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EDR / Places we cover / South Molton

EX36 · Pathfields · the edge of Exmoor · South Molton

Data recovery, South Molton. Farm laptop drives and Pathfields server disks usually go in the post; the first look is free.

South Molton (a market town of approximately 6,300 people) is located on the River Mole, near Exmoor's southern edge. It belongs to North Devon Council as opposed to Mid Devon Council, although the Link Road does run east from it to the M5. South Molton was incorporated as a borough by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and it still markets sheep: every Thursday, Stags auction approximately 1,200 prime lambs here. In addition to this, Mole Valley Farmers, the co-operative which began in the town in 1960, is still registered at Pathfields Business Park. What fails for us here is farm data: a flock register and medicine book on a laptop that took a knock in the Land Rover, an old Windows server for a feed merchant at Pathfields, and a single external drive that is now beginning to make clicking noises, containing thirty years of scanned parish registers. The station closed in October 1966, and the A361 is built upon the track bed of the railway line, running west of the town, so nothing changes hands here. Once you receive your quote, either over the telephone or by filling out our form, tracked post takes the drive east along the A361 to the M5 at Junction 27, and then up to the Bristol laboratory. Alternatively, you can drop off your drive there during normal working hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm), with no appointment needed. There are no charges for having it examined there first.

Tracked in or dropped off · return post free Diagnosis free when it arrives One written price, fixed

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What fails around South Molton, from farmhouse to Pathfields.

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What's wrongWhy it's common locallyStep one
The farmhouse laptop on which this farmer keeps his flock register, the movement records for ARAMS, and the medicine bookThis is a farming district for sheep, and this laptop travels in the Land Rover and has taken many knocks a desktop computer would have avoidedDo not keep restarting it; get a quote first, then send out only the drive (with the power switched off)
A tablet belonging to the contracting company, containing maps of the fields, spraying records and invoices for the current seasonIt travels from spring through to harvest in a tractor cab, and there are no other copies of the spraying records anywhereDo not recharge or reset it; because tablets are not taken on, you should not attempt to send it
The memory stick that holds your export of milk recording data and the only backup for the parlour computerAround South Molton, dairies back up their parlour to one stick, and it lives in a jacket pocket until the day when it opens slowlyImage it before it completely fails to read anything
A red light on one bay at a unit at Pathfields, on its NASAgricultural engineers, feed merchants, seed merchants and a haulier all have ageing Windows servers and a NAS no one looks atShut it off before getting a quote, remove all disks possible, then mark the bay numbers on each disk (if you cannot remove the disks, the whole NAS will be sent) and don't push rebuild
A clicking external hard drive containing thirty years of scanned parish registersDigitised family history projects for the South Molton area are placed onto an external portable drive which is duplicated to no other location than this driveRemove power at the first click and do not attempt to use it in any other computer
Posting it to us: get a quote first, by phone or with the form, then post it (with tracking and insurance) to our secure intake laboratory in Bristol. We will take care of the return postage. Please include the completed shipping form in the box as well. Alternatively, you can drop it off at our laboratory during the hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. Packing guidance can be found on our contact page.

Where a South Molton parcel goes, and what comes back.

The Link Road to Junction 27, then the M5A parcel from South Molton can be sent east on the A361 (North Devon Link Road) to the M5 at Junction 27 and then north to the lab door, which is Bristol Data Recovery's, located as follows: Castlemead, Lower Castle Street, Bristol, BS1 3AG. Royal Mail Special Delivery, or any other tracked courier, will carry this leg of your journey from a post office in the town. The return journey will also be covered by us. There is no collection service for parcels in the area of EX36, and we do not have a counter service available here. To obtain a quote, please use our quotation form or call us directly. Once you have obtained a quote, you may either post the package to us using the address above or drop off the package at the lab door yourself, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed.
A stopped business is flagged, not queuedTell us when you contact us if a feed merchant can't raise a delivery note, a haulier has lost their job sheets, or ten years of bookings for your Exmoor-edge holiday cottage are stuck on a dead office PC; then this case will be flagged as priority: we'll open it on arrival day, have it imaged within our opening times, provide a single written figure once it's diagnosable enough, and make a phone call instead of waiting.
Servers and NAS: the disks travel, the chassis usually staysDon't post the box itself (the whole NAS comes only if you can't remove its disks). Remove all the disks, assign a number to each that is the same as the bay they were in originally, and once you have a quote, send them all off (the ones that have been identified by the system as bad too). Under no circumstances should you attempt to rebuild the array, because a rebuild over another failing disk will simply complete the job the first one started. The read-only images made of the disks are what the bench rebuilds your array from. Prices start from £500 + VAT.
Priced once, in writing, with the VAT shownThe diagnosis will be done at no cost. Prior to being charged for anything, you receive one price (fixed and written): one drive, £300 + VAT; a memory stick/card, £250 + VAT; a second disk involved, from £500 + VAT; along with a list of the recovered files to compare to your expectations. The VAT invoice follows, and thirty days after the drive is received by you, the copies that were created will be deleted.

By South Molton.

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Asked from South Molton, answered from Bristol.

Is there a counter in South Molton, or a collection on market day?

Neither, and by design. There is no counter in South Molton, no van, and nobody will be meeting you on the Square to hand over your drive on a Thursday. Every case is worked at one lab in Bristol. First get a quote, either over the phone or via our form. Then send the drive to us, either by postal service (tracked and insured) from a post office counter in South Molton, or if you are driving up the M5 anyway, drop off your drive personally at the lab door in Bristol, which is Bristol Data Recovery's: Castlemead, Lower Castle Street, Bristol, BS1 3AG. We operate Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, and do not require an appointment. The return trip home to EX36 will be paid for by us.

Which places around South Molton do you take work from?

The entire area of EX36: the town, Pathfields Business Park, North Molton, and all farms to the Exmoor border and down to the Mole. We receive parcels from both sides of the Link Road: Hacche Lane and Borners Bridge on the Barnstaple side, and east towards Junction 27. Also parcels are received from the Tarka Line side at King's Nympton. Because we normally get it by postal delivery after a quote, or you drop it off yourself at the Bristol intake lab (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed), for us the only geography you need provide is your postcode.

Years of Thursday market takings are in one spreadsheet on a laptop that will not start. Is a spreadsheet easier to get back than photographs?

Regardless of file size, the status of the hard drive is most important. Laptops that refuse to start have typically lost either their drive or their power supply; in this case, the files will still be there. Once we've made an image of the drive as read-only, your spreadsheet will come back in the listing showing when it was last saved, and this date can be checked before making payment. One drive costs £300 + VAT, and a memory stick containing all of the takings would cost £250 + VAT. Leave the laptop turned off, and after obtaining a quote, post only the drive.

A decade of the saddlery's pattern scans is on one external drive that no longer shows up. Where do we start?

Unplug it and try no further with other cables and other computers; all you are doing is spinning your disk into failure. If it makes noise while it is running (clicks or buzzes), the issue is mechanical and will require a bench rather than a fix via software. Get a quote first, then post it tracked and whole, with its cable and power supply. Tell us what the scans mean for the business, and we'll provide a completely free diagnosis that identifies which parts can be read from the failed unit. A single external drive costs £300 + VAT, there's an agreed fixed price that is written down before work begins, and when the job is done the drive is returned at our cost.

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Get a quote and pack it in South Molton; the first look in Bristol is free.

Shut it down. Say what you think happened. Take no decision until the free diagnosis comes back.

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