Services

Data recovery

Photos, documents and files from a drive that has failed, been formatted, or had things deleted from it. This is the one service we cannot promise an outcome on, and this page explains exactly why.

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Read this first

Stop using the computer and switch it off.

This is genuinely the single most useful thing you can do, and it costs nothing.

When a file is deleted it is not immediately erased — the space it occupied is simply marked as free. It stays recoverable until something else gets written over it. Every minute a computer keeps running, it keeps writing. Browsing the web while you think about what to do can quietly overwrite the very thing you are trying to get back.

If the drive is clicking, grinding or beeping, do not keep powering it on to check. That noise usually means a mechanical fault, and each attempt can turn a recoverable drive into an unrecoverable one.

Good odds

What can usually be recovered.

These have the best odds, because the drive itself still works and the problem is with how the data is organized rather than the hardware.

✓ Files deleted by accident, including from the recycle bin

✓ A drive that was formatted or reinstalled over

✓ A partition that has disappeared or shows as unallocated

✓ A drive that asks to be formatted every time it is plugged in

✓ Files from a computer that will not boot, where the drive is healthy

Long odds

What often cannot.

A computer that will not start is often a perfectly good drive attached to a broken machine. The cases below are the ones where the drive itself is the problem.

Physically failed drives

A drive with a mechanical fault inside needs opening in a cleanroom by a specialist lab. That is a different kind of work at a different order of cost, and opening it anywhere else destroys the chances. We will tell you when a job is in that category rather than attempting it and making it worse.

Overwritten data

Once something has been written over, it is gone. No tool recovers it, regardless of what the advertising says.

Files encrypted by ransomware

Without the key these are generally not recoverable at any price. Removing the malware and unlocking the files are two different problems.

Failed SSDs

Solid-state drives are often harder to recover from than older spinning drives, not easier, because of how they manage and clear their own storage.

The one exception

Why this is not covered by no fix, no fee.

Every other repair we do is covered by the guarantee. Data recovery is the single exception, and we would rather you read that here than discover it later.

The reason is that recovery is not a repair with a known fix. It is hours of work with a genuinely uncertain outcome — a badly damaged drive can absorb an entire day and yield nothing at all. No one can promise a result in advance, and any company that does is either guessing or charging you for the guess.

So data recovery works assessment first: a flat fee for the diagnostic, then a quote for the recovery itself based on what that diagnostic actually finds. You will know what you are committing to at each step, and you can decide it is not worth it. What we will not do is take the job on a promise we cannot keep.

How it works

An honest read on the odds before you commit to recovery.

If it needs specialist lab work we will say so. If it is straightforward, that is usually good news on price as well.

Tell us what happened

Whether it was dropped, whether it was deleted, and whether it has been used since. Those three details change the approach more than anything else.

We run the diagnostic

We collect the drive or the computer and run the full forensic assessment — what kind of failure it is, and what condition the data is actually in.

You decide whether to go ahead

The diagnostic tells you what is recoverable and what the recovery will cost. Whether it is worth it is then your call, with real information rather than a guess.

What it costs

One assessment fee, then a quote.

Nothing is done and nothing is charged until you have seen the price and agreed to it.

The assessment is $39.99. That buys a full forensic diagnostic of the drive and of the integrity of the data on it — what kind of failure it is, what is still intact, and what the realistic odds are.

The assessment fee covers the diagnostic itself, whatever it finds. Sometimes the answer is that nothing can be recovered. That is still a definite answer, and it is the one that stops you spending more.

The recovery itself is quoted after the diagnostic, because what it costs depends on the condition of the data.

Pickup & delivery is a flat $19.99. That covers collecting the drive or the computer and bringing it back, the same anywhere in our service area. It is held on a card beforehand rather than charged, and you pay it with the assessment when we hand everything back — by card or cash, whatever the diagnostic finds.

Or drop it off and collect it yourself — then there is no fee, and no card hold either. We will arrange the spot when we schedule.

Parts, licenses, and third-party services are priced separately when applicable.

Not covered by the guarantee.

Data recovery is the one service excluded from no fix, no fee. The assessment is what replaces that guarantee — it tells you the real odds before you commit to the recovery itself.

Related help

If you already know roughly what you are dealing with, these pages go into more detail.

Computer repair Virus & malware removal

Tell us what happened.

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