What does data recovery cost?
Data recovery is priced around the work a case needs. Our current bench rate is £95 an hour, with donor parts, specialist licences and return media added where required. Standard diagnosis is free, and we explain the expected cost or an honest range before you authorise recovery.
- Freestandard diagnosis
- £95current hourly rate
- £100 enhanced prior-work assessment
- Before recoveryprice or range agreed
- No useful datano recovery fee
Typical recovery price bands
These are Standard-service consumer prices including VAT. They help you judge the likely scale of the job; the diagnosis determines which category applies to your device.
Logical recovery deals with readable media whose file system, partition or data structure is damaged. Physical recovery involves failed electronics, components, flash memory or mechanical parts.
| Device | Logical fault | Physical fault |
|---|---|---|
| USB flash drive | from £100 | £150–700+ |
| SD or microSD card | from £100 | £300–700+ |
| Hard drive | from £150 | £450–850+ |
| External drive | from £150 | £450–850+ |
| SSD | from £250 | £450–1200+ |
| Laptop | from £150 | £300–850+ |
| Mobile phone | from £150 | £300–1500+ |
| RAID or NAS | from £600 | £1000–5000+ |
A plus sign means a severely damaged, high-capacity, previously opened or otherwise unusual case may cost more. Express service adds 40%. Emergency service adds 70%. Complex multi-device cases are assessed individually.
Time is the main variable.
Recovery is investigative work rather than a repeatable repair menu. Two drives with the same model and symptom can need completely different procedures. The rate covers the engineer time spent diagnosing, stabilising, imaging, rebuilding and validating the case.
Some recoveries run over several days because imaging must proceed slowly or because the next safe step depends on what the previous one reveals. Research and technical consultation can also be part of that work. We do not keep a procedure running simply to accumulate hours: the expected time and commercial limit are agreed before recovery.
Rate confirmed 27 July 2026.
What may sit outside the labour charge
Many logical recoveries need nothing beyond engineering time. A physically damaged or unusual device may also require one of the following.
- 01
a donor device or donor components.
- 02
replacement parts used during recovery.
- 03
a specialist software licence required for the case.
- 04
external media used to return the recovered data.
Estimate, price or agreed range?
Before the device arrives, we can usually provide an indicative range from the device, symptom and previous attempts. It is useful for deciding whether a diagnosis makes sense, but it is not a promise about a device we have not examined.
- Before arrival
An indicative range based on what you tell us.
- After diagnosis
A written price where the procedure is clear, or an agreed range where the remaining time or method cannot yet be known precisely.
- If the case changes
After diagnosis and before recovery, we provide a price or an agreed price range. If the required procedure or time changes materially, we stop and ask for approval before exceeding it.
Questions about cost
The written quotation or agreed range for your device takes precedence over the general bands on this page.
- Why can you not give me an exact price over the phone?
- The same symptom can come from a logical fault, failed electronics, damaged heads or several problems at once. Until the device is examined, an exact figure would be a guess. We can give an initial indication, then confirm a price or agreed range after the standard diagnosis.
- Is the diagnosis really free?
- Standard diagnosis is free. If a device has already been opened, dismantled or physically worked on elsewhere, a £100 enhanced assessment fee is payable in advance. It becomes non-refundable once that additional assessment begins. We tell you before accepting the device into that process.
- Does a previous recovery attempt cost extra?
- It can. A device that has been opened, had components changed or been worked on by another laboratory needs additional inspection and may need decontamination before it can enter a controlled environment. We charge £100 for that enhanced assessment. The same fee may apply when another recovery attempt has materially increased the diagnostic work. It is not charged merely because you asked another company for advice.
- Why might you ask for a 50% advance payment?
- Some accepted recoveries reserve substantial engineering time, specialist equipment or donor preparation. In selected cases we therefore ask for 50% of the quotation before recovery begins. It is credited against the final invoice and returned if we do not recover the useful data agreed for the job. It also protects the lab where approved work is completed but a customer later withdraws or does not collect. If you cancel after work has begun, any amount retained is limited to the reasonable work and direct loss already incurred.
- Is the displayed price the total I pay?
- Yes. The price bands are the total prices payable. We do not add VAT to the displayed price or to an accepted quotation. Any separately agreed donor parts, specialist licences or return media are itemised before work begins.
- Are donor parts and the return drive included?
- Not automatically. Some jobs need a donor device, replacement components, a specialist licence or new external media for the recovered data. Where one of these is needed, it is shown separately in the quotation or agreed price range.
- What happens if only some of my data can be recovered?
- We assess partial recovery as well as complete recovery and ask which files matter most before diagnosis. When work is complete, you can review the result before payment and decide whether the recovered material is useful to you.
Start with a free standard diagnosis.
Tell us what failed, what has already been tried and which data matters most. We will explain the likely cost category and the safest next step.
See the complete recovery process