Home / Data Recovery Cost

Data Recovery Cost & Prices

Straight numbers for York and North Yorkshire: six fixed bands take in nearly every recovery, and your own figure is fixed in writing off the back of a free diagnostic — not invoiced after the event. All figures are plus VAT.

The truth costs nothing here. Diagnose online or at our Leeds location; the only bill is a written figure you've approved, and logical work stays firmly no fix, no fee.

// what you'll pay

Six bands, no mystery

Price follows the hardware and the fault, never the desperation. Practically every job York and North Yorkshire send us lands in one of these six bands, and your own figure goes into writing once the free diagnostic has done its work. All bands are plus VAT.

£250 + VAT

Memory cards and USB pen drives — SD, microSD and CompactFlash — read back from the flash chips themselves.

£300 + VAT

One hard drive or SSD out of any laptop, desktop, Mac or external box, with NVMe blades at exactly the same money.

From £500 + VAT

RAID arrays, NAS units and servers — each member disk gets its own image before the rebuild, so the figure moves with the disk count.

£400 + VAT

CCTV and DVR recorder disks — incident footage lifted off surveillance hardware.

£400 + VAT

BitLocker decryption — a healthy encrypted drive unlocked against the recovery key you supply.

£800 + VAT

A standard forensic investigation with the written report; £400 + VAT covers the forensic binary-image and deleted-file service without one.

Boiled down: £300 + VAT buys the recovery of one hard drive or SSD, NVMe included; RAID, NAS and server sets start at £500 + VAT and climb with the member count; CCTV / DVR disks and BitLocker unlocks are £400 + VAT apiece; and the standard forensic investigation, report and all, is £800 + VAT. The written figure for your own job begins with a free diagnostic.

// what sets the band

Three things decide the number

Panic isn't one of them. What actually places a job:

// diagnostic & no fix, no fee

Free diagnosis, one written figure, and that's that

Every job opens the same way: a free diagnostic — nothing to pay online, nothing to pay for the engineer's bench check at our Leeds location. Out of it comes a single fixed quote in writing, and whether to go ahead stays entirely your call.

No fix, no fee covers logical work — deleted or formatted files, corruption, or a sound drive that refuses to show itself. If that data can't be brought home, the bill reads zero.

Where the bench turns up electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, half the quoted figure is paid before the invasive stage starts — donor PCBs, head swaps, NAND chip-off and firmware-level surgery all burn parts and clean-bench hours — with the rest owed only once your data is genuinely recovered.

Forensic work — CCTV / DVR footage, BitLocker unlocking and ransomware cases among it — is paid upfront in full. The standard investigation is £800 + VAT with its complete written report; where no report is needed, the forensic binary-image and deleted-file extraction comes in at £400 + VAT.

Get the media to our Leeds location — about 40 minutes from York down the A64 and A1(M), or next working day by tracked post — and the free diagnostic is wrapped up within 2 working days of arrival. Knowing exactly where you stand, in short, costs nothing.

// worked examples

Four real shapes of job, priced as yours would be

The sort of work North Yorkshire sends us in a normal week, each with the band and policy it landed under — your own figure is always fixed in writing before a thing is done.

A decade of wedding shoots emptied off a healthy external drive

A Malton photographer, a folder deleted in a hurry, no physical fault anywhere: logical work at £300 + VAT, sheltered by no fix, no fee — had nothing come back, she'd have owed nothing.

A laptop drive ticking after a tumble down the stairs

Head damage: donor parts and clean-bench hours. Still the £300 + VAT band, with half paid before the invasive stage opens and the balance due only when the files are home.

A guesthouse NAS in Scarborough that vanished off the network overnight

Four member disks, each imaged on its own and the set reassembled in software — from £500 + VAT by disk count, and a purely logical rebuild keeps its no fix, no fee cover.

Break-in footage wanted from a farm recorder near Selby

Recorder disks sit on the forensic footing: £400 + VAT, paid upfront, the relevant clips exported and documented ready for the insurer or the police.

// related services

Other doors into the lab

// the pricing questions everyone asks

Common questions

£300 + VAT, flat — laptop, desktop, Mac or external, and NVMe blades at the identical figure. It goes into writing after your free diagnostic, and logical cases keep their no fix, no fee cover.
Honestly. Neither the online assessment nor the bench check at Leeds costs a penny, and between them they produce one fixed written quote. Learning what's wrong is never a billable event here.
On logical cases — deleted or formatted files, corruption, a sound drive that won't appear — an empty result means an empty invoice; that's what no fix, no fee is for. Where the fault proves to be electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, half is paid upfront for the invasive stage, and forensic matters are paid upfront in full.
RAID, NAS and server sets open at £500 + VAT and are counted per member disk, each one imaged before the rebuild. Forensically: the standard £800 + VAT investigation includes its report, the £400 + VAT binary-image and deleted-file extraction doesn't, and CCTV / DVR work and BitLocker unlocks are £400 + VAT each — with everything forensic paid before work starts.
No — every band is plus VAT. Your written quote separates the recovery fee from the VAT line, so the complete total is in front of you before you approve anything.
Run the free diagnostic online, or get the media to Leeds by tracked, insured post. The assessment closes inside 2 working days of it landing, and you decide whether the written figure goes ahead.

One number, in writing, before a thing is touched.

Free diagnosis first, one written figure after — and nothing goes ahead until you say so.

// getting your device to us

Sending it in — easier than you'd think

Nearly every job on our bench arrived by tracked, insured post — it's the quickest, safest route in. There's no collection service, so the parcel is yours to send or hand in.

Is the drive still inside a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Take the hard drive or SSD out first and post the bare drive on its own — removing drives from machines isn't a service we offer. Storage that's soldered to a motherboard (Apple Silicon Macs, certain slim laptops) is the one thing we can't work on: if it doesn't come out, it can't come in.

  • Bubble wrap and a sturdy box or padded envelope will do nicely — cables, caddies and power bricks can stay at home.
  • Print off the booking-in & shipping form (PDF), add your name, number and a line or two on what happened, and tuck it in the parcel.
  • Royal Mail Special Delivery keeps it tracked and insured the whole way; your own courier does the same job if you'd sooner book one. There's no collection service at this end.
  • Happier handing it over in person? Reception at the address here takes drop-offs, Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm.
// where your device is headed

Leeds Data Recovery

17th Floor, The Pinnacle
Albion Street
Leeds, LS1 5AA

↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)

Address the parcel for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery — about 40 minutes from York via the A64 and A1(M), or next working day by tracked post. You'll hear from us the moment it's booked onto the bench.

Not certain what to pack? Ring 0800 689 0668 first, or run the free online diagnostic.