A straight answer, minus the over-the-phone guessing game. Recovery begins at £250 + VAT, with your exact price fixed in writing once a free diagnostic is done — and no fix, no fee on most jobs. Below: what each kind of job costs, what shifts the price, and how not to overpay.
Your exact price is put in writing after the free diagnostic — never before it.
Two drives with the same fault cost the same, whatever their capacity. What actually shifts the price is how the device failed and how involved it is to rebuild.
Logical faults — deleted files, corruption, a missing partition — are software-level jobs. Physical faults — crashed heads, a dead board, NAND-level repair — need donor components and bench hours, so they land higher.
A lone USB stick or card sits at the bottom tier; a single hard drive, SSD or laptop a step up; multi-disk RAID, NAS and servers higher again, since every disk has to be imaged and the array put back together.
For RAID, NAS and SAN, the price hinges on how many disks there are, the RAID level, and whether a failed rebuild or controller has jumbled the configuration we then have to rebuild.
Certain physical recoveries call for a matched donor drive for heads or boards. That appears in the quote, and it's the reason drive-level repairs take a 50% deposit up front.
Starting prices by type of job, before VAT. Your exact price is confirmed in writing once the free diagnostic is done.
The starting price for each type of device, and what we bring back. Tap through for the full detail and per-device costs.
Recovery should never hang on a gamble at some vague figure over the phone. Our pricing is arranged so you always know where things stand: a free written diagnosis comes first, usually within 48 hours, so at no cost you find out exactly what's failed and what can be saved. You then get a fixed price in writing — not a range, not a "from" figure — and nothing billable happens until you approve it. On most jobs, no recovered data means no recovery fee. The only exceptions are physical drive-level jobs, CCTV/DVR work and forensics, which consume serious specialist time whether or not they succeed, and so need half up front, with the balance payable only on success.
A "£49 data recovery" headline nearly always changes the instant the device is opened — the low number gets you through the door, then the real cost appears. Worse, a budget outfit that opens a failed drive outside a clean-air setting, or runs software on failing hardware, can put the data beyond reach before a specialist even sees it. The number that counts is the fixed, written one you sign off before work begins — and the real value is getting the recovery right the first time, since a failing drive seldom grants a second attempt. It's why we diagnose for free, put quotes in writing, and keep every recovery in-house rather than shipping it out.
Pricing questions, answered.
Pricing opens at £250 + VAT for memory cards and USB sticks, £300 + VAT for one hard drive, SSD, laptop or Mac, from £500 + VAT for RAID and NAS, and from £1,250 + VAT for SAN and enterprise storage. Your exact figure is fixed in writing once the free diagnostic is done, never guessed over the phone.
No. We price on the kind of recovery and the work involved, not on how much data the device holds. A 500GB and a 4TB drive with the same fault cost the same to recover.
No — prices are quoted excluding VAT, charged at the UK's standard rate. Your written quote always shows the VAT-inclusive total before you commit.
Yes. We diagnose your device at no charge, usually inside 48 hours, and tell you what's failed, what can be recovered and the fixed price. There's no obligation to proceed.
The main factor is whether the fault is logical (deleted files, corruption, a broken array configuration) or physical (crashed heads, a dead board, NAND-level work). Physical recoveries call for matched donor components and bench hours, so they cost more and need a 50% deposit.
On most jobs, if we can't get your data back there's no recovery fee. The exceptions are physical drive-level jobs, CCTV/DVR work and forensics, which take serious specialist time whatever the result and so take a 50% deposit up front.
A single external drive is £300 + VAT — the same flat rate as any other single drive — with the diagnostic free and no fix, no fee on most jobs. If the fault turns out to be only the enclosure or its USB bridge, that’s handled within the same job rather than billed on top; drives needing donor parts carry the usual 50% deposit toward parts and bench time.
Start with a free written diagnosis. We'll confirm precisely what can be recovered and what it'll cost — then the choice is yours. Drop your device in to us in Belfast, or send it by fully insured post.