Four quick steps: device, manufacturer, symptom — then an instant engineer's read-out of the likely fault, what to do right now, and typical turnaround. Leave your details and an engineer confirms it personally ASAP.
The diagnostic is always free — online and on the bench. You only ever pay a fixed quote you've approved, and only if the recovery succeeds.
Your exact quote is confirmed in writing once the free diagnostic is finished — it costs nothing to find out. No fix, no fee covers logical recoveries (deleted, formatted or corrupt data); drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work, so 50% of the quote is payable upfront — always set out in writing before anything is touched.
Post to: Guildford Data Recovery, Building 2, Ground Floor, Guildford Business Park, Guildford, GU2 8XH — marked for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery. Downloads: ↓ shipping form (PDF) · ↓ terms & conditions (PDF)
Leave your details and an engineer will call you back ASAP with next steps and honest odds — no obligation.
An engineer will review it and contact you back ASAP. Ready to send the device already? Post it to Building 2, Ground Floor, Guildford Business Park, Guildford, GU2 8XH, marked for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery.
Rather talk it through? Call 0800 689 0668 (Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm) — describing the fault over the phone works just as well.
Most jobs fall into one of three fixed bands — the price follows the device, not the panic. You get one fixed figure in writing after the free diagnostic. Logical recoveries are no fix, no fee; drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work, so 50% of the quote is payable upfront (see below).
USB sticks and memory cards — SD, microSD and CF.
A single hard drive or SSD — internal or external, laptop, desktop or Mac.
RAID, NAS and servers — imaged and rebuilt per drive, priced to the job.
CCTV / DVR recorder drives are a fixed £400 + VAT, and a standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT, payable 100% upfront (larger cases scoped and quoted in writing). No fix, no fee applies to logical recoveries — deleted, formatted or corrupt data, or a healthy drive the system just can't see. It does not apply to drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage: those need invasive work — a new PCB or controller, head/motor repair, NAND chip-off or firmware/service-area access — so 50% of the quoted price is payable upfront for the donor parts and lab time. Exceptional cases (badly burnt boards, snapped media and large multi-disk rebuilds) sit higher and are always quoted in writing first, after the free diagnostic.
When your device arrives, it gets a real engineering assessment — not a five-minute software scan. Within 48 hours you'll know:
Board, bridge and power-circuit checks — is the fault electrical, and is the unique ROM intact?
Heads, motor and platter condition assessed before the drive is ever asked to work hard.
Service-area and translator inspection on the PC-3000 bench — the invisible faults software can't see.
Controlled read assessment with hardware imagers — how much of the surface or NAND is genuinely readable.
What's intact, what's corrupted, and which of your actual files and folders are recoverable.
One price for the recovery based on the real fault — approve it or decline it, with nothing owed either way.
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.
Package the device, include your name and number, and post it tracked.