The answers people actually ring about, the full price list, and the five things nobody can do — set out here so you are not paying someone to discover them.
The figure is put in writing once the free diagnostic is done — and not one moment before. Every price on this page excludes VAT.
If you read nothing else on this page, these are the ones people ring about.
Is the diagnostic free? Yes, with no obligation. You get a written answer on what failed, what is realistically recoverable and one fixed price, normally within 48 hours.
Does the quote change? No. One figure, agreed before work starts, unchanged afterwards. If something unexpected emerges we come back to you rather than proceeding and billing.
What if you can’t recover it? On most jobs you pay nothing at all. Physical drive-level work takes a 50% deposit because parts and bench time are committed up front.
How long? Diagnostic inside 48 hours. A single drive typically three to four working days from approval; arrays and donor-part work longer, with the timescale given at the quote.
Do you do phones? No. Modern handsets are encrypted in a way that makes third-party recovery impractical — check iCloud or Google Photos instead.
Where are you? Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm — or post insured from anywhere in the UK.
The same figures we quote on the phone and on every service page.
£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, and CCTV or DVR footage
from £800 — virtual machines and forensic examination
from £1,250 — enterprise SAN, quoted after scoping
Nothing is charged by the gigabyte. Recovering 40GB and 4TB from the same failed drive is the same work, and pricing by volume recovered prices what you stand to lose rather than what the job involves.
Stated here so you are not paying anyone to find out.
What people ask us most often. For one specific device, its own page in the table above goes further.
Yes, with no obligation attached. You get a written answer on what failed, what is realistically recoverable and one fixed price, normally within 48 hours. If the answer is that free software would do it, you get that instead of a quote.
No. The figure is fixed in writing after the diagnostic and does not move. If something unexpected emerges we come back to you rather than proceeding and adding to the bill.
On most work, no recovery means no charge at all. Physical drive-level work carries a 50% deposit because donor parts and clean-air time are committed up front, with the balance only on success. Forensic, CCTV and data destruction sit outside it.
The diagnostic is normally back inside 48 hours. From approval a single drive typically completes in three to four working days; arrays, donor parts and heavy imaging take longer, and you get the timescale with the quote.
No. Recovering 40GB or 4TB from the same failed drive is identical work. Anyone pricing by volume is pricing by what you stand to lose rather than by what they actually have to do.
Either. Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm — or insured post from anywhere in the UK, with free return shipping.
Kick off with a free written diagnostic. We'll establish what's recoverable and the cost — the decision is then yours. Bring your device to Manchester, or send it over fully insured.