Digital forensics · investigations across Devon
When a dispute is coming, how you handle the data matters as much as what it says. So nothing here is examined before it's imaged, every step goes in the log, and reports are written for a second expert — or a judge — to check line by line. Independent, discreet, and honest about exactly what this lab is and isn't.
A quiet word, in confidence
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| What's wrong | What the examination finds | What's returned |
|---|---|---|
| One computer that could decide a dispute | Write-blocked imaging first, then artefact, file and timeline analysis on the copy | Plain-English findings, in writing |
| A departed employee suspected of copying data | USB history, cloud and webmail traces, deletions and wiper activity, put in sequence | Material your HR team and lawyers can act on |
| Deleted files that matter legally | Proof of existence, timing and fate — recovered under forensic conditions | The files, plus the when and the how |
| A locked volume you're lawfully entitled to open | Passware attacks the encryption where a credential can be established | Opened contents and a documented method |
| A matter heading for a hearing | The same analysis, reported to the CPR Part 35 standard, or to CrimPR Part 19 | A court-compliant expert report |
| Footage held on a DVR or CCTV system | Recovered with the continuity chain kept whole — the CCTV pages cover it | Playable video plus its continuity record |
Each new instruction starts with a confidential conversation — what has happened, which devices and accounts matter, and what the evidence needs to prove. You then receive a single written quote, fixed before any examination begins, and that opening scoping work costs nothing.
Every exhibit is duplicated through a hardware write-blocker before anyone opens a file. The original is evidence, and browsing it is how evidence dies.
Analysis happens on the image, in tools like OSForensics: file activity, system artefacts, deleted data, timelines. Each action goes into the log as it's taken, not afterwards.
Findings come back in plain language, addressed to the question you asked, with the technical detail underneath. If the answer isn't the one you hoped for, you still get it.
You receive everything: report, exhibits and the files behind them, plus the hashes, the continuity record and our working notes. If a tribunal or another expert wants to test it later, they can walk the whole trail step by step.
The case for securing data privately, early: in December 2022 HMICFRS reported police digital-forensics queues of more than 25,000 devices awaiting examination; in June 2025 the Westminster Commission on Forensic Science found that, over a four-year span, England and Wales had seen more than 30,000 prosecutions fail for want of evidence — lost, missing or inadequate. Material preserved properly on day one never enters that queue.
| System | What it handles | Why we rate it |
|---|---|---|
| X-Ways Forensics | Deep examination of disk images — artefact review, activity records, deleted content, timelines | Lean, fast, and suited to a lab our size using it thoroughly instead of superficially |
| OSForensics | Sweeping, indexing and searching Windows installations and captured images | Broad first-pass discovery: registry contents, recent-use traces, USB device history |
| Passware | Opening encrypted volumes when the instruction is lawful and a credential can be recovered | The honest tool for encryption: it gets in or it doesn't, and we report which |
| Atola Insight Forensic | Forensic imaging, with hardware write protection and the hashing done in the same pass | As the image is taken the acquisition log writes itself — an unbroken record from the outset |
| ACE Lab PC-3000 & Data Extractor | Firmware-level work on exhibits that are also failing drives | Being half-dead doesn't stop a drive being evidence — it gets both disciplines at once |
The reason for the list: criminal procedure has, since 2019, required an expert to disclose anything that bears on their credibility — accreditation gaps included. Saying it plainly here isn't modesty; it's what keeps the evidence standing when someone attacks it.
One client was sure files had been stolen. The evidence pointed somewhere duller — a mis-set sync had stripped them from the shared drive, and most were recoverable. An honest answer ended the row faster than any accusation could have.
Capturing, analysing and reporting electronic data in a way that survives scrutiny: the device is imaged before any examination, every action is logged, and the findings are written so another examiner could retrace them.
Every matter is priced on its own facts: a free scoping call, then a single written quote for imaging, analysis and reporting before work begins. Nothing runs on an hourly clock.
No. We work on drives, computers, storage media and CCTV equipment; handsets and tablets sit outside our scope. If a phone turns out to matter in your case, we'll tell you straight and point you towards a specialist.
We're an independent lab with neither UKAS nor ISO accreditation, and we say so plainly — our reports declare it too, as the rules require. Instead we offer a method you can inspect: write-blocker imaging, hash checks, a documented trail, reports to CPR 35 or CrimPR 19.
Recorders overwrite on a loop, evidence weakens, time limits pass. Open a case early — the first look is free and confidential.