We don't have branches, but that's just as well – when you need a recovery, how far your drive travels doesn’t matter as much as which bench it ends up on. A tracked box sent from anywhere in the UK will get us your drive overnight; then we’ll run exactly the same diagnostics for you, whether or not you walked in.
Distance has little to do with a successful recovery. It’s possible to send an insured and tracked box from any postcode in the UK and have it reach us the next working day, at which time we can diagnose it using our full range of equipment.
Tracked and insured. Just put a note inside.
Manchester Data Recovery, Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5AN. Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm. Phone number 0161 871 0788.
You will need to write a short note with your name, phone number, e-mail address and briefly describe the issue (when it stopped working, what it was trying to do at the time, have you attempted anything since). This last piece of information will make a huge difference in how we handle the rebuild/recovery process; if you had already started rebuilding or recovering from a failure, or if you had done a long-running recovery scan on the drive; these are big differences in how we can proceed and should not be left out.
Most transit related damage can be avoided. It comes down to a few things.
A bag/foam sleeve. Bubble wrap directly against a bare circuit board is not ideal – but then again bubble wrap is way better than no protection at all.
If a drive is loose within its shipping container, it may take many small hits along the route. Try to fill the void rather than allow the drive to move around.
Jiffy bags do not provide any significant protection from drops to the floor or other objects that may be placed on top of them during delivery.
Please include the enclosure for your external hard drive as well as the original cables and power supplies, if you still have them. The bridge board is included on some disk models and is required for your hard drive to function properly.
This will protect you from potential loss while we are waiting for your package. Please write down the tracking information prior to sending.
The reason we ask you to call before sending these items is that in both cases the journey itself is part of the problem and can affect the condition of your items when they arrive.
Fire or flood damage. These are true time-critical issues; as long as there is corrosion contaminating your components, the issue will continue. Please send the unit damp and sealed rather than dry, and please call ahead so we can prepare to handle it upon receipt, and not the next day.
Anything already opened. As soon as a device has been opened outside our lab environment, the chamber is now dirty, and once spinning anything will cause the heads to rub against the disks. Re-seal the top, seal everything in a plastic bag and let us know exactly what happened — it does not change how we treat you, but it will change how we address the problem.
This is also the case when your item comes to us by courier or you bring it to our front door.
Your items are scheduled upon arrival. We will inform you of their arrival date. Based on the type of failure (mechanical, electronic, firmware or logical), we decide how to proceed, based on that choice alone — the cost and potential recovery. Normally this takes no longer than 48 hours. Once you agree to a quote, that is when charges begin. If we find that we cannot recover anything from your unit, you owe us nothing.
When you receive recovered data, it will come back to you on new storage media with free return shipping; and if you wish, we will also return your original device (unless you request we destroy it securely). Prices start at £250 +VAT for cards/USBs and £300 +VAT for one drive.
Anti-static wrapping of your drive and it being held in place by padding to prevent movement during transit in a solid container (box), as opposed to a padded envelope. A rattling drive will take small impact shocks during transport. Please send it via courier using a trackable service and insure it. Include a letter or note inside.
Please detach the hard disk or solid state disk and send us only the drive — we will not accept complete computers/laptops/desktops. It will take only minutes for any computer store to detach the drive. However, external devices should be shipped complete with their enclosures.
Please include your name, telephone number, e-mail address, and a brief description of how the failure occurred — i.e., what were you doing when it failed? Have you attempted any repairs/rebuilds/long scans since then? The latter is important — an abandoned rebuild and/or a very lengthy scan will alter our approach.
You can pack your damaged fire or flood drive as soon as possible and get it to us while still wet. Please do not dry your drive. Please call us first. Corrosion continues to spread on your drive until it is completely removed from the environment. If a drive has already been opened, seal it and tell us, because further movement spreads contamination.
No. Return shipping is free and your original device will be returned to you unless you wish to have it disposed of via secure destruction.
It is scheduled in, you are informed once your item arrives at our facility and a free diagnostic determines what failed. Most diagnostics take less than 48 hours after receipt to produce a fixed price quote. There are no charges prior to your acceptance of the quoted amount.
Pack it now and a free written diagnostic report is produced within 48 hours of receipt in Manchester. You will only be charged once you authorise payment.