AL1 to AL4, and Harpenden AL5 · St Albans
Data recovery for St Albans. A site record cannot be made twice. That file is the only copy of the ground.
St Albans is a city with a high proportion of managers, senior officials and professionals. The working format of that is several thousand one- and two-partner practices across AL1 to AL4: audit working papers and engagement letters retained under professional-indemnity retention, matter files and conveyancing packs, valuation reports and planning submissions, pension advice files and tax computations. Virtually everything is stored on one Windows computer with a backup drive connected to the same desk. There are also two other sectors here that virtually no other area in this catchment compares to. Development within the Verulamium footprint generates a planning-condition field record, and that work is destructive in nature: context and finds databases, site photography, geophysics and ground-penetrating-radar files, photogrammetry and laser-scan point clouds, drawn records and grey-literature reports, all describing ground that will never be in that state again. Nothing can be observed a second time. In Harpenden, AL5, Rothamsted Research has 330 hectares and a run of readings more than 180 years deep: the Broadbalk wheat plots have been recorded every season since 1843 and Park Grass since 1856. These are published via the e-RA database, and more than 200 scientists are working on the results. No collection takes place in St Albans, and there is no counter here or in London: obtain a quotation first, either by telephone or using the form, then post the media or hand-deliver it to our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (appointment not required). Examination is carried out free of charge, and the fee is quoted in writing prior to any chargeable work being undertaken.
Put it to an engineer — the first look costs nothing
0203 0868633
Five jobs the AL postcodes send us.
Different fault? Try the finder →| What is going on | What arrives from here | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| A field unit's laptop returned to base after a site record | Site context photographs, finds database, survey | Switch it off; get a quote first, then send the drive alone |
| A practice server that crashed over a weekend | Client files, the ledger and every scanned deed on it | Do not attempt a rebuild; identify the bay each disk was extracted from |
| A four-bay NAS in an accounts office in AL1 | Audit working papers retained under indemnity retention | Turn the power off and get a quote first; then post the disks labelled by bay if possible, otherwise send the unit as one piece |
| A research workstation that cannot locate any disks | Plot readings taken season on season, kept locally | Power off; get a quote first, then send the disk separately |
| A household external hard drive that has begun clicking | All the photographs a family owns, stored on that single disk | Leave it unconnected; the clicking means damage is happening in situ |
Four things worth settling before the parcel leaves AL1.
What St Albans asks first.
Are Harpenden and the AL2 side covered as well as AL1?
All of them. The postcode range AL1 to AL4 covers the city of St Albans and its surrounding edges; AL5 covers Harpenden; whilst the postcodes extend further afield to include London Colney, Park Street, Redbourn, Wheathampstead and Colney Heath. As no media is ever fetched by road, a practice located off St Peter's Street is the same distance from a bench as a converted barn beyond Sandridge, and both pay identical costs for recovery.
One disk in our RAID has dropped. Is it safe to wait?
No, and that is exactly the trap. A single drive failure does not bring the set down immediately; it continues to serve files as if nothing was wrong, so it is left running. Then another drive fails, and the whole lot stops at once. Cut the power right away. Number your drives against their bays before any of them leaves the chassis (the failed drive included), and contact us to obtain a quote first, by phone or with the form, then send the drives on their own or drop them off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). Do not begin a rebuild. Jobs that hold several drives start at £500 + VAT.
A survey is on a machine that will not start. Can it be hurried?
There are two changes made upon receiving an urgent booking. The disk is imaged ahead of the queue, and one engineer will handle the case exclusively from first look to last, rather than fitting it around other work. When calling, be sure to ask for that. Your completion date will be given when the diagnosis can justify one, and not before. We operate Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm.
Is there a St Albans address to hand a drive to?
No, and nowhere in London takes one over a counter either, nor do we collect items from customers. All jobs are booked in at our Guildford intake lab, which is also where the equipment for the work is kept. First, obtain a quote (by phone or with the form); you can then drop the device off there, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed), though nearly everyone posts it to us instead, tracked and insured. There is no examination fee charged for diagnosing the problem, and we pay for the journey back to you.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Next door to St Albans, on the same terms
Box it in St Albans; an engineer normally has it next morning.
You should not turn it back on. Before ringing, take a moment to note down the last thing that worked and the first thing that stopped working. This documentation is better than any guesswork about the cause. The look is free of charge, and nothing chargeable will be performed on your unit until one figure has reached you in writing and you have accepted it.