The price list · nothing withheld
Data recovery prices in Plymouth, in full. Every band is shown, and your own price comes in writing.
The lowest price on the list is £250 + VAT, and every band above it appears below, so you can place your device from anywhere in Plymouth before you call us. Finding out your exact price is also free, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
You will be talking to an engineer
0800 6890668
Where each sort of job's price opens.
| Starts at | The job | What falls in the band |
|---|---|---|
| £250 + VAT | Cards and pen drives | Any flash media: SD, microSD, CompactFlash, USB sticks |
| £300 + VAT | One disk | Your hard drive, SSD or NVMe drive, sent on its own (taken out of your laptop or PC) |
| £300 + VAT | Macs with a removable drive | FileVault, APFS and HFS+ drives taken out of the Mac |
| £400 + VAT | Disks from CCTV, DVR and NVR units | The recorder's disk from your Hikvision, Dahua, Swann or similar unit, taken out and sent on its own |
| from £500 + VAT | NAS boxes, RAID sets and servers | RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10; QNAP, Synology, WD, PowerEdge, ProLiant and Lenovo |
| from £500 + VAT | Databases and mail stores | SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Exchange |
| £800 + VAT and up | Virtual machine images | Broken snapshot chains and damaged VM folders: VMDK, VHDX, VHD and QCOW2 |
| £800 + VAT and up | Forensic work and its reports | Civil and employment matters written up in detail, with every step logged |
| from £1,250 + VAT | SANs and large arrays | A single volume spread over several arrays |
Not seeing your device in the list? The symptom checker gives you three things: the band you fit into, what may have caused the problem, and what to steer clear of before posting.
Four notes to read alongside it.
- All the figures here exclude VAT, which is added at the current UK standard rate.
- These are opening figures, not invoices. Once we know the fault, the total cost is written down for you when the free diagnosis ends, before anything is charged.
- In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Should we fail to find what you were looking for, nothing is paid for the attempt.
- Half up front is required for three sorts of job: recorders, forensic instructions, and repairs that put donor parts into your drive. All take the same bench time whether or not they succeed. The balance is due once your recovered files are back with you.
One band, two jobs, two different bills.
What follows once the quote reaches you.
| The situation | What that points to | The charge |
|---|---|---|
| You accept it | The work starts at the agreed figure | Payable once you have seen the file list |
| You decline it | Your device goes home with the findings | Nothing owed for the diagnosis or the return post |
| Nothing can be recovered | Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs | You pay nothing |
| Something unexpected turns up | We stop and ring before doing anything more | The agreed figure still stands |
| Donor parts, recorders, forensic work | Half before, half when it works | Stated plainly before you agree |
| Another lab has already opened it | Quoted case by case after the diagnosis | The only-pay-if-we-recover terms may not apply |
The £49 advertisement, and what it leaves out
- £49 gets you into a queue, not a recovery: you get your drive on someone else's bench. The real cost comes later, when getting out has become awkward.
- Find out what a failure costs: where nothing promises that failure is free, don't expect anyone to hurry to bring you the bad news.
- Ask whether the price can change: ours does not. Whatever we run into after you agree is ours to carry. The final bill equals the quote.
- Ask where the work is actually done: many companies add a markup and send the drive to another company. Your drive stays with our own engineers from start to finish.
What no table can settle: read these numbers exactly. A single hard disk with nothing but a logical fault costs £300 + VAT, not approximately £300 and not £300 plus extra costs. What no list can predict is how many donor parts a mechanical failure will need. That is the diagnosis's job, and why your figure is in writing before work starts.
Questions asked before posting it.
What does the work usually cost?
Two things decide the cost: which device, and how many disks are inside. Flash memory (an SD card or a pen drive) is in the £250 + VAT band. A single drive (hard disk or SSD) taken out of the laptop or desktop costs £300 + VAT. Recorder disks are £400 + VAT. When a second disk is involved, such as a NAS unit, RAID set or server, the opening figure goes up to £500 + VAT. Virtual machine disks and forensic instructions both begin at £800 + VAT. It is all in the table above, and once the diagnosis is done your own figure is put in writing.
Is the diagnosis really free?
Yes, entirely. Look at the quote, turn it down, and you owe nothing. Postage to the lab is your only expense; we pay for the return postage.
When is a deposit wanted?
There are three sorts of job where bench hours and parts get spent whether or not your files come back: forensic instructions, recorder disks, and repairs needing matched donor parts. On those, half the agreed figure is due before work starts and the other half when your files are returned. On all other work, in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
At what point is the bill paid?
Only after you have looked over the file list and told us it is correct, and before any new media leaves here, as the terms say. On an ordinary job nothing is asked for up front and nothing part-way through.
Are there extras on the invoice?
None. Looking at it costs you nothing, the return postage comes from us, and you pay the sum you agreed. There is one extra, priority handling, and its price is settled before you take it.
We have a cheaper quote elsewhere. What then?
Ask them three questions. Does the price stay the same after the drive is opened? What do you owe if nothing at all is recovered? Whose lab does the actual work? Ours: the price stands, in most cases you owe nothing, and we never send anything on to a third party.
That is the whole list. Your price follows a free look.
Get a quote first, either by sending us the form or calling us, then send the package. The look is free, your price is put on paper, and whether you go ahead is up to you.