Home / Blog

From the lab

The answers we give Swindon over the phone every week, written down properly — by engineers, minus the jargon, the affiliate links and the invented urgency.

// troubleshooting · 7 min read

External hard drive not showing up? Work the checklist, not your luck

The observation-first method for a vanished drive — which checks are harmless, which Seagate and WD quirks mislead people, and the point where the lab takes over.

Read the guide →
// troubleshooting · 6 min read

A corrupted SD card is not an empty one — here's the safe way back

Why the formatting prompt is a trap, the five-minute tests that risk nothing, and how sector-level imaging brings a corrupted card's photos home.

Read the guide →
// business · 8 min read

Ransomware data recovery: the three routes your files come back by

Where files survive an attack, how to check for a free decryptor, the first-hour containment moves — and why no ransom gets paid, ever.

Read the guide →
// guides · 7 min read

Data recovery prices in the UK: what's fair, and what's a trick

The four fault tiers that set every price, 2026 market rates, three questions that expose pricing tricks — and what no fix, no fee has to mean.

Read the guide →
// business · 7 min read

IT disaster recovery in Swindon: the plan, the panic and the lab

IT disaster recovery and data recovery are different trades — which one a Swindon firm needs mid-incident, and the four habits that cancel most disasters.

Read the guide →
// guides · 8 min read

Factory reset a MacBook or iMac in the right order — files first, wipe second

Back up, sign out, then wipe — the correct order for Apple Silicon, T2 and Intel Macs, and the honest truth about what a reset leaves behind: nothing.

Read the guide →

Prefer to hand it to an engineer?

Free diagnostic inside 2 working days of arrival, one fixed quote, no fix no fee on logical faults — start online or ring the freephone.