Data extraction & restoration

What we do

Data extraction. Proprietary systems can lock you and your data in. We work out how to get the data out, whether you want to import it into a new system or add an API or a dump for reporting.

Restoration. Often what survives is a backup, an archive or a dump from a system that no longer exists, and nothing left that can open it. We work out the format and rebuild the data from it, so it's readable and usable again rather than sitting in a file nobody can open.

Reverse engineering. Many legacy systems and binary formats are long forgotten or were never documented. We have experience reverse-engineering their data and structures, and we return your data in a modern, accessible format.

Tools and APIs. We can give you tools you can re-run or schedule for routine extracts. And if the old system has to keep running because it still maintains the data, we can graft a modern API onto it.

How we work

The first step is discovery. We assess what can be extracted, what may be possible with further work, and what cannot. You get that assessment before you commit to anything substantial.

Extraction is non-destructive. We work from copies rather than originals, and verify everything against a known-good sample. We can offer reconciliation, so you can prove what came out matches what went in.

You keep the tooling. The data comes back in a documented, open format, along with the code we wrote to produce it or the system providing the API. Once we're done it's all yours.

Who it's for

Companies migrating off a system nobody supports, where the vendor is gone and the export path was never built.

Legal and compliance teams who need records from an archive that predates the current platforms.

Anyone quoted an unreasonable sum by a vendor to export their own data.

You need a clear right to the data. Where ownership is contested, that has to be settled before we start. If you're not sure where you stand, ask — we'll tell you what we'd need to see.

What we don't do

Hardware recovery. We don't recover data from damaged or failed drives, and we don't have a clean room. If the media is physically broken, you need a specialist recovery lab. Once the data has been read off it, we can take it from there.