The lab · price bands
Every band is published. Your own figure comes in writing.
Our scale begins at £250 + VAT, and every band above that is set out further down this page, so there is no need to telephone in order to extract a number from us. Establishing which band your device belongs in costs nothing, and on most work an invoice only follows if the files do.
Describe the fault to an engineer
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Every band, printed.
| Band | Type of job | What the band covers |
|---|---|---|
| £250 + VAT | USB sticks and cards | SD, microSD and CompactFlash, plus USB flash media |
| £300 + VAT | One disk, any type | Hard disks, SSDs and NVMe, in a machine or in a case |
| £300 + VAT | Apple Macs & MacBooks | FileVault, APFS, HFS+, T2 and Apple Silicon |
| £400 + VAT | CCTV / NVR / DVR | Recorder units — Hikvision, Dahua, Swann and others |
| from £500 + VAT | NAS, RAID and servers | QNAP, Synology, WD, HP, Dell and Lenovo; RAID 0/1/5/6/10 |
| from £500 + VAT | Mail stores and databases | Exchange, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL |
| £800 + VAT and up | VM volumes | VMDK, VHDX, VHD and QCOW2 — damaged folders, lost snapshots |
| £800 + VAT and up | Forensic and investigative work | Workplace cases and court-ready reports, custody chain unbroken |
| from £1,250 + VAT | Enterprise SAN arrays | Pools spanning more than one array |
Unsure which row is yours? The free diagnostic settles all three: the band, the fault itself, and the step after that.
How the table should be read.
- None of the figures above include VAT, which is added at the standard UK rate.
- Each is a floor, not a final bill. The nature of the failure decides the actual number, and that number is committed to writing once the diagnosis is done, ahead of any chargeable work.
- No recovery, no fee covers most jobs. Where the files you needed do not come back, the attempt itself costs you nothing.
- Three job types take a 50% deposit: forensic instructions, embedded recorder work, and repairs that require donor components fitted inside the drive. All three occupy the same bench hours whether or not they succeed. The other half is due only once your data is with you.
What decides your place within a band.
Once quoted: what can follow.
| The scenario | The likely cause | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| You agree | Work starts at the agreed figure | Payable once you have checked the listing |
| You say no | The device returns with our findings | No charge for the diagnosis, none for the postage back |
| No files return | No recovery, no fee on most work | The attempt itself costs nothing |
| Something unexpected appears | Work stops and you get a call first | The agreed figure holds |
| Forensic, recorder or mechanical work | Half up front, half on success | Stated before you agree |
| The drive was opened elsewhere | Quoted individually after inspection | Our normal guarantee may not apply |
A low headline figure seldom stays low
- A £49 headline is a lure, not a quotation — it exists to put your drive on somebody else's bench. The genuine figure surfaces once the case is open, at the moment withdrawing is hardest.
- Ask what a failure costs — without no recovery, no fee in place, a lab gains nothing by telephoning you promptly with bad news.
- Ask whether an agreed price can move — ours does not. Whatever difficulty emerges after your sign-off is absorbed at this end. The sum you approved is the sum you pay.
- Ask where the bench actually is — plenty of firms are intermediaries who add a margin and forward the drive to somebody else. Our work never leaves our own lab.
On published prices, plainly: the figures here mean what they say. Where one hard disk has a logical fault, the price is £300 + VAT, not somewhere around £300. No table can foresee whether a mechanical case will want one donor part or three; the diagnosis settles that, which is why your final number is on paper before a screw is turned.
The things people most want to know, answered.
Data recovery: what does it cost?
What has failed decides the opening figure. Memory cards and flash sticks sit in the £250 + VAT band; one disk on its own, be it an SSD, a spinning drive, a laptop or a Mac, sits at £300 + VAT; a CCTV or DVR recorder at £400 + VAT. Once more than a single disk is in play — NAS, RAID set or server — the band starts at £500 + VAT, and virtual machine images and forensic instructions at £800 + VAT. The table above carries every band; your own figure goes in writing the moment the free diagnosis ends.
What does the diagnosis cost?
Nothing, and that stands even if you then decline the quote. Your only outlay is sending the device down to the lab; the journey back is on us.
Which jobs ask for a deposit, and why?
Three categories consume the same bench time and parts whether they succeed or not: repairs needing matched donor components, embedded recorder work, and forensic instructions. Those take half the agreed figure at the start and the remainder when your files are handed back. All other work is no recovery, no fee.
When is the money due?
Once you have looked over the listing of recovered files and approved it, and before the media is despatched — the terms set that out. An ordinary job takes no money at the start or partway through.
Are there hidden extras?
None at all. The diagnosis is free, we cover the postage home, and the figure you approved is the figure on the invoice. The only thing that can be added is priority handling, which is priced and agreed beforehand.
Another lab has quoted less?
Put three questions to them. Will that figure still stand once the lid comes off the drive? What is owed if the files never appear? And is the bench they use their own? Here the answers are yes, nothing, and yes.
The bands are printed above. Finding your own figure is free.
Either the form or the drive itself will do. The diagnosis is free, the price goes in writing, and the next step is yours.