Pressing delete removes the signpost, not the file — the contents stay written to the disk until some later save happens to land on top of them. Stop using the device quickly and, in most cases, we can retrieve what went missing from a hard drive, SSD, memory card or USB stick, all in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk SD card (128 GB) · camera → Status: DELETED FILES — 1,240 photos removed → Client: confidential · Leatherhead GU2 8XH $ bdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Deep scan + carve: JPEG/RAW signatures → Found: 1,236 / 1,240 files $ bdr verify → ✓ holiday_photos — 1,236 files → ✓ all preview OK — intact → ✓ deleted shots — recovered
The window for recovery closes the moment new data lands on those freed clusters — and an idle-looking device is rarely idle, with photos, saves and app updates all writing away in the background. So: nothing new written to it, no recovery software installed onto it, and the device set aside until we’ve looked. Act quickly and far more survives.
The overwhelming majority of deleted data is still retrievable — only a few specific things put it truly beyond reach. These are the cases that come through our door most often.
Whatever the media and whoever built it, if your deleted files were on it there’s a strong chance we can retrieve them.
The disks inside laptops, PCs and Macs; hard drives and SSDs; external and portable units; and flash of all sorts — USB sticks, SD, microSD and CF.
Deleted-file work is copy-first and methodical. Your original device is never touched directly — we image it and recover from that image, in a set order.
Walk us through what vanished and off which device; we establish whether the data is still there to be had and send a written quote, usually inside 48 hours.
Before anything else a forensic image is taken, and every step that follows runs on that image — your original is never written to.
The first and cleanest route is the file system’s own bookkeeping. Since a delete merely frees it — the $MFT record and its $Bitmap clusters on NTFS, the directory entry and cluster chain on FAT and exFAT — wherever those survive we relink your files complete with names, folders and dates.
With the metadata gone we switch to carving: sweeping the raw image for the fingerprint every format leaves — FF D8 to FF D9 for a JPEG, %PDF to %%EOF for a PDF, a PK header for ZIP and Office — and rebuilding files that carry no index at all. Names and folders don’t survive this route and fragmentation fights back, so both passes run and their results are merged.
Nothing goes back untested: signatures re-checked, images and documents actually opened, checksums compared, carved output de-duplicated against the metadata pass so a file never lands twice — what you get opens rather than crumbles.
The finished set is written to fresh media, ordered and ready to use.
That media is posted back to you, or the whole recovery is offered as a free download for anything up to 75GB.
Recovered from a forensic copy every time: deleted documents, photos, video and email off hard drives, SSDs, external units, USB sticks and memory cards alike.
Tell us what you’ve lost and we’ll get back to you, usually within a working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
No hidden charges and no hard sell — a free diagnostic and a written quote arrive before any work starts.
A few recent deleted-file jobs across different devices. Identifying details stripped, every result verified.
Nothing had been shot onto it since, so we imaged the card and carved the JPEG and RAW frames back by signature — nearly the whole set came home.
No Recycle Bin sits between you and a removable-media delete, so it was instant — but the file table still held them, and we pulled them off whole.
We imaged the drive and deep-scanned it, lifting the folder and everything in it back out before any of those clusters could be reused.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
The things people most often want to know about getting deleted files back.
In the great majority of cases, yes. Think of a delete as tearing the page out of the index rather than burning the book: NTFS just frees the $MFT record and releases its clusters in $Bitmap, while FAT and exFAT rewrite the directory entry and let the cluster chain go — the content itself is left on the disk. Until a later write reuses those clusters it stays recoverable, either by relinking it from what’s left of the metadata or by carving it back out of the raw sectors. Continued use is the one thing that ends it, so power down.
Treat the device as read-only from that second on. Nothing saved to it, no more photos taken, and above all no recovery tool installed onto the drive that holds the lost data — each of those risks writing over the very files you want back. Once that’s done, get in touch and we’ll take it from there.
Routinely — it’s among the jobs we see most. As long as little has been shot onto the card since, the pictures are still in the flash and we lift them out by signature: a JPEG gives itself away with its FF D8/FF D9 bookends, camera RAW by its own header. That holds even where the card was emptied or given a quick format, because those clear the index, not the image data.
Here we have to be straight with you: the chances are lower than on a hard drive, stick or card. TRIM is why — on most internal SSDs, the instant a file is deleted the drive is cleared to wipe those blocks, and its garbage collection does exactly that in hardware, often within seconds, leaving nothing to carve. Drives with TRIM switched off, older SSDs, or USB-attached ones that never pass the command through are the exceptions, where prospects improve. The diagnostic gives you a realistic read before you commit to anything.
Probably not. Emptying deletes the pointer; the file’s data stays put on the drive until something overwrites it. Down tools on the device and there’s usually plenty still to recover.
Pretty much anything with storage in it — the drives inside laptops, PCs and Macs, standalone hard drives and SSDs, external and portable units, and every kind of flash from USB sticks to SD, microSD and CF cards. If files live on it, we can usually help.
Two tiers, both plus VAT: £250 for memory cards and USB sticks, £300 for hard drives. A free diagnostic comes first, most jobs run no fix, no fee, and because this is logical recovery it sits at the lower end of what we charge. Whatever the figure, you have it in writing before we begin.
Reckon on one to three working days for most jobs, frequently less, with the diagnostic itself usually turned round inside 48 hours. If yours is genuinely time-critical, flag it and we’ll do what we can to move it forward.
Every mainstream make of hard drive, SSD, USB stick and memory card. That runs from the big drive names — Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Hitachi and Maxtor — across the flash and SSD brands: Samsung, SanDisk, Crucial, Kingston, Lexar, Sony, Transcend, Kioxia, ADATA, Corsair, PNY, Integral, Verbatim, Silicon Power and Team Group.
Either drop by our Guildford unit on a weekday between 9am and 5:30pm, or post it over fully insured. Whichever you pick, seal it well and slip a note inside with your name, address, phone and email so it can be booked in. From there we run the free diagnostic and send a written quote before anything is touched.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and deleted-file recovery from any drive, stick or card. The sooner you stop, the more comes back — start today.