Transparent, fixed data recovery prices — most jobs fall into a handful of clear bands. Every job starts with a free diagnostic and one fixed written quote before any work, and logical recoveries are no fix, no fee. All prices plus VAT.
The diagnostic is always free — online and in the lab. You only ever pay a fixed quote you've approved, and logical recoveries are no fix, no fee.
Most data recovery jobs fall into one of a few clear price bands — the price follows the device and the fault, not the panic. Every figure below is confirmed in writing after your free diagnostic, and all prices are plus VAT.
USB sticks & memory cards — SD, microSD, CompactFlash and other flash media.
A single hard drive or SSD — internal or external, from a laptop, desktop or Mac, including NVMe drives.
RAID, NAS & servers — every member drive is imaged and the array rebuilt per drive, so the figure follows the number of disks.
CCTV & DVR recorder drives — recovering footage from surveillance and security recorders.
BitLocker decryption — unlocking a healthy BitLocker-encrypted drive with your recovery key.
A standard forensic investigation, with a full report — plus a leaner £400 + VAT forensic binary-image & deleted-file extraction service, without a report.
Prices by device: a single hard drive or SSD recovery is £300 + VAT (including NVMe); RAID, NAS and server recovery starts from £500 + VAT; CCTV / DVR recorder drives and BitLocker decryption are £400 + VAT; and a standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT. Start with a free diagnostic to get your own fixed quote in writing.
The price follows the device and the type of fault — not how urgent it feels. Three things decide which band you land in:
Every job starts with a free diagnostic — both the online read-out and the full engineer's diagnostic in the lab are free. From it you get one fixed written quote before any work begins, and you only ever approve (or decline) that single figure.
No fix, no fee applies to logical recoveries only — deleted, formatted or corrupt data, or a healthy drive the system simply can't see. If we can't get that data back, there's nothing to pay.
Drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work — a new PCB or controller, head or motor repair, NAND chip-off or firmware and service-area access — so 50% of the quote is payable upfront for the donor parts and lab time, with the balance due only on a successful recovery.
Forensic work — including CCTV / DVR, BitLocker and ransomware recovery — is payable upfront. A standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT with a full report; a leaner forensic binary-image and deleted-file extraction service, without the report, is £400 + VAT.
Media is posted or couriered to our Guildford location, where the free diagnostic is completed within 2 working days of arrival — so it costs nothing to find out exactly where you stand.
A few typical jobs and how the price and policy apply in each — your own figure is always confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic.
You emptied the recycle bin or quick-formatted an external drive that still works. That's a logical £300 + VAT recovery, no fix, no fee — nothing to pay if the files don't come back.
A dropped laptop drive that now clicks needs head-and-motor work with donor parts in the clean-air lab. £300 + VAT, with 50% payable upfront because it's mechanical damage, and the balance only on success.
A four-disk RAID 5 that failed a rebuild is imaged disk by disk and rebuilt virtually. From £500 + VAT, following the disk count; a logical rebuild is no fix, no fee.
A healthy drive stuck on the BitLocker recovery screen is a decryption job at £400 + VAT, payable upfront as forensic work, once your recovery key is in the loop.
The diagnostic is free and the quote is fixed in writing — you only decide once you know the price.
Most customers post or courier their media to us.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops) — only drives that can be removed and sent to us.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.
Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.