DT7 · the Cobb, the Lym and Uplyme · Lyme Regis
Data recovery for Lyme Regis. Fossil records, boat drawings and a lifetime's photographs, posted from DT7.
The Dorset Council town of Lyme Regis is located at the far western edge of the county of Dorset. If you travel along the River Lym up to Uplyme, then you will be entering the county of Devon. According to a town profile from Dorset Council (population figures as of mid-2024), the total number of residents within Lyme Regis is 3,560, and 42 per cent of these residents are aged 65 or older. Many aspects which are important in this town are based around a single machine. Fossil collectors and sellers utilise a single laptop for keeping locality records, photographs taken during the preparation process, and their stock catalogues. Likewise, the engineers and surveyors responsible for monitoring the Cobb carry their drone surveys and photogrammetry on portable SSDs. Boat builders on Monmouth Beach maintain their lofting drawings and CNC files. Guest house operators, holiday let owners and gift shops operate bookings, menus and decades' worth of photographs of their properties utilising the PC located behind the counter. Retirees use an old laptop to store the family photographs as well as their family history research. Sea salt, moisture and carrying a laptop up and down the hill do the remainder. There has been no rail service in Lyme Regis since 1965 and there is no counter here, so after receiving your quote, by either telephone or completing the quote form, a Lyme drive goes to our laboratory in Bristol via tracked, insured postal service, or you can personally drop it off at our Bristol laboratory (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm), with no appointment needed before arriving; we also provide a free diagnosis upon receipt.
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Five Lyme Regis losses, from fossil laptop to plotter card.
Not there? Head for the triage →| What's wrong | Why it's common locally | Step one |
|---|---|---|
| A fossil dealer has a laptop that is unstartable | All locality information, photos of preparations and inventory records for the shop are located on a single laptop, and none of it can be collected again | Switch it off and do not restart it; no second attempt to boot |
| A guest house booking PC that is dead at peak season | Bookings, menus, accounts and decades' worth of photos of the property, all kept behind the counter at the guest house | We recover the data; your IT support rebuilds |
| A chartplotter card from an angling boat with unreadable data | Angling and charter captains have all their marks and logging data stored on a card that is used in salt air | Do not format it just because the plotter wants you to. Get a quote first and then post it exactly as it is |
| A portable SSD used by a surveyor, which will no longer show up | Drone surveying and photogrammetry of the Cobb travel in a coat pocket from shore to office | Unplug it and don't try other ports; SSDs are made worse with each port test |
| The old laptop of a retired resident containing the only copy of the family photos | In this area, more than four in every ten people are over 65, and a wealth of scans and family history research has been built up on one ageing computer | Ring us first to receive a quote (we can help guide you through how to pack just your hard drive), and the look is free |
Lyme Regis to Bristol and back: the four parts of a case.
Close to Lyme Regis.
Our whole patch →Asked from Lyme Regis, answered from Bristol.
My locality records, preparation photographs and stock catalogue are on one laptop that will not start. Is that recoverable, and what does it cost?
Normally, yes, and we would like to get to this one first, before anyone else has had a go at it. A single laptop hard drive, taken out of the computer, will be in the price band of £300 + VAT. We do an initial read-only image of the drive before anything else, so we don't work with the original data directly, and you can label your critical folders (the site notes, the prep photos, the catalogue etc), which allows us to check all the retrieved information against these. There is no charge for diagnosing how badly damaged the data is; nothing is charged until you have the quote in writing and confirm that you want to proceed.
I am in Uplyme, on the Devon side of the border. Does that change anything?
No. Uplyme is in Devon and Lyme Regis is in Dorset; however, a postal item has no preference as to which county it was sent from. Lyme Regis, Uplyme and Charmouth, all three areas in this section, post to the same address, and Axminster, Seaton and Bridport also have separate pages for the next town down the line. Regardless of where a tracked parcel originates, it will usually be on the Bristol bench by the next working day. We also cover the return leg.
I have a drawer of memory cards from years of holidays and a laptop that no longer switches on. Is that too small a job to send?
No. Memory cards and memory sticks are placed into the £250 + VAT category, and your laptop's hard drive goes into the £300 + VAT category. The cost of a diagnosis will be nothing, and this will tell you what can still be read. Request a quote first. Then we ask that you send us both the memory cards/sticks which hold data of importance to you along with the laptop drive. In addition to sending these items we would appreciate a note detailing what type of information/data each contains. If you would like help with how to pack the drives/memory cards before they go out, please ring us first and we will do our best to walk you through the process. Once received, we pay the return postage.
Can I bring it to somebody in Lyme Regis instead of posting it?
No, we do this intentionally. Lyme Regis has no counter, no van, and no collection service. One lab with the appropriate equipment serves every town, and once a quote (which can be obtained either via telephone or using our quote form) has been provided, a tracked, insured parcel will reach the laboratory from DT7 as quickly as parcels sent from any other location. Want to drop off your items personally? Drop-offs may be made Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed, at Bristol Data Recovery's laboratory, located at Castlemead on Lower Castle Street in central Bristol, BS1 3AG. In either event, you will receive a case number and the initial diagnosis will be free.
More like this in the casebook.
Leave the drive switched off in Lyme Regis; the rest happens in Bristol.
Shut it down. Say what you think happened. Take no decision until the free diagnosis comes back.