There is a fixed cost for recovering lost or corrupted data, and most jobs fall into a handful of clear price bands. We will give you an initial no-cost diagnostic to help determine how much work needs to be done on your job. Once we know what needs to be done, we will provide you with one fixed written quote before any work starts. On logical recoveries, you only pay if we recover your data. All prices plus VAT.
The diagnostic service is always complimentary, both online and in the lab. You'll only ever pay a fixed quote you have approved, and on logical recoveries you only pay if we recover your data.
Most data recovery jobs fall into one of several price bands; the cost depends on the device and the fault, not how panicked you were when it happened. Every price listed below is confirmed in writing after your free diagnostic, and all prices are plus VAT.
Flash media, USB sticks and memory cards: SD, microSD, CompactFlash and all other types of flash media.
Single hard drive or solid state drive (SSD): internal or external, from laptops, desktops and Macs, including NVMe drives.
RAID, NAS and servers: each member disk is imaged and the array rebuilt per disk, so the cost is based on the number of disks in the system.
CCTV and DVR recorder drives: recovering footage from surveillance and security recorders.
BitLocker decryption: unlocking a healthy BitLocker-encrypted drive using your recovery key.
A standard forensic investigation, which includes a full report, plus a leaner version at £400 + VAT that provides a binary image and deleted-file extraction without a report.
Recovery pricing per device: a single hard drive or SSD recovery is £300 + VAT (including NVMe); recovery for RAID, NAS and servers starts at £500 + VAT; recovery for CCTV / DVR recorder drives and BitLocker decryption is £400 + VAT; and a standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT. Start with a free diagnostic to get your own written, fixed quote.
The price we charge is always determined by the type of media and the type of fault it has, not how quickly you need it done. Three key factors decide which band you fall into:
Every job begins with a free diagnostic: both the online read-out and the full engineer's diagnostic in the lab are free. From this you receive one fixed written quote before any work commences, and you only ever approve (or decline) that single price.
Only on logical recoveries: you only pay if we recover your data, e.g. files that have been deleted, formatted or corrupted, or a healthy drive the system simply can't see. If we are unable to recover the data, then there will be no charge.
Drives with physical, electronic, mechanical or fire/water damage require invasive repairs, i.e. replacement of a PCB or controller, head or motor repair, NAND chip-off, or firmware and service-area access. In these cases 50% of the quoted price is payable upfront for the required donor parts and lab time. The remaining 50% only becomes payable once we have successfully recovered your data.
Forensic work, including recovery of CCTV/DVR systems, ransomware and BitLocker-encrypted drives, is payable upfront. We provide two types of forensic service: a standard forensic investigation, which includes a full report, at £800 + VAT; and a leaner forensic binary-image and deleted-file extraction service, which does not include a report, at £400 + VAT.
As soon as you have either a telephone quote (call 0800 689 0668) or a result from our free online diagnostic, your media is posted to our Guildford location for the free diagnostic, which is completed within 2 working days of arrival, so it costs you nothing to find out where you actually stand with recovering your data.
Here are a few examples of typical jobs and how the pricing and policy rules apply in each case, although your own figure will always be confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic.
You have simply emptied the recycle bin or quick-formatted an external drive which is working. This would be a logical recovery at £300 + VAT, and you only pay if we actually recover your data.
A dropped laptop drive that now clicks has a mechanical failure and needs head-and-motor work with donor parts on our head-swap bench: £300 + VAT. Since this is physical damage, we require 50 percent of the quote upfront, and the remaining balance is only invoiced if we recover your data.
A four-disk RAID 5 that failed a rebuild: from £500 + VAT, following the disk count, to image each physical disk and rebuild the array virtually. On a logical rebuild, you only pay if we recover your data.
£400 + VAT for a healthy hard drive or SSD that has been locked by BitLocker and is showing the recovery screen. This is a forensic service, paid upfront, and we unlock your drive once you've given us your recovery key.
Your diagnostic is free and your quote is fixed in writing, so you only decide once you know what the charge will be.
Before you send anything, please contact us by phone or get a quote from our free online diagnostic, then post your hardware to us tracked and insured, or hand it over to us personally at our Guildford lab.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please take the internal hard drive or SSD out and simply send us that drive, leaving all of your other components at home; we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. Some machines have storage soldered to the motherboard, the most common examples being Apple Silicon Macs and some ultra-thin laptops, and we can't recover data from those: only drives that can be removed and sent to us. If you're unsure which type your device uses, contact our office first. RAID, server and SAN disks come out of the enclosure, labelled by bay. For a NAS, send the disks if you can take them out, otherwise the NAS itself. A single external drive should be sent whole, with its cable and power supply.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Please mark the package for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery, and we will call you as soon as we have diagnosed your media.
Unsure as to how to proceed with sending the item in for recovery? Then simply call 0800 689 0668, or complete the free online diagnostic prior to dispatching the item to obtain your price quotation.