A plain answer, without the phone-quote guessing games. Recovery opens at £250 + VAT, and the exact figure is set in writing once a free diagnostic is done — with no fix, no fee on most jobs. Below is what each type of job runs to, what pushes the price around, and how to avoid overpaying.
The precise figure lands in writing once the free diagnostic is finished — and never ahead of it.
Capacity makes no odds — two drives with the same fault are priced the same. What genuinely moves the number is the nature of the failure and how much work the rebuild takes.
Logical faults — a lost partition, corruption, deleted files — are handled in software. Physical ones — NAND-level repair, a dead board, failed heads — need donor parts and bench hours, so they sit higher.
Bottom tier is a lone card or stick; a hard drive, SSD or laptop lands a step up; RAID, NAS and multi-disk servers climb higher again, because each disk needs imaging and the array has to be pieced back together.
For RAID, NAS and SAN the number rests on how many disks there are, the RAID level, and whether a failed controller or rebuild has scrambled the layout we then have to reassemble.
Some physical jobs need a matched donor drive as a source of heads or boards; that cost feeds the quote, which is the reason a 50% deposit is taken on drive-level repairs.
Where each job type starts, before VAT — your exact figure is put in writing once the free diagnostic is done.
The starting figure for each device type, and what we pull back. Follow any row through for the full detail and device-specific pricing.
No recovery should rest on a punt against a fuzzy phone estimate. The way pricing works here keeps things clear: first comes a free written diagnostic, usually inside 48 hours, so for nothing you find out what broke and what can be salvaged. Only then does a fixed price reach you in writing — no ranges, no “from” teasers — and nothing billable proceeds until you approve it. Most jobs run on the principle that a failed recovery brings no recovery fee. Set apart are three — forensic work, CCTV/DVR, and physical drive-level repairs — which burn specialist hours either way, so each opens with a 50% deposit and settles the balance only when it succeeds.
A headline like “£49 data recovery” nearly always moves the moment the device is opened — the low figure gets you in the door, then the real cost appears. Worse still, a cheap outfit that cracks open a failed drive outside a clean-air room, or runs software on failing hardware, can leave the data permanently gone before any specialist even sees it. The figure that matters is the fixed written one you sign off before any work — and the real value is getting the recovery right the first time, because a failing drive rarely gives you a second attempt. That's exactly why we diagnose free, quote in writing, and do every recovery in-house rather than farming it out.
The questions about price that come up the most.
A single hard drive is a flat £300 + VAT, whatever its capacity — a 500GB drive and an 8TB drive with the same fault cost the same. The diagnostic is free, most jobs are no fix, no fee, and only physical, drive-level repairs (donor heads, a new board) take a 50% parts-and-bench deposit. The exact figure is fixed in writing before any work.
A single SSD is the same £300 + VAT as any lone drive. A RAID array, NAS or server starts from £500 + VAT because several disks must be imaged and the array rebuilt, and enterprise SAN or datastores from £1,250 + VAT. Price follows the work and the fault, never the volume of data, and is fixed in writing after a free diagnostic.
The scale climbs from a card or stick at £250 + VAT, to a lone hard drive, SSD, laptop or Mac at £300 + VAT, to a RAID or NAS array from £500 + VAT, up to enterprise SAN and datastores from £1,250 + VAT. Whichever applies, the exact figure is fixed in writing after a free diagnostic — not guessed on a call.
No. Price follows the kind of recovery and the effort it demands, never the volume of data on the device. Give two drives the same fault and they cost the same to recover, whether one is 4TB and the other 500GB.
No — VAT is added on top at the standard UK rate, so prices are quoted before it. Whatever you decide, the written quote states the full VAT-inclusive total first.
Yes. At no charge, and usually within 48 hours, we work out what failed, what can come back, and the fixed price — with no obligation to continue.
It hinges on the fault. A physical failure — work at NAND level, a board that's died, heads that have gone — wants matched donor parts and time on the bench, so it costs more and opens with a 50% deposit; a logical one — a scrambled array layout, corruption, files deleted — is lighter work done in software.
For most jobs, a failed recovery means no recovery fee. Three kinds of work are the exception — forensic jobs, CCTV/DVR, and physical drive-level repairs — because they eat specialist time regardless of outcome, so each takes a 50% deposit up front.
It's the same flat £300 + VAT set for any single drive, the diagnostic free and no fix, no fee on most jobs. Trouble in the enclosure or its USB bridge gets folded into that job rather than added separately; should donor parts be needed, the usual 50% parts-and-bench deposit applies.
Only you can value the accounts, the project folder or the photos — but the call needn't be made blind. A free diagnostic hands you a written quote and a straight verdict on what's recoverable, so the numbers are real before you commit; and on most jobs, no fix means no fee, so a failed attempt costs nothing. When the data can't be replaced, a single professional attempt tends to be worth far more than the hardware ever was.
Begin with a free written diagnostic. We'll pin down exactly what can be brought back and what it'll cost — then the decision is yours. Drop your device in at Guildford, or post it over fully insured.