We do not have a lab or an office in Wollongong or the Illawarra. Our two nearest offices are both in Sydney: our main data recovery lab in Rhodes, NSW, and our Sydney CBD office. Either is roughly an hour and a half’s drive from Wollongong, depending on traffic. Wollongong customers send their device by post or courier, or bring it up to Sydney when the job is urgent.
Rhodes or the Sydney CBD: which one should you choose?
Both offices can give you an urgent assessment and, once you approve Emergency service, start work as quickly as possible. The difference is the kind of fault each one handles.
- Rhodes (Suite 213, Level 2, 5 Rider Boulevard, Rhodes NSW 2138) is our main lab, where the specialist work is done: hard drives with damaged heads, SSDs with a failed controller or NAND chip, logic board repairs on phones, tablets and MacBooks, and chip-off work. If your drive is clicking, your SSD is not detected, or your phone or MacBook has liquid damage, bring it to Rhodes.
- The Sydney CBD office handles most other jobs on site, such as hard drives with bad sectors or a damaged circuit board, file system problems, and RAID and NAS units. Specialist cases go from the CBD to Rhodes at no cost to you. See the Sydney office page for the current address and directions.
If you are not sure, call 1300 444 800 before you set off and tell us the symptoms. We will tell you which office suits your device.
Sending your device from Wollongong
- Submit a job online. You get a job number and a PDF address label for the box.
- Pack only the device, in a small firm box with bubble wrap on every side. Leave out chargers, cables, bags and cases.
- Send it the way that suits how urgent it is:
- Australia Post Express Post usually arrives the next business day, sometimes two. You pay the postage.
- A same-day courier, booked and paid by you, is faster when it cannot wait. Options include Zoom2U, TNT, StarTrack, DHL and FedEx, or compare services on Interparcel. What is available depends on your suburb and the time of day.
- Driving to Sydney is often the fastest option for a real emergency, because work can start as soon as you approve the quote.
What happens when it arrives
For every device except phones and tablets, the assessment and written quote are free. The quote explains the fault, the time involved, your chance of success, and the price for each of our three service levels: Economy, our standard and best value service; Priority, which puts your job ahead of Economy jobs; and Emergency, the fastest we can possibly work, including after hours. The success rate is the same for all three. Only the speed changes.
If you cannot wait for the free assessment, an urgent assessment costs $150 for a written quote in 1 to 2 hours, or $500 for a quote in 2 to 3 hours on RAID and NAS units.
Phones and tablets skip the assessment. They are a fixed price: $795 Economy, $1,500 Priority or $2,500 Emergency, and you need to know the passcode. Most hard drive, SSD, USB and memory card recoveries cost $375 to $1,750 on Economy. Most recoveries are no fix, no fee. Some complex cases have an attempt fee, then a completion fee only if the recovery is successful. You see your files before you pay. Every price and turnaround is on our data recovery cost page.
Out of hours
Our offices are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Outside those hours only Emergency service is available, and it usually starts from about $2,000. A non-refundable emergency assessment fee of $150, or $500 for RAID and NAS, applies, and our staff may need 1 to 2 hours’ notice to come in. For a genuine emergency after hours, call 0404 872 926. Read more about emergency data recovery.
Real jobs from Sydney customers
We have no published case study from a Wollongong customer yet. These two jobs from Sydney customers show the kind of work done at our Rhodes lab.
- Dropped drive from Gymea. Jessica’s Seagate external drive was pulled off a laptop onto a tile floor and one of its two heads failed. We imaged the good head first, then fitted a matched donor head in the laminar flow cabinet to read the rest. Every file came back, including all of her photos. Read the dropped hard drive case study.
- Liquid damaged MacBook Pro. Abdul’s MacBook Pro would not power on after a spill, and its storage is soldered to the logic board. We traced and cleared the short on the board, then recovered all of his photos, videos and documents. Read the MacBook Pro liquid damage case study.
What to do while you wait
Stop using the device. Do not run recovery software on a drive that clicks, freezes or is not detected, and do not let a computer format it. Check OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud and any backup drive first, because the files may already be safe. If a laptop or phone got wet, do not charge it or keep trying to turn it on.
Wollongong data recovery questions
Do you have an office in Wollongong?
No. Our nearest offices are our main lab in Rhodes, NSW and our Sydney CBD office, each roughly an hour and a half’s drive from Wollongong. You can bring your device to either one or send it by Express Post or a courier.
Should I bring my device to Rhodes or the Sydney CBD?
Bring a clicking hard drive, an SSD that is not detected, or a phone or MacBook with liquid or board damage to Rhodes, where that work is done. Most other jobs can go to either office. Call 1300 444 800 if you are not sure.
How long does Express Post take from Wollongong?
Express Post usually arrives the next business day, and sometimes takes two. A same-day courier or driving to Sydney is faster for an urgent job.
How quickly can work start once I bring it in?
During business hours, ask for an urgent assessment and approve Emergency service, and we start as quickly as possible. We cannot promise the job will finish the same day, but your quote gives you the expected time.
Can I come in on a weekend?
Only for Emergency service. A non-refundable emergency assessment fee of $150, or $500 for RAID and NAS, applies, Emergency usually starts from about $2,000, and our staff may need 1 to 2 hours’ notice. Call 0404 872 926 for genuine emergencies only.
Next step
Submit a job online, ask for a free quote or call 1300 444 800. For genuine emergencies after hours only, call 0404 872 926. Our main lab address, opening hours, directions and parking are on the Rhodes lab page.
International customers are always welcome. The easiest way to reach us from overseas is by email at help@payam.com.au, which works in every time zone.
