Data recovery for students; coursework, and dissertations lost?
It’s nearly Easter. For most people that means the end of Lent, Easter eggs and two days of the national bank holiday in the UK. However, for most of the UK’s university students, it also means that there are many coursework deadlines due. Coursework which is nearly all created on a computer. In short data. This week we’ve had 5 university students into CDR – Manchester Data Recovery Services – for data recovery. In each case there has been either a lost project, dissertation, and Ph.D. thesis which has required submission imminently. Missing a deadline can lead to a capped top mark (usually a ‘pass’ or ‘third’ grade). This can make a difference to the overall degree mark.
The storage devices received this week have consisted of 3 failed external hard disk drives, 1 failed laptop hard disk and 1 failed
memory stick. There has been a mixture of mechanical failures in the hard disk drives, accidental deletions and bad sectors. All of these failures have come just before a critical deadline. This week CDR has been able to make a successful recovery of 4 out of the 5 cases. In some cases, this has meant ignoring the mechanical fault in the external HDD and finding temporary or deleted files on the student’s laptop which have a version of the required data in. Often there are multiple methods in which to recover the critical data which is required.
Contact your tutor immediately
Several years ago I used to teach undergraduate students at university. Consequently, the advice that I give when any prospective student customer is as follows:
- Contact your supervisor/lecturer to tell them about your situation immediately. The further away the deadline is the more sympathetic they are likely to be.
- Turn off your storage device (HDD, SSD, memory stick) and do not attempt to DIY data recovery your device; it could lead to permanent data loss.
- Please call CDR on 0161 408 4857, we will be able to provide you with sensible and practical advice.
- Please consider that in some situations it is not possible to recover data successfully. During the time the data recovery work is taking place you should consider what the outcomes will be if it is not possible to recover the data and take steps with this time to moderate the effects.
Special Student Data Recovery Terms
CDR – Manchester Data Recovery Services – offers the following special terms for students:
- Faster services at no additional cost if there is a course work deadline to be met.
- All work is on the usual, “no-recovery, no-fee” basis.
Manchester-based Universities
Please note that CDR is an approved supplier to The University of Manchester, The University of Salford, and Manchester Metropolitan University and many others in the UK. If you are a member of this institution it is worth checking with your department whether the cost of the data recovery services may be met by the university. Please note that in our experience this in only the case with research staff and Ph.D. students.