Losing files is worse than losing hardware. A laptop can be replaced; twelve years of photographs cannot. Most of the time the news is better than people fear, because the data is still there and only the machine around it has failed.
We recover from drives that have stopped being recognised, laptops that won't boot, external drives that click or spin down, memory cards, and the everyday disaster of a folder deleted in a hurry.
Where a drive is physically damaged and needs a clean room to open safely, we work with a specialist recovery partner who has that facility. We don't have a clean room here and won't pretend otherwise, but it does mean you deal with us throughout rather than being sent off to find a lab yourself.
The one thing that matters more than anything else: if a drive has started failing, stop using it. Every extra hour a dying drive spends powered on reduces what can be recovered from it. Turn it off and talk to us before trying recovery software on it yourself.
What’s included
How it works
Stop using the drive
Power it down and leave it alone. This single step makes more difference to the outcome than anything else.
Assessment
We look at the drive and tell you what state it is in and what is realistically recoverable.
Recovery
We work from a copy wherever possible, so the original is not put under any more strain than it has already had.
Your data back
Returned to you on media you keep, with advice on making sure it does not happen again.
Common questions
Usually, yes. If the drive still spins up and is only logically damaged, the odds are good and we do that work ourselves. If it has physical damage it goes to our clean room partner, and we will give you a realistic view of the odds and the cost before anything is committed to.
It is not good, and it is the one case where continuing to power it on actively makes things worse. Turn it off and leave it off. Clicking usually means physical damage, which needs a clean room to open the drive safely. We don't have one here, but we work with a specialist partner who does, so you can still bring it to us and we will handle it from there.
Often, yes, if the drive has not been written to much since. Deleted files usually still exist until something overwrites them, which is another reason to stop using the drive as soon as you realise.
We will tell you what we find and what it will cost before doing the work. Recovery is one of the few jobs where nobody can promise an outcome in advance, so what we promise instead is that you will not be charged for something we could not deliver.
Ready to get started?
Tell us what you need. We usually respond in under an hour.