A good share of our work is for universities and research teams, as academic data is so often impossible to replace. From our base in Guildford, our university and research data recovery service is available across Surrey and the UK. If your research array fails, your departmental server crashes or a student’s drive dies just weeks before submission, we recover the data in our own UK laboratory using our own engineers, and we do it all in confidence. Your data remains inside the United Kingdom.
Departmental servers, student drives and research RAID and NAS systems, all recovered by our in-house team, confidentially, in compliance with GDPR and never sent outside the UK.
Whether it is a research group’s storage array or a student’s thesis drive, we will recover your data in confidence at our own UK-based laboratory.
Datasets, analysis and years of results stuck on failed research drives, arrays and storage, with large datasets recovered intact and checksums verified where the data permits.
Lab and departmental servers and RAID arrays carrying shared research and administrative data, with each disk imaged one by one and the array rebuilt offline from the stripe and parity.
QNAP, Synology and other NAS units used for shared group and research storage: Linux mdadm or LVM arrays on ext4, Btrfs, ZFS or SHR, rebuilt from disk images with snapshots recovered.
A PhD or final-year laptop or external drive that has failed ahead of submission, imaged read-only and carved for the document and its earlier drafts, even from a corrupt or reformatted file system.
Data from lab instruments, microscopes and acquisition PCs on failed local drives, including large proprietary instrument-file formats, recovered by file-system or raw-signature carving.
Databases and administrative records, recovered in line with the UK GDPR.
For related content, see RAID · NAS · Servers · External drives.
Personal records and research data are kept confidential and treated according to the UK GDPR.
Additional information about how we protect your confidential data: Data security & confidentiality.
A failed experiment can be repeated, but data gathered over many years typically cannot. We regularly deal with work that carries a full doctorate, supports a multi-year grant or holds data that cannot be gathered again, and we treat it as such. Every drive is imaged read-only before the data is touched, failed arrays are rebuilt virtually without altering the originals, and we recover as much as is physically present. Facing a deadline for submitting your research or reporting to funders? Let us know when you first make contact and we will give your job priority.
A secure route from failure through to a verified handover.
Simply contact us regarding a problem with a device you would like recovered and we will provide guidance on the best course of action for recovering your data securely.
Simply drop off the drives or post them insured, and we will determine what is recoverable.
Prior to commencing any chargeable work, you will receive a written fixed-price quote along with an estimate of the time frame for completion of the recovery process.
The recovery process takes place entirely in house. Our employees verify the results of the recovery process prior to returning your data on new encrypted media or providing access to it via a secure download method.
We also serve these sectors: Healthcare · Finance · Legal · Business & enterprise.
Just send your device to us with information about what went wrong. One of our engineers will inspect the unit at no charge to yourself and confirm your specific quote in writing before we do anything else.
The first thing in recovering your data is getting the unit to us. Package it up securely and safely. Add your contact information inside the package and send it off. Once we’ve completed the free diagnostic we’ll confirm the exact price in writing before we undertake any work.
If you intend to ship the item via postal services, we highly suggest that you use a tracked and insured service. If you prefer to hand-deliver the item to us, this is permitted Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. However, please ensure you have packaged the item in accordance with the instructions listed previously.
Do you want additional information prior to proceeding? Please complete the form providing further detail regarding your issue. Upon completion of this form, one of our engineers will evaluate your case and provide you with a customised price quote.
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Quick responses to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Yes. Each disk is imaged read-only, the array is rebuilt virtually and we work out the stripe size, disk order and parity from its members, so we can recover from an array where several disks have failed without ever writing to the originals.
Yes, this is one of the recovery requests we receive most frequently. Failed laptops and external drives can be recovered; tell us your submission deadline when you first get in touch and your job will be moved to the head of the queue.
Yes. It is accessed only by our own in-house engineers, all work remains in the UK, and we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and GDPR-compliant. An NDA is available on request, which is useful where research is funded or commercially sensitive.
Yes. We can invoice the university or department, and purchase orders are accepted, with payment on 30-day terms for established accounts.
No, neither on-site work nor collection is available. Drop the drives off or post them fully insured. If you have a research array, just take out the disks and send those.
The cost depends on the device: single drives are £300 + VAT, and RAID and NAS start from £500 + VAT, after a free diagnostic and a written quotation. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Yes. We are based in Guildford and carry out recovery of academic and research data for universities and research groups within Surrey and further afield. Please drop drives off at the Guildford Business Park point by appointment, or post them fully insured. Your data will stay in Britain.
A free diagnostic and a written quotation, with everything kept confidential, carried out in-house and in Britain.