The lab · what you pay
Here is the whole price list. Yours is fixed in writing first.
£250 + VAT is the bottom of our scale, and the bands above it are all printed on this page — no phone call stands between you and a figure. Working out where your device sits costs nothing, wherever in Birmingham you are posting it from, and on most work, if the files never come back, neither does an invoice.
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The full list, job by job.
| Opens at | What it is | What sits in that band |
|---|---|---|
| £250 + VAT | Camera cards and USB sticks | Flash media: USB sticks, SD, microSD and CompactFlash |
| £300 + VAT | Any drive on its own | HDD, SSD or NVMe — inside a machine or an enclosure |
| £300 + VAT | Apple desktops & laptops | Apple Silicon, T2, FileVault, APFS and HFS+ |
| £400 + VAT | DVR / CCTV / NVR | Standalone recorder boxes — Swann, Hikvision, Dahua and similar |
| from £500 + VAT | Servers, RAID sets and NAS boxes | Synology, QNAP, Dell PowerEdge, HP, WD, Lenovo; RAID 0/1/5/6/10 |
| from £500 + VAT | Database and mail-store files | SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Exchange |
| £800 + VAT and up | Virtual machine disks | Snapshots gone, VM folders damaged — VMDK, VHDX, VHD and QCOW2 |
| £800 + VAT and up | Evidence and expert reports | Court-ready reporting on workplace disputes, custody chain kept whole |
| from £1,250 + VAT | SAN and large arrays | Volumes that stretch over more than one array |
Not sure which line is yours? The symptom checker covers all three questions — the band, what has probably failed, and what to do next.
The small print on those figures.
- VAT is on top of every figure here, charged at the standard UK rate.
- Every figure is a starting point, not a total. The real number follows from the fault itself, and it is set down in writing after the free diagnosis, before we start charging for anything.
- No recovery, no fee is the rule on most work. When the files you were after stay lost, you are not billed for the attempt.
- A 50% deposit applies to three kinds of work: forensic instructions, recorder jobs, and drive repairs that need donor parts fitted internally. All three cost us the same bench hours whether they come off or not. The balance falls due only once your data is back with you.
Why one job in a band costs more than another.
What happens after we quote you.
| What comes up | What is behind it | Your bill |
|---|---|---|
| You sign it off | Work begins at the price you approved | Owed after you have seen what came back |
| You turn it down | We post it back and tell you what we found | Nothing for the look, nothing for the return post |
| Nothing comes back | Most jobs are covered by no recovery, no fee | You are not billed for trying |
| Something unforeseen shows up partway | We down tools and phone you before going further | Your price does not move |
| Donor-part repairs, recorders, forensics | Half at the start, half when it works | Made clear before you decide |
| Somebody has already been inside it | Priced on its own once we have looked | The usual no-fee cover may not stand |
What the £49 advert does not tell you
- £49 is a way in, not a price — the point of it is to get hold of your drive. What you actually owe emerges later, once the case is open and backing out has become awkward.
- Ask what a dead end costs you — where there is no no-recovery-no-fee cover, nobody at that bench is in a hurry to ring with bad news.
- Ask if the number can climb later — ours cannot. Any trouble that shows up after you have signed off is ours to carry. What you approved is what you are invoiced.
- Ask whose lab does the work — a good many outfits are brokers: they take a cut and send the drive on. Yours stays on our own bench from start to finish.
Where a price list stops helping: take these figures literally. A single hard disk with nothing worse than a logical fault costs £300 + VAT — not around £300, not £300 plus a bit. What no table can know in advance is whether a mechanical case needs one donor part or three. Diagnosis is what tells us, and it is the reason your final figure is written down first.
What people ask before they post a drive.
What should data recovery cost?
The device sets the opening figure. Camera cards and USB sticks fall in the £250 + VAT band. Any lone disk — SSD, hard drive, laptop or Mac — is £300 + VAT. A CCTV or DVR recorder is £400 + VAT. As soon as several disks are involved, whether a NAS, a RAID array or a server, the opening figure is £500 + VAT. Forensic instructions and virtual machine images both start at £800 + VAT. Every band sits in the table above; the figure for your device follows the free diagnosis, in writing.
Does the assessment cost anything?
Not a penny. That remains the case if you read the quote and say no. Getting the device up to the lab is the one cost you carry; the return trip is ours.
Which jobs need a deposit first?
Three sorts of job cost us the same in hours and parts whether they come off or not: repairs using matched donor components, work on embedded recorders, and forensic instructions. Half the agreed figure goes down at the start, the rest when your files are handed over. Everything else is no recovery, no fee.
When does payment fall due?
Payment comes after you have gone through the list of recovered files and signed it off, and before the new media leaves the lab — as the terms say. An ordinary job asks nothing at the outset and nothing halfway.
Anything hidden in the invoice?
No. The diagnosis costs nothing, the return postage is on us, and the number you approved is the number you settle. Priority handling is the sole extra there is, and it is priced and agreed before you choose it.
Somebody else has quoted lower — what then?
Ask them three things. Will that number still stand after the drive has been opened? What is the bill when nothing is recovered? And is the lab theirs, or somebody else's? From us: it holds, you owe nothing, and it is ours.
Every band is above. Putting a number on your device is free.
Send the form, or send the drive — either works. We look at it for nothing, put the price on paper, and leave the decision to you.