The order it goes in
How your case runs. Seven stages, and two of them wait until you say go.
Every set that reaches us goes through the same seven stages, in the same order, and you are asked to decide at two of them: whether to send it, by post or through a drop-off point, and whether to accept the figure. Nothing chargeable happens before the second, and nothing is ever rebuilt, initialised, imported or repaired on the original drives at any stage. What follows is each stage as it actually runs, what the drives are doing while they wait, and how long each usually takes. A set of two to four is £500 + VAT upwards after the free look, fixed in writing; 5–10 days at the bench for a small set, 10–15 days at the bench for larger sets.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
The order it goes in, end to end.
Every band, in prose →The form
You tell us the controller or the software, the level, how many members, what sits on the set, what it says and what was tried. Five minutes on the quote page, or the fuller booking sheet if you would rather do it once. It is read by an engineer, not a script.
Posting details, by email
Back come the posting address, the nearest of ten drop-off points to where you are, packing notes for your kind of set, and a booking sheet to print. The laboratory address is not published anywhere; it comes by email in reply to the form. Put the booking sheet inside the parcel and write your name on the outside; that is how the parcel is matched to your enquiry when it arrives, and your case number is issued that day. Post it tracked, or hand it in at the drop-off point.
Arrival
Logged, photographed, every member numbered and its model string, serial and firmware recorded against its slot, and the whole matched to your enquiry the day the parcel lands, when it is given its case number and you are emailed to say it has arrived. Nothing is powered on a controller.
The free look Free
Read-only assessment on the imager each member's interface needs: the metadata read from every drive, the level, the order, the stripe size, the event counts that say which members are current and which dropped out first; the controller's log read where you sent one; a drive that clicks sent to the clean bench without being powered again. What happened to the set is named, what has been written since is found, and how much can honestly be read back is settled. Allow about 48 hours for a small set.
One figure, in writing
What we found, what we expect to recover, and one price, together. Accept it and work begins. Decline and the drives come home at our expense with nothing owed.
The work on the bench
Every member imaged once, weak areas last, with heads swapped in clean air where they must be and drives unlocked with your key. The geometry read from the metadata or recovered from the parity; the set assembled in software from the images, with the stale member used only to fill what a survivor cannot give; the file system repaired on a copy of the virtual volume; virtual machines extracted with their snapshot chains and databases repaired from their logs. Never on the originals.
The files, home
The file list checked by opening it, listed for you before any bill exists, and the data sent home on fresh media with the original drives, tracked, postage paid. Virtual machines go back as exports; databases as files that open. Your case stays open until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
How long each of them takes.
| Stage | Usually | What stretches it |
|---|---|---|
| The form to the posting details | The same working day | A form sent late on a Friday |
| Posting | Next working day, tracked | A parcel sent second class |
| Dropping off | Logged at the point on the spot; to the bench within a working day as a rule | A parcel handed in late on a Friday |
| The free look | About 48 hours from arrival | A shelf, or a member that needs a donor |
| Your decision | As long as you need | Nothing; the drives wait, unpowered |
| Bench work, a small set | 5–10 days at the bench | A 15K donor to find, or a cleared configuration to reconstruct |
| Bench work, a shelf or a cluster | 10–15 days at the bench | A second weak member, or a rebuild that ran before it arrived |
| Files home | Next working day after approval | Very large sets copying to the new media |
What belongs in the box
- Every member, with the slot written on it, in an anti-static bag in its own padding: the survivors, the drive that failed first, and any part-written replacement.
- The controller, only if it matters: replaced and the set now foreign, or holding an encryption key or preserved cache. A NAS or DAS unit only if its bridge holds the layout.
- The booking sheet, printed and filled in, with the drives listed by slot, or sent on ahead from the quote page, and the controller log if you exported one.
- The key, or a note that it will follow: the PERC passphrase, the HPE encryption key, the BitLocker recovery key, the KMIP details. Encryption halts the bench at the point you halted.
What stays at home: the server, unless it is a small box whose bridge holds the layout; and mobile phones, which are not handled here at all.
The questions that come up first.
Do I have to accept the figure?
No. Decline it and the drives come home at our expense with nothing owed. The free look is free whichever way you decide.
What comes back?
The recovered data on fresh media, with the original drives; virtual machines as exports, databases as files that open. The originals are not rebuilt or written to, and we say on the sheet why they should not be reused as a set.
Can I ask for priority?
Yes. Priority handling puts the set at the front of the bench and is quoted separately, only when you ask.
How do I know the files are right?
The list is checked by opening it, and your case stays open until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
What happens to the original drives?
They go back to you with the recovered data, or are securely destroyed at your request.
All of it begins with one form.
Five minutes on the quote page, the posting details by return, and the first look is free.