Salt air, seasonal trade and more photographs than almost anywhere in Yorkshire: failed drives and memory cards from coastal Scarborough arrive at our Leeds lab by tracked post and receive a straight answer within two working days.
Scarborough jobs get a free diagnosis. You get one fixed quote in writing before any work begins, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
We receive more photogenic failures from Scarborough than probably anywhere else in the county, and they're also some of the hardest working. There are many photographers here who make a living from it: the castle headland weddings and the Wolds venue shoots, for example. The seascape and wildlife photographers regularly capture images of both bays. Every summer, families fill up cards while holidaying on the front. Cards stored in camera bags along this coastline tend to be subjected to much harsher conditions than most: salt in the air, rain and moisture on equipment, cold mornings, and an entire season's worth of inserting and removing. Beyond the photographers lies the local economy built around tourism: hotels and guest houses that cannot afford to lose their booking systems during peak season, arcades and other seafront businesses with tills and CCTV recorders, and fishermen and harbour businesses whose paperwork is often held on a single ageing laptop. And beyond those businesses lie the YO11 to YO13 households, who like everyone else suffer from broken external drives and dead laptops, but in addition enjoy a sea view.
There’s nothing at all to carry. After you get your quote (0800 689 0668 or the free online diagnostic), just wrap the drive, or tape the memory card inside folded stiff card so it doesn’t rattle around in transit, and send it by tracked post from any counter in town; it will be in our Leeds lab the next working day (Leeds Data Recovery, 17th Floor, The Pinnacle, Albion Street, Leeds LS1 5AA). There is no collection service to wait on. If a drive can't wait for the postbox, you can run it down the A64 yourself and hand it in at the Leeds lab's reception, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm; we don’t require appointments. Either way, your free diagnostic will be completed within two working days after the package has arrived: your fault identified, a realistic chance of success explained as honestly as possible, a fixed price quoted in writing and your decision made without any pressure.
The terms are always the same for every town this website serves, phrased only once for the coast. For purely logical work (i.e., corrupted cards, deleted folders, a drive that mounts but won’t read), you only pay if we recover your data. For any issue that requires us to open the hardware (a dropped drive’s head swap, a salt-corroded board, any kind of water damage), we charge half the quote upfront for the invasive stage, with the balance only paid if we recover your data. Forensic-classed issues (i.e., ransomware, CCTV, BitLocker) are paid in full upfront once you accept the fixed quote. We don't take phones or tablets, and storage soldered to a motherboard is outside what we take in; one call to 0800 689 0668 sorts any doubt before you pack. Recovered work comes home on fresh media, tracked to your door.
Get a quote first, by calling us on 0800 689 0668 or using our free online diagnostic tool. After receiving your quote, tracked and insured post is how nearly every job reaches us: it is the fastest and safest way to get your drive to our lab in Leeds. There's no collection service, so the parcel is yours to send, or you can hand it in at the Leeds lab's reception.
Is the hard drive or SSD still inside a machine, such as a laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV/DVR system or server? Please remove the hard drive or SSD from the machine first and then post just the bare drive by itself; we do not provide a service for removing drives from devices. For a server or RAID, send every disk, each clearly marked with its bay. For a NAS, send its disks labelled by bay if you can remove them, otherwise send the NAS itself. We cannot work on storage soldered to the motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs, T2 Macs and certain slim laptops): if it doesn't come out, it can't come in. If you are unsure whether your storage is removable, call us before sending.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Once you have your quote, send your package addressed to Leeds Data Recovery (about a 40 minute drive from York on the A64 & A1(M) or next working day if you want to send it using trackable post). We will contact you as soon as we have taken delivery of your package and put it in line to be worked upon.
Not sure what to pack? Call 0800 689 0668 first, or use our free online diagnostic.
Start online or ring us on the freephone for a free diagnosis and one fixed price in writing. On most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data.