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                                                                                                  Spotlight by Mr Philip Griffiths
11-6-2019

 

 

Today Phil at Techs for Techs spoke to the Directors of EADR Alison and Steve Cook, about what services they provide 

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1. The history of EADR and how it all began
While running my own successful PC shops and IT maintenance businesses from 1996, I found myself in the position of having to act as a go-between for customers on the rare occasions I couldn’t get back data using typical software methods. It wasn’t always a good place to be, getting stuck in the middle of situations where a client wanted their data recovered but were unwilling to pay the (then) sky high fees. I knew there were hundreds, if not thousands of techs like me in the same boat and knew there had to be a better way of working which was beneficial to everyone.

As our full name implies, East Anglian Data Recovery Services was born initially to serve the East Anglian Region as a resource for both local techs and end users who needed someone human to put their faith and trust in. It wasn’t long before those area ‘boundaries’ were pushed through and we are very fortunate to work with some amazing clients, both in and out of the trade, from all corners of the UK and well into Europe too

2. What products and services do you offer?
Our business is predominantly recovering data from failed devices such as flash drives, hard drives, SSD and RAID in all their extensive types and formats. We can and do recover from backup tapes, CD/DVD’s etc, although the demand is much less these days. As with every business, we must keep up with the times and we are always working on ways to recover our client’s data more effectively and efficiently, as well as investing heavily in R&D on new devices that come through.

3. What are the most common faults you see?
In 95% of cases, people contact us because their local tech provider has been unable to recover their information by their preferred software means. Drives being unrecognisable or inaccessible means firmware or electrical faults are probably most common, closely followed by mechanical repairs such as head-stack assembly replacements and ultimately platter swaps.

4. Are there any cases which particularly stick in your mind?
Everybody that comes to us has a back story of why they need their data back but there are a few which are slightly more memorable than others. About 5 years ago there was a tidal surge around the North Norfolk coast, and we successfully assisted a local company whose file server had been completely submerged in the sea for 2 days, taking water ingress to the extreme! Also, a gentleman who had travelled back from the Far East and placed his external hard drive alongside a large bottle of liqueur in a backpack, which duly got broken (sticky, gooey mess). Just recently we helped a young man who had his car stolen, including his bag which had 3 backup drives in. The bag was thrown from the vehicle at speed and several following cars failed to avoid it, but amazingly it was located a couple of days later. One of the drives with glass platters was sadly smashed beyond recovery but we won the battle with the other two, one being a particular challenge.
With personal clients it’s almost always photographs that mean the most, especially when it involves family members or pets no longer with us. Business clients are usually looking for databases, accounts information to file with the authorities or increasingly, CCTV video footage.

 

5. What changes have you seen in the 9 years or so you have been trading?
The main changes have been the capacity of hard drives. When we first started, 250GB and 500GB were the norm, it was rare to see something over 1TB. Now people are regularly bringing in 4TB and larger drives and devices and even bigger RAID Arrays, with our largest recovered array to date consisting of 36 x 500GB drives with multiple failures. The other change is the shift towards flash media, and the ever more extensive use of SSDs.

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6. It is easy to partner with EADR?
Absolutely! We are not a company which ties people up with contracts and minimum throughputs, we’d rather just be there when you need us. If that’s 6pm on a Friday with a one-off emergency or you pass a client to us 2 or 3 times a month, it’s all good. What our clients tell us they like about working with us is that we are responsive, open and approachable, and whilst we could automate a lot of our communications, we prefer to have a personal approach as EVERY case we work through is different, and we fully understand that it is generally a very stressful time for the client involved.

7. How is T4T helping the industry?
Tech for Techs is a fabulous resource for its members. People love the reviews of products that they can sell because they know they have been tested by fellow ‘grass roots’ people that are working in the industry themselves. Best practices and tips ‘n’ tricks are openly shared by its members, and absolutely everyone can learn and benefit from the marketing and general business advice that’s offered. It’s great to see the sense of community there and how everyone helps each other - if you’ve got a problem or query, odds-on someone has been there and come out the other side. Oh, and we occasionally share the humorous side of dealing with customers and their Tech!!

 

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Call us on – 01953 667 977

EMAIL: info@eadr.co.uk

Website : https://www.eadr.co.uk