finished the job or a ransomware run, this is the bench that gets the data off what is left. Every member is imaged read-only before anything is rebuilt, and the price is agreed in writing before that starts.
Inserting a replacement disk and starting a rebuild is the standard first response, and it is how a recoverable array becomes an unrecoverable one. Power the unit down, note which disk sat in which bay, and bring the set in as it is.
The first is a plan; the second is a bench.
In IT, disaster recovery is the plan a business has for resuming after a loss — the copies, the failover, the order in which things come back. That is worth having and it is not what this page sells; the difference between a backup and a plan is on the blog.
What this page is for is the morning the plan was not there, or did not hold: the server room that took water, the NAS that lost a second disk during a rebuild, the rack that came back from a power cut with two drives not spinning, the file share a ransomware run got to before the backup did. The data is usually still on the hardware. Getting it off without making things worse is the job.
The physics is different in each case; the first rule is the same — nothing is powered until it has been looked at.
The same sequence as every other job here, with the members handled one at a time.
Where the symptoms suggest mechanical or electrical damage the drives are not spun up on arrival. Assessment comes before current.
Servers, RAID sets, NAS units and virtual machines: each disk is cloned on hardware built for failing media, and everything after that happens against the copy, never the original.
The array is reconstructed in software from the images, by our own engineers, in the UK. The hardware that lost the set never gets a second go at it.
On a priority job the imaging order follows what the business needs back first — the accounts, the current project, the share a room full of people is waiting on.
A plain written account of what failed and what was recovered, written to be read by people who are not engineers — the thing insurers, auditors and a board usually ask for.
Priced by the work, not by the urgency.
RAID, NAS and servers are from £500 +VAT, a single drive from £300, cards and USB media from £250, and SAN storage from £1,250 — after a free diagnostic that normally returns inside 48 hours and can be same-day on a priority job dropped in early. Array work usually completes in a few working days from approval; donor parts or extensive imaging take longer, and you get the timescale with the quote.
Priority handling is quoted as a separate line so you see exactly what the speed costs. It moves the job to the front of the queue; it cannot make a failing disk read faster, and where it would buy nothing we say so. For most jobs payment only follows once your data is back.
What a firm needs around the recovery, not just from it.
A named contact from the diagnostic through to handover, invoicing rather than payment up front on PO and 30-day terms, an NDA and chain of custody where the data calls for one, and out-of-hours collection where a room full of people is waiting on it. In-house, never outsourced, from Peter House on Oxford Street. Business data recovery →
Send the device over with a short account of what happened to it. The diagnostic costs nothing and commits you to nothing, and the figure that follows is fixed in writing before anything is opened.
Nothing can begin until the device is on the bench, which makes this the only step that needs anything from you. Pack it properly, put your details in with it, and send it over. What follows is a free diagnostic and a written figure, in that order.
Posting it? Use something tracked and insured — whatever is on the drive is worth considerably more than the postage. Bringing it in? Weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm, and it still wants packing as above for the journey.
Tell us what the device is, what it is doing, and anything already tried — an engineer will come back with a realistic view of the odds and a price band, before you commit to posting anything.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
What businesses ask us most on the morning after.
No. A plan is what a business has before the loss — the copies, the failover, the order things come back in. This page is for after it, when the hardware has already gone down and the copy was not there or did not hold. The difference between a backup and a plan is explained on the blog.
No. Inserting a replacement disk and starting a rebuild is the standard first response, and it is how a recoverable array becomes an unrecoverable one. Power the unit down, note which disk sat in which bay, and bring the set in as it is.
The free diagnostic normally returns inside 48 hours and can be same-day on a priority job dropped in early. Array work usually completes in a few working days from approval; donor parts or extensive imaging take longer, and you get the timescale with the quote.
From £500 plus VAT for RAID, NAS and servers, from £300 for a single drive and from £250 for cards and USB media, after the free diagnostic. One figure in writing before anything starts; most jobs are no fix, no fee. Priority handling is quoted as a separate line.
Do not dry them and do not power them. Seal them damp in a bag and send them the same day — corrosion keeps working for as long as the residue is on the boards, and a drive that arrives wet today is in better condition than one dried on a windowsill for a fortnight.
Yes. A plain written account of what failed and what was recovered, written to be read by people who are not engineers, is part of the job.
A free written diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and a 10,000-part inventory standing behind every repair. The sooner it reaches us, the better — begin your recovery today.