We do not rely upon guesswork when calculating the likely costs of recovering data from failed storage devices, and neither do we provide call-centre estimates. The majority of our Sheffield recoveries fall into one of a limited number of fixed pricing bands. Following a free diagnostic of your failed storage device, you will receive a written quotation detailing your fixed cost before a single file is touched. All prices detailed below are plus VAT.
The diagnostic never costs a penny, whether it's online or at our Leeds location. You only ever pay a fixed quote that you have approved, and for logical recoveries you only pay if we recover your data.
Data recovery pricing isn't determined by urgency: it is determined by the type of device and what has caused the fault. Almost all of the quotes we produce for our Sheffield-based customers fit into one of the following bands, with the exact price fixed in writing after the free diagnostic is complete. All prices shown here are plus VAT.
USB sticks, plus SD, microSD and CompactFlash cards: the flash memory is read and your files are rebuilt from it.
A single hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state disk (SSD) from a laptop, desktop computer, Mac or external caddy. NVMe blades incur the same charge, as they belong to the same band.
RAID sets, network attached storage (NAS) boxes and servers. Due to the fact that each individual disk must be imaged separately before the array can be rebuilt, the overall cost of recovering data from such systems will depend on the number of disks within the system.
CCTV and DVR recorder disks: recovering video footage from a security or surveillance recorder.
BitLocker decryption: decrypting a healthy encrypted drive once you provide us with the recovery key.
A full forensic investigation with a written report; a leaner, report-free forensic image and deleted-file extraction is £400 + VAT.
By device: a standard recovery of a single hard drive or SSD is £300 + VAT, NVMe also included. Recovery of a RAID set, NAS box or server starts from £500 + VAT. Recovery of a CCTV / DVR recorder or unlocking a BitLocker encrypted disk is £400 + VAT. A standard forensic service, which includes a written report, is £800 + VAT. To obtain your own written price, take advantage of our free diagnostic.
Which band you fall into comes down to the media type and the failure type, not the deadline. There are three factors that decide it:
Every recovery starts with a free diagnostic. That is either a quick look online or a complete bench test at our Leeds lab. Neither type of diagnostic costs anything. After the diagnostic, you will have a single fixed written quote for recovering your data. Your only choice after receiving that quote is to decide whether you want to proceed at that price.
With logical recoveries, you only pay if we recover your data. This includes file recovery (deleted, formatted or corrupted) or a healthy hard disk that your computer just won't see. If we cannot recover your files, then you owe us nothing.
Where a drive has electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, repairing it is invasive and may require replacement parts (such as a PCB or controller board), head or motor work, a NAND chip-off, or access to service areas and firmware. Therefore you must pay 50% of the quote upfront for the donor parts and lab time; the other 50% of the quote is only due once we recover your data.
All forensic work, including CCTV and DVR recordings, BitLocker unlocks and ransomware jobs, is paid in full upfront. A standard forensic investigation with a written report is £800 + VAT; a report-free forensic image and deleted-file extraction is £400 + VAT.
Get a quote first by calling 0800 689 0668 or completing the free online diagnostic. Then post your media to our Leeds location, tracked and insured, and we'll have the free diagnostic completed within two working days of delivery. Finding out exactly where you stand costs nothing.
Four common recoveries and how they break down in terms of price and policy; your own figure will always be confirmed in writing after the free diagnostic.
Nothing physically wrong, just deleted files: a logical £300 + VAT job where you only pay if we recover your data, so if we don't, you pay nothing.
A dropped disk that now ticks needs head and motor work with donor parts on the head-swap bench. £300 + VAT, but as it's mechanical damage, half is payable upfront and the remainder only if we recover your data.
A RAID 5 that dropped a disk and then failed is imaged one member at a time and rebuilt virtually. From £500 + VAT, following the number of disks in the RAID; on a straight logical rebuild, you only pay if we recover your data.
A CCTV recorder disk pulled after an incident is forensic work at £400 + VAT, paid upfront, and we will export the footage and timeline for you.
The diagnostic is complimentary and the quote is fixed in writing, so it is entirely down to you to make an informed decision about whether or not to proceed once you have the costs in front of you.
Please get a quote before sending your media to us, either by telephone on 0800 689 0668 or by completing our free online diagnostic. Once a customer has their quote, they post their media to us, tracked and insured.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the hard drive or SSD from your machine and send us just the drive; we do not offer an internal drive-removal service. If you have a server or RAID system, please send us every disk, each clearly labelled with its bay. We cannot recover data from storage that is soldered directly onto the motherboard (for example Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops), so we need removable drives to be sent to us. If you are unsure which kind you have, ring us first.
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Mark your package for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery and we will contact you as soon as we have diagnosed your media.
Unsure about what to send? Call us first on 0800 689 0668 or complete our free online diagnostic.