The fault first · the price after
Diagnose it, then price it. Not the other way about.
Two questions give you a probable cause, the single action to avoid next, and a rough sense of how long the bench work runs. The form below comes after that. Once your device reaches the lab the assessment is free, and the written price is the one you pay — it does not move.
Tell an engineer what it is doing
0800 6890668
Two questions, and a direction.
The order of the work →What kind of device is it?
Go with the nearest match.
Two questions, a straight answer, and one thing worth doing while the device is still with you. It is not the free diagnosis — that needs a bench, and an engineer with the hardware in front of them. Think of it as what we would say on the phone, except that it is there at four in the morning.
Now for the details.
How it goes from here.
A reply inside one working day
What you send is read by an engineer, not sorted by software. Back comes a blunt first opinion: the real odds, what not to touch, and the address to post it to.
Checked over on the bench Free
The device gets a case number of its own, then goes on the bench so we can pin down the actual fault and see how much of the platter or the flash still reads.
The price, then your call
The quote reaches you in writing. Give the word and the work starts; say no and your device is posted back to you. The assessment cost nothing either way, and nothing in the small print undoes that.
Getting the paperwork done.
Want it on paper? →Whatever you type in these boxes carries over to the printed copy. Would you sooner use a pen? Download the PDF and complete it by hand. Either route works, provided a copy travels in the box.
Making the parcel up.
Check these off before it goes
- Write down every password: BitLocker recovery keys, FileVault, Windows logins — put them on the shipping form. Encryption makes no exception for the lab; with no key, we are locked out exactly as you are.
- Say what matters most: name the folders you cannot lose and those are the ones checked first.
- Externals come as they are: no cables needed. In a WD My Passport the bridge board is matched to that disk, so both halves must travel.
- Leave the power supply behind unless we ask for it. Should anything have come loose or broken away, bag the bits up and send them along — do not bin them.
Once more: whatever the checker said, do not plug the device in again for one last look. A fair share of the damage that reaches our bench need never have happened, and began exactly there.
What people ask before they post a drive.
Is the checker the same thing as a diagnosis?
No, and the gap between the two matters. A quote comes out of the free diagnosis: hardware on the bench, an engineer working through it, the real fault pinned down. The checker only reads back the symptoms you ticked and points at a likely cause. One is a signpost; the other is what we found.
What should data recovery cost?
The device sets the opening band, and the checker will tell you which one applies. Cards and USB sticks open at £250 + VAT. A single drive is £300 + VAT. A DVR or a comparable recorder is £400 + VAT. Two disks or more and it begins at £500 + VAT. The pricing page breaks it down further. After the free assessment that band collapses to one written number.
When does no recovery, no fee apply?
On most jobs, no files means no bill. Any case where that does not apply is flagged before you commit to anything — chiefly drives that have taken mechanical or electrical damage, and devices somebody else has already been inside.
How long before you get back to me?
Inside a working day, and frequently within half an hour of your message arriving. Anything sent outside office hours waits until the morning. With the device here, a single-drive diagnosis is usually finished within 48 hours.
Spend two minutes, get one number.
Checker, form, box, post office. From there on it is your call, and the assessment costs nothing whichever way you go.