Data Recovery Process Explained

Data Recovery Hospital operates a four step data recovery process that has been refined over many years to deliver market-leading data recovery and customer satisfaction rates. Please note you will be free to talk to the data recovery engineer responsible for recovering your data at any stage in the process.

STEP 1: Free data recovery consultation

The first step is a free consultation by phone or email. At this stage, we will diagnose the issues that have driven the data loss, and decide which data recovery solution is likely to deliver the best result at the best possible cost to you.

We will also explain the various service level options available to you, and provide a ‘no data, no fee’ quote for recovering your data.

Assuming you are happy to proceed at this point, we will instruct the free courier we provide as part of our service to pick the media device up from the address that you specify.

Alternatively, you may elect to drop the device off yourself at one of the service centers we have located throughout the country.

STEP 2: Free laboratory evaluation

On receipt of the hard drive, we will unpack it carefully, book into our data recovery tracking system and place it through a series of bespoke, non-intrusive tests to determine the condition of the device and the data. These will include the following:

• A microscope to inspection the disk for physical damage.
• An initial electrical inspection of the hard drive.
• An initial inspection of the magnetic media.
• A check on the workings of the read/write heads.
• A calibration and alignment check.

At this stage, we will confirm the fixed price we will charge to complete the data recovery. The price will be as quoted initially unless any of the following apply:

• RAID devices – Sadly, it is not possible to diagnose RAID arrays remotely, so we can only offer an indicative price over the phone; we will however provide a fixed price quote when we’ve had a chance to assess the device.
• Mechanical problems – Though we aim to repair faulty parts from stock, we do reserve the right to pass our costs on in the event that we have to order in replacement parts.
• > 20GB data – Where the data recovered is >20GB, there will be an additional charge to cover the cost of the return storage device and the courier.
• Unsuccessful cases – In the unlikely event that we are unable to recover your data, there will be a charge to return the device. This will again be quoted at cost price.
• Inaccurate information – If the information provided to enable remote diagnosis was incorrect, we may have to review the price of data recovery.
• In all instances, you are under no obligation to proceed until you know the full cost of our service.. You are also free to choose to provide your own parts / couriers if you’d prefer.

STEP 3: Data Recovery

Once you have confirmed acceptance of the all-inclusive quote, our data recovery engineers will employ the remedial actions required to recover your data in our secure, state-of-the-art laboratory environment.

For logical problems, we will use software we have developed over many years to bypass the bad areas so that the hard disk is able to read around them.

We will fix all mechanical repairs – including issues with the electronics – in our ‘cleanest of clean room’ facility within our secure data recovery laboratory. This will be done by idenrtifying and replacing all faulty components after the missing data has been copied and restored.

STEP 4: Return of Data

As soon as we have manually checked your data, we will send you a full file list to validate. There will be not request for payment until you are satisfied with the results. We will then transfer your data to the return media device agreed up-front, and our courier will return the data to you within the service timescales agreed up-front.

We will retain your original disk for a minimum of 10 days in case there is any problem with the data that has been sent to you. At that point, we will securely erase all data.