TQ6 · Kingswear, the ferries and the castle · Dartmouth
Data recovery for Dartmouth. Three ferries and no bridge on the lower Dart; a failed drive needs neither.
Dartmouth sits on the west side of the River Dart. Opposite is Kingswear. There are three ferries connecting the two but no bridge until Totnes. The castle has stood at the mouth of Dartmouth's River Dart for more than 600 years. Looking down from its base on the hillside is the naval college, which was built in 1905. The parish had 5,259 residents according to the 2021 census. The district is managed by South Hams District Council. They also run the Lower Ferry. The work here happens either on or near the water. Brokers, surveyors and riggers use photos taken while surveying that they store on a laptop that resides on a pontoon. Crabbers record catches and marks using a plotter card, however nobody has ever copied it. Much of the housing is handled by lettings agency offices who maintain owner accounts and a schedule for all keysafes for the properties under their management, and they do so using one central office server. The museum, the Flavel and the Regatta committee (the Regatta was first mentioned in 1822, and the 181st was held in August 2026) scan their archives onto consumer grade hard drives. None of these drives will be opened here. Once a quote has been given, it will be sent, tracked and insured, to Castlemead, Lower Castle Street, Bristol, BS1 3AG, via Special Delivery through a Post Office counter or through a courier you book to your door, or you may personally deliver it to the address above, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. Having the drive diagnosed once it has been delivered there is free.
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What gives up in Dartmouth.
Not there? Head for the triage →| What's wrong | Why it's common locally | Step one |
|---|---|---|
| A surveyor's laptop that used to live on a pontoon but will no longer boot up | All the survey photographs, listings and job histories of brokers, surveyors, rigging crews and sailmakers on both banks are kept on one portable device | Don't try it again; get a quote first, then box just the drive as is |
| A lettings agency's office server that went quiet after losing electrical power | The town's holiday-let and second-home agencies run much of the housing in town, with owner accounts, guest info and keysafe schedules stored on a single machine | We recover the data; your IT support rebuilds |
| A crabber's plotter card that is now asking for formatting | The small commercial boat fleet based in the Dart carries marks and catch data on one original, un-copied card | Do not format it; take the card out, get a quote first, then post it: £250 + VAT |
| An external drive containing the Regatta archive that is clicking | The museum, the Flavel and the Regatta committee are scanning an historical record going as far back as 1822 onto consumer hard drives without making any secondary copies | Switch off and unplug it at the wall; no recovery software and no trying again |
| There are many photographs from a lifetime stored in a desktop tower located up the hill | Many of the people who live there all year round are retired. The family archives are stored on this one machine. And they do not want to take it anywhere | Get a quote first, then send us just the drive out of it. Never send us the entire tower |
The way a Dartmouth case goes.
Around Dartmouth.
Where else we cover →Four things Dartmouth asks us first.
Do you take drives from Kingswear and the river villages, or only from Dartmouth itself?
Both banks and every TQ6 postcode: the town, Kingswear on the opposite side of the River Dart, Stoke Fleming further along the coast, and the River Dart itself upstream past Dittisham. Each of the individual towns of Totnes, Brixham, Paignton and Torquay has its own dedicated page. None of them are different in what we offer, so whether you send a package from a boatyard in Kingswear or from the streets surrounding the Butterwalk, both will end up at the same bench in Bristol, having been dispatched via tracked post once you have your quote, or alternatively you can simply drop it off there (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed), with the same free diagnosis and the same return post paid by us.
Is there anywhere in Dartmouth to hand a drive over in person?
No. That's intentional: we have one laboratory, in Bristol, and no drop-off point in Dartmouth. Get a quote first, by phone or with the form. Once you receive the quote, send your drive by Royal Mail Special Delivery from your nearest Post Office branch, or book a tracked courier to come to your door: from a desktop up the hill, that would mean simply the drive, but not the tower. The intake laboratory will also accept your drive in person if you are in Bristol, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. It is Bristol Data Recovery, whose door is on Lower Castle Street, at Castlemead, Bristol, BS1 3AG.
Our lettings office server holds the owner accounts and every keysafe code we manage. Do we send the whole box?
Send the drives (not the box) once we have sent you your quote. With one single drive inside, that drive alone can be classified as the £300 + VAT band. Two or more drives? Power it off, remove each individual disk, mark the bay number on each individual disk and then post all of them, including the failed one; this will start at £500 + VAT. What's on them? The case receives a number upon arrival; each disk is then imaged read-only to create an image to do the work from; and the copy images are deleted thirty days after the disks arrive back in Dartmouth.
The survey photographs are on a laptop that has spent three seasons on a pontoon. Is it worth posting?
Typically, yes. If you have a machine that has been living on the Dart, there will be some salt in the ports and moisture under the keyboard, and that is something the bench team is familiar with. Please do not attempt to try it again and please store it away from the radiator. When ringing for your quote, please advise us of where the device has lived. Then box up just its drive, exactly as it is (we cannot take on storage that is soldered to the board, therefore if you are unsure whether or not it has storage soldered to the board, please ring us first). We provide a free diagnostic service, so you may determine, prior to spending the £300 + VAT a single drive costs, what can be brought back.
More like this in the casebook.
A Dartmouth drive usually needs a postage label, not a ferry ticket.
Shut it down. Say what you think happened. Take no decision until the free diagnosis comes back.