TW1, TW9, TW11 and SW13
Richmond data recovery. Britain's national archive is in this borough. So is a great deal of work in one copy.
Richmond upon Thames is the only London borough which lies on both sides of the River Thames, and the two banks send us different kinds of work. At Kew, a few hundred metres apart, are two separate institutions: The National Archives and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The National Archives have a Discovery catalogue with more than 32 million record descriptions, with over nine million records available for download. The Royal Botanic Gardens has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003 and holds a herbarium with around seven million specimens, a fungarium containing about 1.25 million dried fungi, a DNA bank and an archive with more than half a million items. This type of work involves very high resolution specimen imaging, sequencing output and geospatial sets. Prior to being placed elsewhere, it will reside on a disk. Across the river at Teddington is the National Physical Laboratory, which does the measurement for the country. Calibration certificates, instrument logs and data sets whose entire worth is their traceability therefore live on machines here. The borough's post-production sound trade is conducted in Twickenham and St Margarets, where a session, its stems and its mix passes are attached to a studio day already booked. Surrounding all of that is the borough’s true bulk: architects and chartered surveyors, solicitors and therapists, one-person consultancies, and households with thirty years of photographs on a single drive. No media is collected in Richmond or anywhere else, and there is no counter in Richmond or in London. Get a quote first, either by phone or using the form. Then post the media tracked and insured, or alternatively drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment required). Examining your media is free. The figure will be recorded on paper before any chargeable steps. Prices are £250 + VAT per card or stick, £300 + VAT per single drive, £400 + VAT per recorder, and £500 + VAT upwards as soon as a second disk enters the job.
Put it to an engineer — the first look costs nothing
0203 0868633
Five faults that arrive from both banks.
Different fault? Try the finder →| What is going on | What arrives from here | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Shared session volume that the studio kit cannot see | Sessions, stems, mix passes etc. against a booked studio day | Shut down; label each disk with its bay number; get a quote first, then send them as bare disks |
| The workstation next to the calibration bench | Purchased with the instrument, and has not been touched since delivery | Get a quote first; only the disk needs to travel; leave the box behind |
| An external drive carried between two buildings at Kew | Single copy of both runs: specimen imaging and sequencing | Job seen most frequently on this bench; stop using it now |
| Mirrored pair in a home office, down to one disk | Has run continuously on one disk since an unknown date | Each member must be imaged before anything is rebuilt |
| Knocked over on the desk, and now it clicks | Equipment moved from one building to another may suffer invisible damage | Leave it off; each power-up costs you readable sectors. |
Getting it here, and what you will pay.
Four questions this borough asks.
Does a Barnes SW13 address count as Richmond?
Yes. There are four post towns inside the borough itself: Hampton, Richmond, Teddington and Twickenham, while Barnes and Mortlake are addressed directly as London, SW13 and SW14. They are all charged from one price list. We do not collect from any of these locations, therefore a laboratory in Kew and a sole trader in Teddington will both get a quote first, by phone or with the form, before sending their drive via the postal service or dropping it off at our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointments necessary). Both will have their drive inspected free of charge, and neither will be billed for the return of their drive.
The shared session volume has stopped. Do we power it down?
Yes, at the wall, and before you go home rather than after. When a rebuild of a set of hard drives occurs, the controller will read the contents of every sector of every remaining hard drive. Where a set of hard drives have taken many years collecting session materials and this load is what ultimately causes the failure of another member, then stopping the process halfway through the rebuild will put the system in an even worse state than when the original failure occurred. Therefore, the power is removed first and then a quotation is provided prior to any items being sent. Mark each individual drive with the bay it came out of, then post them as bare drives or bring them to our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointments required). For NAS systems, you may be able to pull the drives out and number them similarly; if not, it will travel in its own case. Any job that involves two or more hard drives will be placed into the £500 + VAT bracket.
The provenance chain matters as much as the files. What is issued?
We will never write data back onto the media you provide. A read-only copy will be created from the media you send and used throughout all steps thereafter. This allows us to work on a recovery without causing damage to the original media, which goes home exactly as it reached us. Only one fixed amount is agreed on paper prior to beginning any chargeable steps. At completion of the services rendered, you will be given the recovered files on new media along with the case reference the job was assigned upon booking, and a detailed listing of each file, marked clearly indicating which read cleanly, which read only partially, and which did not read at all.
How should the drive be wrapped and sent?
The act of movement during transport is what generally causes most damage to drives, so remove the movement from the equation. Place the drive into a bag that prevents static discharge (if available), then pad out every surface of the box in such a manner that the drive can't move; the cardboard box it arrived in often provides enough support. Obtain a quote prior to sending it (by telephone or using our online quote form), then send it tracked and insured, or simply drop it off at our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointments necessary). A printed shipping form accompanies it. The remainder is outlined on our packing page. We cover the cost of returning it to you.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Next door to Richmond upon Thames, on the same terms
Post it from Richmond — the first look is free.
Keep it powered down. Knowing what it was doing when it stopped can help (a session bounce, an instrument logging during night hours, a scan job). Having us look at it does not cost you anything. No chargeable work commences until you give permission for further action based on our written quotation.