If you have an emergency that needs to be prioritised as soon as possible, we move your job forward to the top of our priority list. Priority handling allows us to read what you are looking for first. However, it does not allow us to speed up how fast a failing drive reads, and most of the decision on how long it takes is made during the hour leading up to when you contact us, not due to what you pay for.
We jump your emergency work into position ahead of all other jobs waiting in line and notify you with regard to each step involved in completing your project.
Priority handling places your job at the head of the line and allows us to image those directory locations which you require first. Priority handling does not cause a failing drive to read faster or expedite delivery of the required donor parts. We will advise you if your particular situation would benefit from priority handling or if there is no additional value in doing so, rather than take the premium.
From these you will know whether it’s right for you.
A lot of the total time taken in an event will have been determined by you.
The longer a failing disk runs, the greater the likelihood of damage and the longer it takes for the imaging process. Stopping is worth more than any premium you can pay.
Monday to Friday, 9am-5:30pm at Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester. Overnight courier = one day lost.
“The accounts folder”, “the Whitfield job” etc. let us set priorities. The option “everything” means the whole image is completed before anything is delivered.
A rebuild was attempted. A scan was performed. Software was installed. Each represents a different way of approaching things, and discovering it mid-job costs hours.
Jobs often sit waiting for a decision, not just on the workbench. If you're away please arrange for someone to be able to authorise a quote.
It’s worth planning for a real deadline rather than hoping for one.
Our free diagnostic generally comes back within 48 hours and in some cases as soon as the same day depending upon how early the priority job is dropped off. In general after approval of a logical recovery process using healthy hardware, a normal image based recovery will often take 1–2 working days. There is never an issue with doing an image during times the drive is functioning properly.
In addition to hardware limitations, recovery time is also limited by the physical process of accessing data from a disk. In general, once a donor hard drive with an identical configuration to the original has been located (and physically installed), then recovering images of a damaged disk may take however long the source device is able to handle — potentially several days. Each additional member within RAID and server configurations will need to be separately accessed before any reconstruction can begin. The priority service simply advances your position in the queue — it does not reduce the total amount of time required to complete the recovery. Any company claiming otherwise with respect to a failure of mechanical parts is misrepresenting their capability.
So you can look at both quotes and then make up your mind as to which one to go for.
The base price charged for expedited service remains unchanged: from £250 +VAT for memory cards and USB flash drives; from £300 +VAT for a single hard disk; from £500 +VAT for RAID, NAS and server configurations. We quote priority services as an extra charge so that there are no surprises when you receive your bill.
If, in your case, using our priority service would provide no benefit (i.e., the replacement donor part is already ordered, or the disk is very slow to access), we'll let you know about this situation and won't charge you for it. Please call us at 0161 871 0788 prior to shipping any item needing immediate attention so we are aware that it is en route.
You'll send the item to our lab along with a brief description of how it stopped working. We do not charge for diagnostics and the price that follows is locked into writing before we touch your unit.
Your journey towards retrieving your data begins when you get it to us. Carefully wrap your item, place an indication of how we can reach you within the packaging and ship it. Only once we have completed the complimentary diagnostics will we be able to confirm your costs via written confirmation before commencing the process.
Would you like to post it? Then we recommend using a trackable and insured method. Do you want to personally deliver it? We are open Monday to Friday from 9am until 5:30pm; simply package your device first.
Want a few more details at the beginning? Then please fill in the form with some additional information regarding the issue, and one of our engineers will then provide you with a custom price quote based on that info.
A reply will follow shortly. Anything urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
The questions that typically pop up when time is against you.
Generally, the free diagnosis comes back within 48 hours. On priority jobs dropped off early, it comes back same-day. Most logical recoveries from good units happen in about a couple of days, while many physical recoveries depend upon the hardware and can take several days.
Yes, it gets you to the head of the line and allows us to create images of the specific directories you need first. This truly does save some time. However, it will not increase the reading speed of a failing drive or make donor parts arrive sooner. If there is no way for the upgrade to be helpful then we will tell you that.
Please stop using the computer right away. Drop-off instead of sending; determine specifically which files are required most urgently for your task; indicate exactly what has been attempted with your system already; and have someone readily available to approve the estimate. Jobs are often waiting for approval rather than sitting on the bench.
We can normally accommodate true business-critical emergencies. Please contact us, provide information regarding the circumstance — we will let you know what can be accommodated based upon what the hard drive requires rather than on our willingness.
If you are capable of reaching Peter House on Oxford Street during the normal working hours, please drop it off. An overnight courier service takes a whole day from you which you will never get back if it is an urgent job.
The recovery price is the same. We quote priority handling as a separate line so you may see how much it costs for speed and determine if it is worth it for your specific instance.
Inform us of what occurred and we will place your emergency job on the bench as a priority — a plan and a written estimate are provided before any work begins.