Two roads into the lab: hand it over in central Edinburgh, or post it insured from anywhere in Scotland. Either way, the diagnostic is free, and the first conversation costs nothing but the call.
The lab sits on Princes Street in the city centre — a few minutes on foot from Waverley station and served by nearly every bus and tram in Edinburgh. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm; no appointment needed for drop-offs, though a quick call ahead on 0131 202 0491 means we can talk through the fault while you’re here. Bring the device as it is — for laptops, the whole machine is fine; for desktops, NAS boxes and servers, just the drives if you’re comfortable removing them.
Post to Edinburgh Data Recovery, 83 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2ER — fully insured and tracked, always. Pack the device so it cannot move: a padded envelope inside a small box beats a big box full of air. Include a note with your name, phone number and a line on what happened. Two rules that save recoveries: for RAID and NAS, remove the disks and label each with its bay position (1, 2, 3…) — the enclosure and controller can stay home; and for anything that’s been dropped or is clicking, don’t power it on ‘one last time’ before boxing it. Print and enclose the shipping form if you can — it carries everything the bench needs. We’ll confirm arrival, and the free diagnostic typically completes within 24–48 hours.
Call 0131 202 0491, Monday to Friday 9–6. Describe the device and what happened and you’ll get honest first advice on the spot — including ‘you can probably fix this yourself’ when that’s the truth. Prefer to start online? The free diagnostic page takes the same details and we’ll ring you back.
No — walk in any weekday between 9am and 6pm. If you call ahead we'll be ready for you, and for RAID or server jobs a heads-up helps us plan the intake, but the door works fine unannounced.
With two precautions, yes — thousands arrive this way. Immobilise the drive in its packaging (snug beats spacious) and send it insured and tracked. A drive that has already failed isn't made worse by a normal journey; it's made worse by being powered on.
We don't run a collection service — it's one of the ways the pricing stays honest. Drop-off and insured post cover every case we see, and for genuinely immovable hardware (racked servers), call and we'll talk through the options.