Files, drives and backups
Your files matter more than the machine they sit on.
These guides cover where deleted files go and how long each bin keeps them, the warning signs of a failing drive, what to do when a computer asks for a 48-digit recovery key, how to back up before a repair or before anything goes wrong, whether files can still be reached when a laptop will not turn on, and how to wipe a laptop or phone properly before it is sold or recycled. The rule that runs through all of them is simple: copy what matters before anything else happens. If something has already gone, the data recovery page explains how we approach it, including when a specialist laboratory is the answer.
The guides
9 guides on this, newest first.
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Lost files: what you can try yourself, what a repairer does, and when a laboratory is the answer
Deleted, not damaged? Where to look first on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Google, why to stop using the drive, and when only a clean-room laboratory can help.
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Selling, recycling or giving away a laptop or phone: how to wipe it properly
How to wipe a Windows laptop, Mac, iPhone or Android phone before it goes: back up, sign out, erase, take out the SIM, and recycle it properly in the UK.
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Setting up a new laptop and moving your files across, without losing anything
A new laptop is exciting until you realise everything you need is still on the old one. The order to do things in, what to move and what to leave, the accounts that trip people up, the clutter worth removing on day one, and why the old machine should stay switched on until you have checked.
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After your repair: keeping the machine right
What a repair does and does not do, what settling in looks like in the first week, and the small habits that keep a machine going: heat, dust, batteries, chargers and backups.
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Your computer is asking for a 48-digit recovery key. What that is, and where yours is.
The blue screen demanding a BitLocker recovery key nobody remembers being given. What it actually is, where yours is almost certainly stored, and the answer if it is gone.
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Your laptop will not turn on. Can you still get your files off it?
A laptop that is completely dead usually still has your files intact. Why the drive is normally the survivor, what makes recovery harder, and the one thing not to do while you decide.
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How to back up your files before a repair (or before anything goes wrong)
How to back up what matters before you hand a machine over: what to save first, where to put it, and how to copy it across when the computer will barely start.
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Spilled a drink on your laptop? What to do in the first ten minutes
A spill is a race against corrosion, not just water. The calm first-aid steps that give your laptop the best chance, and the mistakes that make it worse.
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The warning signs your hard drive is failing, and what to do about it
Strange noises, sudden slowdowns, files that vanish: the early warnings of a failing hard drive, the first thing to do, and the mistakes that make it worse.
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Reading is free. So is a first opinion.
Tell us the fault and you get a first opinion, free: what it sounds like, whether it is worth doing, and what it is likely to cost. A photo of the screen or the machine helps. A visit has a £50 call-out, agreed before we travel, which is the first £50 of the job rather than an extra on top. You get one fixed quote, agreed in writing, before any work starts. If we cannot fix the fault we quoted for, you pay nothing for the repair. No Fix, No Fee covers the repair, not the call-out.