A free written diagnostic, then a fixed quote before any work begins — and no fix, no fee on most jobs. Below is exactly what each device costs to recover, how our pricing works, and the questions we hear most often.
Your exact price is confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic — never before.
No estimates over the phone and no work without your say-so. Every recovery follows the same four steps.
Drop off or post your device and we assess it at no charge, usually within 48 hours — what failed, what's recoverable, and what it will cost.
You get a clear, fixed price in writing before anything chargeable happens. No work begins until you approve it.
On most jobs, if we can't recover your data you don't pay the recovery fee. You've nothing to lose by letting us look.
Physical drive-level repairs need matched donor parts and bench time, so those take a 50% payment upfront — balance only on success.
Starting prices by job type, excluding VAT. Your exact price is confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic.
What we recover from each device type and where its pricing starts. Tap through for the full detail and device-specific FAQs.
| Device | From | |
|---|---|---|
| Hard Drive | £300 | details → |
| SSD & NVMe | £300 | details → |
| USB Stick | £250 | details → |
| Memory Card | £250 | details → |
| External HDD | £300 | details → |
| Mac & MacBook | £300 | details → |
| Laptop & PC | £300 | details → |
| RAID Array | from £500 | details → |
| NAS | from £500 | details → |
| Server | from £500 | details → |
| Virtual Machine | from £800 | details → |
| Database | from £500 | details → |
| SAN | from £1,250 | details → |
| CCTV / DVR / NVR | £800 | details → |
The questions we hear most. For questions about a specific device, see that device's page in the table above.
Every job starts with a free written diagnostic, usually within 48 hours. Only then do we give you a fixed, written quote — and no chargeable work happens until you approve it. As a guide: memory cards and USB sticks are £250 + VAT, single drives (hard drives, SSDs, laptops and Macs) £300 + VAT, multi-disk RAID and NAS systems from £500 + VAT, and SAN or enterprise storage from £1,250 + VAT.
No — all prices are shown excluding VAT, which is added at the standard UK rate. Your written quote always shows the plus VAT total before you decide anything.
On the majority of jobs, yes — if we can't recover your data, you don't pay the recovery fee. The exceptions are physical drive/card-level repairs, DVR and Forensic work.
Physical level work — head swaps, motor or platter work, circuit-board rebuilds — needs matched donor parts and a lot of careful bench time, win or lose. The same goes for DVR and Forensic work, which take significant specialist time regardless of the outcome. For those jobs we take a 50% payment upfront to cover parts and labour costs; the balance is only due if we successfully recover your data.
The free diagnostic is usually back within 48 hours. Straightforward logical recoveries are often turned around in a few days; physical repairs, RAID and NAS rebuilds take longer depending on parts and complexity. You'll get a realistic timeframe with your quote, and we offer a priority service if you're against the clock.
Drop it off in person at our Bristol location — Castlemead, BS1 3AG, Monday to Friday 9am–5:30pm — or post it to us fully insured. We don't run a collection service, so those are the two ways in.
Just the drives. Take them out of the enclosure yourself and label each one with its bay order (drive 1, drive 2, and so on) — that order matters for the rebuild. You don't need to send the NAS box or the RAID controller.
No. We specialise in drives, RAID and NAS, servers, SAN, virtual machines and databases — we don't take on mobile phones or tablets.
All the major ones — Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and Samsung drives; Synology, QNAP, WD and Netgear NAS; Dell, HP, IBM and Lenovo servers; and VMware, Hyper-V, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Exchange on the business side.
No — if a drive is failing physically (clicking, not spinning, disappearing), recovery software keeps it powered on and almost always makes the damage worse. Switch it off and send it to us untouched.
Yes, provided you can supply the password or recovery key. We recover the encrypted volume and use your key to unlock the data; without the key we offer Forensic decryption services but these are not guaranteed to work.
Every recovery is handled in-house by our own engineers. Your drives never leave our care, and your data stays confidential from the moment it arrives to the moment we ship it back to you.
Start with a free written diagnostic. We'll confirm exactly what's recoverable and what it costs — then it's your call. Drop your device off in Bristol, or post it in fully insured.