Yorkshire's food capital runs on small producers, market-day trade and Ryedale farms — and when the laptop holding the orders or the drive holding the harvest records fails, Malton posts it to the bench and gets a straight answer.
Malton jobs are diagnosed free. One fixed written quote before any work starts — no fix, no fee on most recoveries.
Malton's economy is tastier than most and no better backed up. The food quarter's producers and kitchens run their ordering, recipes, accounts and mailing lists on ordinary laptops that fail in ordinary ways; the monthly food markets and festivals generate card after card of photography; and out in Ryedale, the farm office is its own genre of data risk — one PC in a converted corner, holding years of movement records, subsidy paperwork and accounts, backed up to an external drive that lives in the same room, when it exists at all. Add Castle Howard's steady pull on wedding and events photographers, and the parcels from YO17 carry everything from a snapped SD card to a NAS full of a business's whole history.
The method suits a market town precisely because it involves no travelling. Post the bare drive or card tracked from Malton — it reaches our Leeds location the next working day: Leeds Data Recovery, 17th Floor, The Pinnacle, Albion Street, Leeds LS1 5AA. Whole machines and multi-drive systems travel best boxed properly and posted insured — label the drives before they leave Ryedale. Inside 2 working days of arrival the free diagnostic is done, and you get the fault, the realistic odds and one fixed written figure by phone — nothing proceeds until you've said yes to it.
Terms, stated the plain way: logical faults run no fix, no fee — no recovery, no bill. Hardware that has to be opened after mechanical, electrical or water damage pays half the quote upfront for the clean-air stage, the balance on success only. Ransomware, CCTV recorders and BitLocker are forensic-classed, paid upfront in full. Phones and tablets we don't take, nor anything soldered to a motherboard — the freephone, 0800 689 0668, settles borderline cases in a minute. Pickering, Norton, Kirkbymoorside, Helmsley and the villages between post in on exactly the same footing.
Nearly every job on our bench arrived by tracked, insured post — it's the quickest, safest route in. There's no collection service, so the parcel is yours to send or hand in.
Is the drive still inside a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Take the hard drive or SSD out first and post the bare drive on its own — removing drives from machines isn't a service we offer. Storage that's soldered to a motherboard (Apple Silicon Macs, certain slim laptops) is the one thing we can't work on: if it doesn't come out, it can't come in.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Address the parcel for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery — about 40 minutes from York via the A64 and A1(M), or next working day by tracked post. You'll hear from us the moment it's booked onto the bench.
Not certain what to pack? Ring 0800 689 0668 first, or run the free online diagnostic.
Free diagnosis, one fixed written figure, no fix no fee on most jobs — start online or ring the freephone.