Whatever part of Philadelphia you’re in, Manayunk, University City, Old City, or Rittenhouse Square just moments from Center City – research data has a shape we recognize immediately. It accumulates for years on one machine. It is rarely backed up properly, because backing it up was always going to happen after the next deadline. It is often in formats only one piece of software can open. And a great deal of it cannot be regenerated at any price — the subjects have moved on, the funding period closed, the instrument time is gone, the fieldwork season ended.

It is also the most time-bound work we handle. Defense dates, grant submissions, conference deadlines and IRB timelines do not move because a drive failed. That pressure is exactly what makes academic cases go wrong: someone spends four days trying things before making the call, and those four days are what decides the outcome.

So tell us the date first. We will tell you honestly whether it’s achievable rather than taking your money to find out. Some cases go back the same week. A mechanical failure needing a matched donor drive depends on sourcing that nobody can rush, and you deserve to know that on day one.