News & Blog - Cheadle DATA Recovery Ltd

Data Recovery, not debt or car recovery in Manchester

In Blog, Information, Manchester Data Recovery by AdministratorJuly 10, 2013

Data Recovery Only. It looks like a naughty company is sending out letters about debt recovery using the initials “CDR” to residents across Manchester, using the following address, and providing …

No more Seagate Barracuda. I’ll miss the silly names.

In Blog, Hard Disk Drive News by AdministratorJuly 5, 2013

Seagate HDD name changes. For more years than I care to remember it has always been the Seagate Barracuda range. You knew what you were getting, a 3.5″ desktop hard …

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itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny – Seagate ships 5mm Laptop HDD

In Blog, Hard Disk Drive News by AdministratorJuly 3, 2013

5mm HDD from Seagate. Seagate ships 5mm Laptop Ultrathin hard drive to ASUS, Dell and more during June 2013. Not much to say other than they are getting smaller, faster …

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Information: Hard disk drive firmware failures

In Blog, Information by AdministratorJuly 2, 2013

Firmware failures – what are they? At CDR we try to give customers plenty of information to help them understand how their hard disk drive or solid state disk has failed, what can be …

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Finger-print encrypted USB memory stick – what could go wrong?

In Blog, Successful recovery by AdministratorJune 25, 2013

Encryption & Data Recovery CDR – Manchester Data Recovery Services – received this job in from a teacher in Shropshire. Understandably the school where the teacher was based had a …

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Mechanical failure – read/write heads & spindle motor

In Blog, Information by AdministratorJune 9, 2013

Understanding a HDD mechanical failure. At CDR we try to give customers plenty of information to help them understand how their hard disk drive or solid state disk has failed, what can be done …

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Difficult donor parts – HDD headmap mismatch

In Blog, Hard Disk Drive News by AdministratorJune 4, 2013

Hard to find donor parts for HDD recovery. This is a hard disk drive that we received earlier in the month. The HDD had a failure of the read/write heads. …

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Spring Bank Holiday working hours

In Blog, Information by AdministratorMay 26, 2013

Bank Holiday Working Hours Cheadle DATA Recovery Ltd will be closed from noon on Friday the 24th of May, 2013, up to and including Monday the 27th of May. Normal …

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Information: failed HDD printed circuit board (PCB)

In Blog, Information by AdministratorMay 14, 2013

Recovering data from a failed printed circuit board (PCB) failure. At CDR we try to give customers plenty of information to help them understand how their hard disk drive or …

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Excellent

Cheadle DATA Recovery Ltd5.0

Based on 382 reviews

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Phill Dixon

19 hours ago

Spoke to John at Cheadle Data Recovery about an enterprise grade HDD that needed recovery.
He was completely upfront that the helium filled nature meant it was out of scope but hen spent a great deal of time and effort putting me in contact with places that could.

He has made absolutely nothing off my call but spent 40 mins trying to help and recommending other very specialist recovery firms that could potentially help and explaining the process.

Absolutely brilliant service

Response from the owner:Hello Phill, thank you for the review. Helium filled HDDs present a major technical challenge for data recovery companies when the mechanical components have failed within the HDD. I am not aware of any UK based data recovery company that has a proven success record when working on mechanical failed helium filled hard disks. As such I recommend HelpDisc/HDDSurgery in Serbia or Morde in Portugal who are making genuine recovery attempts on these disks. Both of which perform work on a 'no-recovery, no-fee' basis, and do not charge for the donor HDD.

Unfortunately, I am aware of certain UK based data recovery companies which have charged £1000+ upfront for a recovery attempt on a helium filled disk, where no data has been subsequently recovered, and then on inspection of the disk it has been found that no work has actually taken place. As such, I advise those people with Helium filled HDDs to be cautious of some claims made by certain data recovery companies regarding their technical capabilities and to check the terms of work before any payment is made to the company.

Whilst CDR does not work on mechanically failed helium HDDs, we do still work on helium HDDs which have suffered failure associated with the firmware, printed circuit board, bad sectors/degraded media and corruption of the filesystem.

Best regards, John C. Reid.

RDC Creative Media

1 week ago

I have used Cheadle Data Recovery twice now for failed hard drives, John was so helpful and informative about both jobs and he went above and beyond to make sure that I was completely satisfied. I would HIGHLY recommend Cheadle Data Recovery to anyone looking for help with recovery issues. John is flexible, down to earth and just an all round great guy. I will be using him again if I ever have any issues!

Response from the owner:Hello Rudie, I am glad we were able to bring the job to a positive conclusion and I appreciate the unsolicited review. Best regards, John C. Reid.

LM M

2 weeks ago

I’m not usually someone who posts reviews, but in this case, I felt it was absolutely warranted. My only regret is that I didn’t find Dr. John Reid sooner.
Before reaching him, I had already wasted time, money, and a great deal of emotional energy. I had almost accepted that everything on my Toshiba 2TB drive my personal work, studies, sentimental family photos and videos, and professional work dating back to 2022 was gone for good. Other so-called “professionals” either refused to take on the job due to its complexity or simply didn’t have the expertise.
As a last resort, I emailed John one evening. By 9:00am the next morning, he had already called me. From the start, he was thorough, clear in his explanations, and completely upfront about costs and realistic expectations. I really appreciated that he didn’t offer false hope and maintained professionalism throughout.
I decided to take a chance and made a 70-minute journey with a small glimmer of hope. When I arrived, John didn’t just take the hard drive and send me away he took the time to explain in detail what the issue might be, the possible solutions, and even gave me advice on how to care for hard drives in the future.
He promised an update by the end of the day and he delivered. After I clarified that the drive was 2TB rather than 1TB, he provided a revised quote, which I agreed to. I placed my trust in him while keeping my expectations realistic.
Throughout the process, John kept me informed. When he said recovery might be possible, I remained cautiously optimistic. Then came the moment of truth: I received a link showing which files were recoverable. To my amazement, only a minimal number were damaged.
The relief and happiness I felt seeing those files again is hard to put into words. I truly cannot thank John enough.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to anyone. The journey was absolutely worth it for such a professional and dedicated service—and I will definitely return with other devices I had previously given up on.
Thank you so much, John.

Response from the owner:Hello "LM M", I am not sure which job/disk this refers to, but thank you for taking the time to write the review and the sentiments. It's worth noting that you chose to visit in person, and it was possible for me to inspect your device during your visit. Unfortunately, on Google Maps a number of data recovery companies have created fake office listings in Manchester (and other city centres) where there are no staff, only a PO Box/Virtual Office. Best regards, Dr John C. Reid.

Scott Douglas Audio

2 weeks ago

Really honest guy, he’s not in the business of ripping anyone off, and actually helped me fix the problem myself/save a lot of money.

Although I didn’t need Johns services this time I would absolutely recommend anyone get in touch. God forbid but if I ever have another data disaster I’m coming here first!!!

Response from the owner:Hello Scott, thank you for the review. Over the phone I aim to provide advice that is in a potential customer's best interest. In this case, due the nature of the fault, I advised just waiting a couple of days, as it was possible that the SSD would re-enter an accessible state.

It is also this very situation as to why certain data recovery companies offer free (same day) collection services - they want to minimize the opportunity that a potential customer has to resolve the issue in their own time, and know there could be a quick and easy fix.

This is why I typically advise, that where possible, someone facing data loss should take their time, and consider a data recovery service provider carefully - generally it is a good idea to look beyond the Google sponsored/paid adverts at the top of the search results.

Best regards,
John C. Reid.

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Data Recovery, not debt or car recovery in Manchester

No more Seagate Barracuda. I’ll miss the silly names.

itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny – Seagate ships 5mm Laptop HDD

Information: Hard disk drive firmware failures

Finger-print encrypted USB memory stick – what could go wrong?

Mechanical failure – read/write heads & spindle motor

Difficult donor parts – HDD headmap mismatch

Spring Bank Holiday working hours

Information: failed HDD printed circuit board (PCB)

News

New Year 2026 – Business Resumes

Christmas 2025 Working Hours

CDR – Closed: 26th May to 6th June, 2025.

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