Don't write it off
until we've looked at it.
Deleted files, a drive that won’t spin up, a laptop that won’t boot or a corrupted USB stick. We recover data from failed and damaged storage, and we tell you honestly what’s likely, what it costs, and when it isn’t worth trying.
Diagnostic & quote
Registered · GDPR compliant
Recovering local data
Only, we never write to your drive
The worst damage
usually happens after the failure.
Most of the drives we can’t fully recover were recoverable when they failed. What finished them off was the hour or two spent trying things at home.
How the call usually starts
“It was working yesterday”
Windows won’t load, the profile won’t open, or the drive simply isn’t listed any more, and everything from the last decade is on it.
“It's making a noise”
Clicking, beeping or grinding. Every extra minute powered on is doing more damage to the platters.
“I deleted the wrong folder”
Accidental deletion, an emptied recycle bin, or a shared drive tidy-up that took the wrong year with it.
“I ran a recovery tool I found online”
Free tools that write their own output back onto the failing drive, overwriting the very files you’re trying to save.
“There was a backup, I think”
A backup that stopped running in 2023, or an external drive plugged into the same machine that just got encrypted.
How we approach it
Diagnose before anything is touched
We establish whether the fault is logical or mechanical first. The two need completely different handling, and guessing wrong is what kills drives.
Work on a copy, never the original
Where the media allows it we take a full sector-by-sector image and do all recovery work on that. Your drive is read from, never written to.
You see the file list before you pay
We show you what came back and in what state, so you’re never paying blind for a folder of corrupted fragments.
An honest answer about the odds
If a drive has physical platter damage and needs specialist clean-room work, we say so and tell you what that costs elsewhere rather than charging you to find out.
Handled under GDPR throughout
We’re ICO registered. Your data is treated confidentially, kept only as long as the job needs, and securely wiped from our systems afterwards.
If it stores data,
it's worth letting us look.
Computers, laptops, portable drives and memory cards. Some cases are an afternoon, some need specialist facilities. The diagnostic tells us which.
Failed hard drives
Drives that won’t mount, won’t spin, click on power-up or have developed thousands of bad sectors. Imaged with error-tolerant hardware rather than ordinary copy tools.
SSDs & NVMe drives
Controller failures, drives that report zero capacity, and corrupted partitions. Solid state has its own failure modes and its own recovery window, act early.
USB sticks & memory cards
Snapped connectors, cards that ask to be formatted, and sticks that show the wrong size. Common with cameras, dash cams and phone storage.
Laptops & PCs that won't boot
Where the machine is dead but the data isn’t. Often the fastest recovery of all, the drive comes out, the data comes off, and you decide about the machine afterwards.
Corrupt user profiles
Windows loads but your desktop, documents and settings have vanished into a temporary profile. Usually fully recoverable, and often the same day.
Deleted & overwritten files
Emptied recycle bins, wrongly formatted drives and files removed from a network share. The sooner the device stops being used, the better the outcome.
Ransomware & encryption events
Where files have been encrypted or a backup destroyed. We look for recoverable versions and shadow copies, then help you close the door that was left open.
The first steps
decide most of it.
If the data matters, this short list is worth more than any software you can download. Read it before you try anything else.
Please don't
- Keep powering it on to “try again.” Every retry on a mechanically failing drive scrapes the surface a little more. Repeated power cycles turn recoverable cases into unrecoverable ones.
- Run free recovery software onto the same drive. Most tools write their results back to the source, overwriting the files still sitting there intact.
- Let anyone reinstall Windows first. A reinstall to “get it working” writes over exactly the area we'd be recovering from.
- Freeze it, hit it, or open it up. The internet is full of confident advice about freezer bags. A drive opened outside a clean environment collects dust on the platters and that damage is permanent.
- Keep using the device after deleting something. Every new file written is a chance to land on top of the one you want back.
Please do
- Power it down and leave it alone. The single most useful thing you can do. Shut down properly if you can, pull the plug if you can't.
- Write down what happened. What you were doing, what noises it made, any error message, and whether anyone has already tried something. It genuinely changes our approach.
- Find out what you actually need. Usually it's photos, documents and mail, not the whole drive. Knowing the priority makes a partial recovery far more useful.
- Check what already exists elsewhere. Phone backups, OneDrive, old email attachments. We'd rather tell you it's already safe than charge you for it.
- Ring us and describe it. Two minutes on the phone often tells us whether it's a same-day job or a specialist one, before you travel anywhere.
We do our utmost to get your data back, but we can't guarantee whether, or how much, is recoverable. That depends entirely on the extent of the damage to the storage medium, and no reputable company can promise otherwise. What we can promise is that you'll know the odds before we start, and you'll never pay for a recovery that didn't happen.
Four stages,
and a decision point before any charge.
Diagnostic first, price second, work third. You approve the cost once you know what we’re dealing with, never before.
Find out what's actually wrong
We establish whether the fault is logical, deleted, corrupted, a broken file system, or mechanical, where the hardware itself has failed. That single answer determines the method, the price and the odds. It costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
- Fault classified
- Odds explained
- Fixed price quoted
Take a copy, then leave the original alone
Wherever the media allows, we take a full sector-by-sector image using error-tolerant hardware that skips and revisits bad regions rather than hammering them. From that point every attempt is made against the copy, so nothing we do can make your original worse.
- Read-only handling
- Bad sectors mapped
- Multiple passes
Rebuild the files from the image
File systems are repaired, partitions rebuilt, and files carved back out, with folder structure and names preserved wherever the metadata survived. You then get a file list to check before anything is paid for or returned.
- Structure preserved
- File list to approve
- No result, no charge
Back to you, and made not to happen again
Recovered data is copied to new media or straight onto your replacement machine, and our working copies are securely wiped. Then we spend ten minutes on the part everyone skips: making sure this is the last time you ever need this service.
- Copied to new media
- Our copies wiped
- Backup set up properly
Recovery is the cure.
Backup is the reason you'll never need it.
Every recovery job we do ends the same way: a conversation about why there wasn’t a working copy. It’s rarely that nobody set one up, it’s that nobody ever checked it was still running, or ever tried restoring from it.
A backup drive plugged in beside the machine, or a sync folder assumed to be a backup. Neither survives theft, fire or ransomware.
It stopped eighteen months ago after an update. Nobody was watching the reports, so nobody knew until the day it mattered.
Encrypted off-site copies, monitored by our engineers every day, with someone chasing the failure rather than an email nobody reads.
A backup you have never restored from is a theory. We test restores so the recovery is proven before you need it.
Everyone who has sat in our workshop waiting on a recovery says the same thing afterwards. Skip that step.
Diagnostic free.
Everything else quoted before we start.
Prices depend on the failure type, not on how much your data is worth to you. You’ll have a fixed figure before any work begins.
Diagnostic
Find out where you stand
- Fault identified as logical or mechanical
- Honest view of the likelihood of recovery
- Fixed price quoted before any work
- Told plainly if it needs a specialist lab
- Device returned as received if you stop here
Free · no obligation
Most cases
Standard recovery
Logical faults & healthy media
- Everything in the diagnostic, plus:
- Deleted, formatted and corrupted file recovery
- Non-booting laptops, PCs and profiles
- Sector-level image taken before any work
- File list to approve before you pay
- Data returned on new media or your new machine
- Backup set up before you leave, if you want it
Quoted after the free diagnostic
If we can't recover anything useful, you don't pay for the recovery attempt.
You're handing over
everything you've got.
We don’t take that lightly. Here’s exactly how your data is treated while it’s with us.
ICO registered
We’re registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and handle everything in line with UK GDPR.
Confidential by default
Engineers access only what’s needed to complete the recovery. We don’t browse your files and we don’t discuss them.
Securely wiped after
Once you’ve confirmed you have your data, our working images and copies are securely erased from our systems.
Local, not shipped abroad
Standard recoveries are done in our own workshop in Birmingham. Where a specialist lab is needed, we can refer you to our specialist partner.
What clients usually do
next.
Recovery is a one-off. These are the things that stop it being a recurring event.
Managed backup
Encrypted off-site backup with 30-day version history, monitored daily by our engineers and with restores actually tested.
Managed security
Antivirus, EDR and identity protection monitored around the clock, the other half of not losing your data.
Repairs & upgrades
Once the data is safe, we’ll tell you honestly whether the machine is worth repairing, upgrading or replacing.
Common questions
Before you bring it in.
Can you guarantee you'll get my data back?
No, and nobody honestly can. It depends entirely on the damage to the storage medium. What we will do is tell you after the free diagnostic what we think the realistic chances are, quote a fixed price, and not charge you for the recovery if nothing useful comes back.
How much does it cost?
The diagnostic is free. Recovery itself is priced on the type of failure, a deleted folder or a corrupt profile is at the low end, a multi-disk RAID or physically damaged drive is at the high end. You’ll always have a fixed figure before we start, and we don’t price on how badly you need the files.
How long does it take?
Straightforward logical recoveries are often same-day or next-day. Imaging a failing drive can take considerably longer because we deliberately read it slowly and carefully, a badly degraded drive can take several days, and rushing it is how data gets lost.
My drive is clicking. Is that bad?
Yes, it usually means a mechanical fault, and every additional power-up risks further damage to the platters. Turn it off and don’t switch it back on. Bring it in as it is, the sooner it stops being powered, the better your odds.
Will you look at my files?
Only as far as we must to verify what’s been recovered and produce the file list you approve. We’re ICO registered, we work to UK GDPR, and our copies are securely wiped once you confirm you’ve got everything.
Can you recover from a device that's been dropped in water?
Sometimes. Don’t try to dry it out and power it on, that’s when corrosion causes shorts. Bring it in, and we’ll assess whether the storage itself is intact and whether the data is reachable.
What if it needs a clean room?
We’ll tell you at the diagnostic stage rather than charge you to discover it later. Physical platter damage needs specialist facilities, and we’ll explain what that route involves and roughly what it costs so you can decide whether it’s worth pursuing.
Do you work with businesses as well as home users?
Both. For businesses we prioritise anything that’s stopping you trading, and we can work out of hours. We’ll also review why it happened afterwards, so the same gap doesn’t cost you twice.
Need a quote on Data Recovery?
No charge to find out where you stand, and no obligation afterwards. We’ll tell you what’s wrong, what the realistic chances are, and exactly what it will cost, before we touch anything. If it’s not worth doing, we’ll say that too.
Our Other Computer Services
Computer Repairs and Upgrades
Whether your computer is running slow, experiencing hardware issues, or simply needs a performance boost, our Computer Repairs and Upgrades service is here to help.
Computer Maintenance
Our Computer Maintenance and Support services are designed to keep your systems operating at peak efficiency, minimising downtime and preventing costly issues before they arise.
Custom Built PCs
We build bespoke, high-performance PCs tailored precisely to your needs, whether for gaming, content creation, or business.
Virus Removal
Our virus removal services eliminate malware, spyware, and other threats to restore your system’s security and performance.