The common call-in questions, the entire cost list and the five things no one can do — all documented below in order to prevent you from paying for anyone to find them.
The amount charged is provided in writing when the free diagnostic has been completed and not at any other time. All prices quoted on this page exclude VAT.
If you read nothing else on this website, these are the answers people ring about.
Is the diagnostic free? Yes, with no obligation. A written response outlining what went wrong, what can realistically be recovered and one fixed price, normally in 48 hours.
Does the quote change? No. We provide one price on each job. It is agreed upon prior to us starting your project. This price remains constant for the duration of your project. If there is some new issue that comes up during your project we would need to go back to you and ask what you want to do about it. We wouldn't proceed with your project as previously planned. We wouldn't bill you either.
What if you can’t recover it? Most often you won't have to pay a thing. There is a 50% down payment due when you order physical drive level work because we commit the parts and labour needed for the job upfront.
How long? A diagnostic can be done within 48 hours. Generally speaking, a single drive takes around 3–4 working days to complete once you approve the quote. Arrays take longer as well as when we have to do "donor-part" work, and we give you the timescale in the quote.
Do you do phones? We cannot recover data from modern smartphones since they use encryption that prevents third parties from recovering the data. Check iCloud and/or Google Photos instead.
Where are you? You can visit our office at Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN, Monday-Friday, 9am-5:30pm. If you'd rather send us your item via insured postage from anywhere in the UK, please go ahead.
All prices quoted by phone and on each service page are the same figures you see here.
£250 — memory cards and USB sticks
£300 — single hard drives, SSDs and NVMe, laptops, desktops, external drives, and Macs with removable storage
£550 flat — Fusion Drive Macs (two devices recovered and recombined)
from £500 — RAID, NAS, servers and databases
£800 flat — BitLocker-encrypted drives
£400 flat — CCTV or DVR footage
from £800 — virtual machines and forensic examination
from £1,250 — enterprise SAN, quoted after scoping
Nothing is charged by volume. Recovering 40GB & 4TB from the same failed drive is the same amount of work. Pricing by volume recovered prices what you are at risk of losing, as opposed to what the task entails.
So you know and don't have to pay for someone else to tell you.
Some questions that customers frequently ask. More detailed information regarding one specific type of computer or device can be found on that device's individual webpage in the table above.
Yes. There is no commitment involved. You will receive a written report detailing what has failed; how much can be reasonably recovered and one fixed price, usually in under 48 hours. If our diagnosis indicates that free software can accomplish the recovery you will receive that instead of a quotation.
No. Once the price is fixed in writing following your diagnostic there will never be a price increase. Should something unforeseen arise we will contact you rather than continuing with the recovery and adding to the bill.
On most work, you pay nothing if we can't recover anything. Drive-level physical work, however, has a 50% deposit since parts for the donor drives, as well as our own bench time, are committed when you approve the quote. The balance is paid once your data has been recovered successfully. The exceptions to this rule are forensic, CCTV and data destruction jobs.
We should be able to provide you with an initial diagnosis within 48 hours. If you decide to go ahead, the typical turnaround time for a single failed drive is 3–4 working days. Larger items such as RAID arrays, donor components and large-scale imaging may take longer. We include estimated turn-around times in each quote.
No. Regardless of whether you need us to recover 40 GB of data or 4 TB of data from the same failed drive, recovering that data takes the same amount of effort. Any company that quotes based on volume of data is basing their price on what you potentially risk losing rather than what they must actually do to help you.
Either. Our office location is Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN, Monday to Friday, 9 am until 5:30 pm. Alternatively, we also accept insured postal packages from anywhere in the UK, with free return postage included.
Start with a free written diagnostic. We will determine what data can be recovered, and the price — after which, the choice is yours. Bring your device to Manchester or have it couriered to us fully insured.