Just answer a few quick questions on your ailing hard drive, SSD, USB stick, memory card or RAID. Back comes the likely fault, the steps to protect your data now, and an instant ballpark price — no phone call required.
Shaped around the faults we see most often. Your answers never leave your browser — we hear from you only if you choose to make contact.
Enough to decide what to do next without ringing anyone.
Not a lookup table — the questions branch on your answers.
Every diagnostic starts the same way, whether it is a person on the phone or this tool: establish the device type, then the symptom, then what has already been attempted. Those three answers narrow the possibilities far faster than any amount of detail about capacity or age.
So the questions change depending on what you say. Report a noise and it asks about the character of it, because a steady click and a scrape point at different severities. Report that the drive is silent and it goes somewhere else entirely, because a drive with no spin is usually electronics rather than mechanics — and unlike the first case, nothing is deteriorating while you decide.
What it cannot do is see the device. A drive reporting the wrong capacity and a drive with a failing head can present identically in a description, so the output is a probable classification rather than a confirmation. The free 48-hour diagnostic is what settles it.
All plus VAT, and the same figures published across the site.
£250 memory cards and USB sticks · £300 single drives, SSDs, laptops, PCs, externals and Macs with removable storage · £550 flat Fusion Drive Macs · from £500 RAID, NAS, servers and databases · £800 flat BitLocker and CCTV · from £800 virtual machines and forensics · from £1,250 enterprise SAN.
The tool tells you which band applies. It does not quote, because a quote requires seeing the device — and a firm that gives you a firm number from a web form is guessing at yours.
Worth being clear about, because an over-confident tool would be worse than none.
Where it is reliable: sorting a described symptom into the right fault class, telling you whether the situation is deteriorating, and identifying the cases that are closed regardless of who you call — encryption without a key, soldered Macs on a dead board, TRIMmed SSD deletions.
Where it is not: anything requiring the device in front of you. Whether the platters are scored, how far bad sectors have spread, whether a controller can be revived, how much of an array is still readable. Those are the questions that determine the actual outcome, and none of them can be answered from a description.
Treat the output as a well-informed starting point rather than a verdict. It is the same thing you would get from a thorough phone call, which is exactly what it was built to replace at two in the morning.
True for every device and every fault on the list.
Clicking, grinding, scraping. No output from any tool changes that, and the time between the first noise and the power switch usually matters more than everything that follows.
No recovery software installed onto it, no test files copied back, no accepting Windows’ offer to format or repair. Install elsewhere, recover elsewhere again, or leave it alone entirely.
Yes — wholly free, no sign-up, no card details. It all runs in your browser, so contact only happens if you choose it. The in-house diagnostic on the device itself is free too.
It reads an accurate ballpark from your device type, which fits the great majority of recoveries. The odd case — a physically damaged card needing chip-level work, or an involved RAID rebuild — can land higher. Your exact price is always confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic, ahead of any work.
For most jobs, no recovered data means no recovery fee. Your written quote sets out exactly what applies to your case, so nothing surprises you.
Package your media and either bring it to our Oxford Street point, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm, or post it fully insured. Print the shipping slip above, add your details, and slip it into the parcel with your name, phone, email and address so we can log it in.
Power it down straight away and keep it off. That clicking or grinding almost always points to a physical head or motor fault, and each powered minute risks more harm. Use the diagnostic above for guidance suited to you, or ring 0161 871 0788 without delay.
Yes. Everything's handled in-house and every recovery kept confidential. Ask, and we'll happily put an NDA in place for commercial or sensitive work.
Tell us what's gone and we'll respond, usually inside 30 minutes during the day.
We'll reply shortly. Anything urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
Drop your device in or post it with the shipping slip, and after a free diagnostic we'll put your exact quote in writing. Prefer to talk first? We're just a phone call away.