After completing a free written diagnostic evaluation, you receive a fixed quote prior to any work being performed. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Below is a detailed list of what devices cost to recover, how our pricing works, and some common questions we are frequently asked.
After the free diagnostic you will have your price exactly written down (never before).
We do not give you an estimate on the telephone. You are always asked first before any work is done by us. Every recovery runs through the same four steps.
Bring your device to our premises or send it to us by post. We complete your free diagnostic assessment within approximately 48 hours at no cost to you: what has failed, what can be recovered from your device, and how much it will cost you.
You receive a written quote with a specific price before any chargeable work is done. All work starts with your approval.
In most cases where we cannot recover your data, you will not be charged for the data recovery fee. There is no risk involved by allowing us to view your device for a diagnostic.
Due to needing replacement hardware of matching quality and requiring our engineers to spend time on your physical unit, we will require a 50% down payment on most physical repair services; the remainder will be paid upon successful completion of service.
Job type starting price; prices do not include VAT. The final price will be determined by a written agreement after the free diagnostics.
Information regarding what we typically recover from each device category and when their pricing starts. Browse through for details about the recovery process and also view the device-specific frequently asked questions.
| 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 | £400 | details → |
The most frequently asked questions about our services. See the relevant device page in the table above for information regarding the specific questions you want answered.
All our jobs start with a complimentary written diagnostic that will usually be done inside 48 hours. After this process is complete, you can expect a fixed price written quote, and no work is charged until you have approved the work. In terms of cost, as a general guideline, memory cards and USB sticks would be priced at approximately £250 plus VAT, individual drives (laptops, hard disk drives, SSDs and Macs) £300 plus VAT, multi drive RAID and NAS systems would be from £500 plus VAT, and SAN and enterprise solutions from £1,250 plus VAT.
No, all prices are shown before VAT as the VAT will be charged at the standard UK rate. Any written quotation will detail the total cost including VAT before making a decision.
Generally, yes. If we cannot recover your data then you do not have to pay for the recovery fee. The exception would be when the repair needed is a physical drive level or card level repair, or DVR and/or forensic work.
Work that requires a level of intervention such as head swaps, motor or platter replacement, circuit board rebuilds, and/or using a matched donor part requires a considerable amount of skilled bench time regardless of whether we succeed in recovering your data. We also undertake DVR and forensic work that absorbs significant amounts of specialist time. Therefore, when undertaking these types of works, we request a deposit of 50% towards both parts and labour prior to commencing. If successful, you pay the remaining balance after completion of the recovery.
On average, a complimentary written diagnostic should be returned to you within 48 hours. Most straightforward logical recoveries will generally require only a few working days to complete. However, physical repair of damaged media (including RAID and NAS) will require additional time depending upon availability of parts and the complexity of the repair. Your quote will clearly outline a realistic timescale for completion of your project. We offer a priority service where time constraints are critical.
A drop-off in person by hand at our Newcastle office (Rotterdam House, 2nd Floor, 116 Quayside, NE1 3DY, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed) or by post via a fully insured postal method. We do not collect items from customers so these are the two options available to customers. Either way, please get a quote from us first.
Only the hard drives. Remove the hard drives from the enclosure yourself, and label each one with the number of its original position (bay 1, bay 2 etc.). It is very important that you label the hard drives in the order they were originally removed; this way we can ensure the correct rebuild of your NAS box. There is no requirement to send us the NAS box or RAID controller.
No. Drives, RAID and NAS, servers, SAN, virtual machines and databases are our areas of expertise; mobile phones and tablets are not.
The major ones: Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and Samsung drives; Synology, QNAP, WD and Netgear NAS; Dell, HP, IBM and Lenovo servers; also VMware, Hyper-V, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Exchange on the business side.
No, if a drive is physically failing (clicking, not spinning, dropping out), recovery software will keep it powered on and almost always make the damage worse. Turn it off and send it to us untouched.
Yes provided you can give us the password or recovery key. We recover the encrypted volume and use your key to unlock data; without the key we may attempt forensic decryption but that isn’t guaranteed to work.
All recoveries are performed by our team (our own engineers) and your hard drives will never be removed from our premises. This means that your data will remain confidential when we receive it until we ship it back to you after completion.
Begin with a completely free diagnostic that will outline exactly what may be recovered and how much it will cost. Then it is your choice. Once you have had a quote from us, you can drop off your item at our location in Newcastle upon Tyne, or send it by post using a carrier who has full insurance against loss or damage.