To be honest, most data recovery jobs fall between £250 and £800 +VAT, and you will always receive a fixed price in writing before any chargeable work, rather than an hourly rate. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Below is the full breakdown, what moves the price up or down, and why the £99 software is far from the bargain it appears.
Pricing is based on the device and the type of failure, not the volume of data that needs to be recovered. A memory card has a fixed price, while a multi-disk server is quoted. Either way, you will know the price before you commit.
What we charge by device and system: all prices are plus VAT, and all are fixed in writing following the diagnostic.
A flat price remains a flat price: a hard drive that turns out to have a physical or firmware fault is still £300 +VAT, with no surprise upgrade. The bands that begin with “from” (RAID, NAS, virtual machines and enterprise storage) are the ones where the work genuinely varies with the number of disks, the array type and the capacity, so these get a specific written price once we have seen your system. For full details, see our data recovery cost and pricing pages.
There are four things that determine where a job lands in terms of price, and notably, the amount of data is not one of them.
The device and system. This is the number one factor. A single drive or memory card has a fixed price, but with a RAID array or server, all the disks involved have to be imaged and then rebuilt into a single array, which is why those start higher.
The type of failure. A logical problem (deleted files, a formatted or corrupt file system) is the most straightforward. A physical fault, such as a failed head or a burnt circuit board, needs bench work and donor parts, and damaged firmware needs specialist tools. Encryption (such as BitLocker) adds a fixed step to the process. Our bands already account for all of this, so it rarely changes the headline figure; it mostly affects whether a deposit toward parts applies.
Donor parts. A physical recovery often needs a suitable donor drive, purchased specifically for its heads or board. This is where the 50% deposit on physical and forensic recovery work goes: towards the necessary parts and bench time, not profit.
Not the capacity. Recovering either 500 GB or 5 TB from the same failed drive is exactly the same job and therefore the same price. You are charged for the recovery, not per gigabyte.
The diagnostic is free, the quote is fixed before you proceed, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
The process runs in three simple stages. First, a free diagnostic: you send the drive to us or drop it off, and we determine exactly what has failed and what can be recovered, at no charge and with no obligation, typically within 48 hours. Second, a fixed written quote: your price for the job, agreed before anything chargeable happens. Third, the recovery itself: on the majority of jobs, if we can’t get your data back, you don’t pay the recovery fee.
The exceptions are narrow and always agreed upfront: physical, CCTV and forensic recoveries carry a 50% deposit, which goes towards donor parts and bench time, because those costs are real whether or not the recovery ultimately succeeds. We agree everything in writing before we start, so there are no surprises on the final invoice.
There are times when doing it yourself is fine. On a failing drive, though, DIY is how recoverable data becomes lost data.
Recovery software can only address logical loss on a healthy drive, such as deleted files or a quick-formatted card. If that is your situation and the drive is mechanically sound, you may very well be able to recover your files using a reputable tool, and we would happily tell you so rather than take a job you don’t need. Our own guides on recovering deleted files cover when it is safe to use recovery software.
The biggest danger is running recovery software on a drive that is actually failing. Every scan spins a struggling drive for potentially hours and writes to it; a clicking drive dragged through repeated attempts can score its own platters, and a “£99 fixed everything” service that images carelessly can turn a straightforward recovery into an impossible one. If a drive is clicking, grinding, undetected or was dropped or flooded, the most cost-effective thing you can do is stop: power it down and get an honest diagnostic. A fixed quote from a lab that works read-only is not the expensive option, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data; it is the option that protects your data.
The majority of jobs fall within a price range of £250 to £800 +VAT. As a guide: £250 for USB sticks and memory cards; £300 for single hard drives, SSDs, laptops and external drives; from £500 for RAID, NAS and servers; £800 for BitLocker and £400 for CCTV systems; and from £1,250 for SAN or enterprise storage. All prices are plus VAT, as a fixed written quotation following a free diagnostic.
Usually not: in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. A very limited number of specialist jobs (physical, CCTV and forensic work) carry a 50% deposit toward donor parts and bench time, which we always agree with you in writing before any work is done. The diagnostic itself is free either way.
A single hard drive, SSD, laptop or external drive is priced at £300 +VAT, and a USB stick or memory card costs £250 +VAT. That is a flat price for the device, regardless of whether the problem is physical or firmware, and it is confirmed in writing after your free diagnostic.
Prices for RAID arrays, NAS units, servers and databases start from £500 +VAT. The exact figure depends on the number of disks, the RAID level and the capacity, and virtual machines or SAN and enterprise storage cost more, starting from £800 and £1,250 respectively. You will receive a fixed written quote before any chargeable work begins.
Recovery software only helps when there is a logical problem on a healthy drive. It cannot do anything for a physical or firmware failure, and running it on a failing drive often makes matters worse. The cost of professional recovery reflects bench work, a donor-parts library, hardware imagers and engineer time, and it is quoted as a fixed price. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data, so you are not paying for a gamble.
Yes, diagnostics are provided at no charge, and most take less than 48 hours to complete. You will also receive a fixed written quote before any chargeable work begins. Nothing is chargeable until you approve the quote, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Tell us the device and what has happened, or send it in for a free diagnostic. You will receive a fixed written quote before any money changes hands, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.