Dead on arrival, stuck in a boot loop, dropped down the stairs or introduced to a cup of coffee — whatever shape the laptop is in, the data inside is usually still recoverable. We work on every make and model, from Staines student machines to business fleets across Surrey.
Free diagnostic on every laptop job. One fixed quote in writing before any work begins.
No fix, no fee all jobs except electronic and mechanical failures, chip level work, DVR and Forensic jobs. Full pricing is on the free diagnostic page.
Every laptop job starts by matching the symptoms to the fault — these twelve cover almost everything that reaches the bench.
Dead board, charging fault or shorted rail — the storage inside is almost always unaffected.
Tea and coffee head for the logic board; corrosion is the enemy and speed is the cure.
The hard drive's heads failed on impact; classic clean-bench head-swap territory.
Failing storage or corrupted Windows — either way the data comes off the drive directly.
Update dies halfway and the machine won't start; documents are untouched underneath.
Modern laptops die suddenly when the NVMe stick or SSD inside them fails.
Dust-choked cooling cooks the drive over months — data comes off before the drive finishes dying.
Machine runs, display doesn't — drive-out extraction is quick and clean.
A 'repair' reinstall wipes profiles; recovery works from what the reinstall didn't overwrite.
With your key or password, encrypted storage recovers like any other — mention it when you call.
Older Fujitsu Lifebook and HP Pavilion drives develop firmware and bad-sector faults that stall the whole machine at boot.
Vintage Packard Bell and early laptops run PATA drives that seize or lose their PCB — recovered on the legacy bench.
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, MSI, Microsoft Surface — and everything in between. Inside, your data almost always lives on a 2.5" hard drive or an M.2 SSD that comes out from a base panel with a few screws; remove the drive or SSD yourself and send us just that, as we don't run a drive-removal service. A number of thin ultrabooks and Surface models have their storage soldered to the motherboard: we no longer recover soldered storage, only drives that can be removed and posted to us. If you're unsure which camp yours falls into, call us first on 0800 689 0668 and we'll talk it through.
A fall can wreck the hard drive's heads while the laptop itself still looks fine — if it now clicks, whirs or hangs at boot, switch it off and keep it off. Liquid damage is a race against corrosion: skip the bag of rice, stop trying to power it on, and simply get it to us quickly. We strip out the storage, treat whatever needs treating, and recover straight from the drive.
Laptop work spans every storage type, so the bench carries the full stack plus the teardown kit:
The drive or SSD you remove and send is logged and handled anti-statically from arrival, then imaged before any recovery work begins.
M.2 NVMe/SATA, mSATA, 2230/2242, proprietary Apple blades and vintage IDE — native attachment for whatever is inside.
Failed laptop drives get the same firmware-level treatment as any bare drive.
Dropped-laptop head swaps happen under filtered airflow with donor parts from the library.
Liquid-damaged removable drives and their connectors are cleaned and corrosion-treated so the drive can be imaged.
Extracted drives image through write-blockers before anything else touches them.
Sealed-battery ultrabooks, gaming machines with dual drives, and ten-year-old family laptops alike — if it closes with a hinge, we've had one apart. Older Fujitsu Lifebook and HP Pavilion drives are frequent visitors with firmware and bad-sector faults that stall the machine at boot; vintage Packard Bell laptops run ageing PATA/SATA disks with tired motors; and modern HP and Dell ultrabooks tend to fail suddenly when their single NVMe stick gives out. We recover removable drives only — storage soldered to the board can't be lifted off.
The drive needs to be removed from your computer before you send it in to us. Unsure? Phone us on 0800 689 0668, or a local PC repair shop will remove it for a small fee.
Please remove the drive before sending — we don't offer a drive-removal service. On most laptops the 2.5-inch drive or M.2 SSD sits behind a single base panel; a few screws and it lifts out. Post just the drive in an anti-static bag or wrapped in foil. If the storage is soldered to the motherboard we can't help — we only recover drives that can be removed and posted to us.
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.
Free diagnostic, fixed quote, no fix no fee — start now or call the freephone.