Home / Data Recovery Cost

What Data Recovery Actually Costs

Real numbers, for Norwich, for Norfolk and for anywhere else in the UK that owns a post office. Six fixed bands take in nearly everything we recover, and the number against your own job is written down once the diagnostic is done, not sprung on you in an invoice later. Add VAT.

Asking what it costs is free. Diagnose online or at the Cambridge bench, and the only bill that ever appears is one you agreed to in advance. Logical work keeps its no fix, no fee cover.

// what you will pay

Six bands, and no riddles

Price follows the hardware and the fault, and it has never once followed how worried somebody sounds on the telephone. Nearly everything Norwich and Norfolk send us settles into one of the six bands below, and your own number is put in writing the moment the free diagnostic has finished. Add VAT to all of them.

£250 + VAT

SD, microSD, CompactFlash and USB pen drives, where the data is taken off the flash chips directly.

£300 + VAT

Any one hard drive or SSD, whatever it came out of — laptop, tower, Mac or external case. NVMe blades cost the same.

From £500 + VAT

Arrays, NAS boxes and servers. Each member disk earns its own image before anything is reassembled, so the count of disks sets the figure.

£400 + VAT

Recorder disks out of CCTV and DVR kit, with the footage that matters exported.

£400 + VAT

BitLocker decryption, where the drive is sound and you can supply the recovery key.

£800 + VAT

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

Shorter still: one hard drive or SSD is £300 + VAT, NVMe included. RAID, NAS and server sets begin at £500 + VAT and climb with the disk count. CCTV / DVR disks and BitLocker unlocks are £400 + VAT apiece, and a standard forensic investigation, report included, is £800 + VAT. Your own written number starts with a free diagnostic.

// what sets the band

What actually places a job

How urgently you need it is not among them. Three questions place a job, and that is the lot:

// diagnostic & no fix, no fee

Free diagnosis, one written figure, nothing added afterwards

Each job starts in the same place: a free diagnostic. There is nothing to pay online and nothing to pay for the engineer's examination at our Cambridge location. What comes out of it is one fixed quote in writing, and going ahead or walking away is your call alone.

No fix, no fee covers logical work — deleted or formatted files, corruption, or a healthy drive that simply will not show itself. Where that data cannot be brought home, the invoice reads zero.

Should the bench turn up electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, 50% of the quoted price is payable upfront before the invasive stage opens. Donor boards, head swaps, NAND chip-off and firmware-level surgery each burn parts and clean-bench hours. What is left falls due only once your data is genuinely back.

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 as far as our Cambridge location, an hour and twenty from Norwich on the A11 or one working day in the post, and the free diagnostic is done and dusted 2 working days after it arrives. Knowing precisely where you stand, in short, is free of charge.

// worked examples

Four ordinary jobs, priced the way yours would be

Four jobs of the kind Norfolk posts us in an ordinary week, shown with the band each landed in and the terms that applied. Whatever yours turns out to be, the number is fixed in writing before a screwdriver moves.

Twelve years of wedding shoots, emptied off an external drive in perfect health

A Wymondham photographer, one folder dragged to the bin at speed, nothing wrong with the hardware at all. Logical work, £300 + VAT, sat under no fix, no fee — nothing recovered would have meant nothing owed.

A laptop disk ticking after an argument with the stairs

Heads down on the platters, which buys donor parts and clean-bench hours. It stays in the £300 + VAT band; half is settled before the invasive stage opens and the rest once the files are back.

A Cromer holiday-let NAS that quietly left the network one night

Four member disks, imaged one at a time and put back together in software. From £500 + VAT, counted by disk, and a rebuild that stays logical keeps its no fix, no fee cover.

Break-in footage wanted off a recorder on a farm near Fakenham

Recorder work sits on the forensic footing: £400 + VAT, paid before it starts, with the clips that matter exported and documented for the insurer or the police.

// related services

Other ways into the lab

// the pricing questions everyone asks

Common questions

A flat £300 + VAT, whether it came out of a laptop, a tower, a Mac or an external case, and NVMe blades are no different. The figure is confirmed in writing after your free diagnostic, and logical cases keep their no fix, no fee cover.
Free, and no strings on it. Neither the online assessment nor the examination at the Cambridge bench costs anything, and the pair of them end in a single fixed quote, written down. Nobody here has ever charged a penny for finding out what is wrong.
On logical cases — deleted or formatted files, corruption, a healthy drive refusing to appear — an empty result produces an empty invoice, which is the whole point of no fix, no fee. Where the fault proves to be electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, 50% of the quoted price is payable upfront for the invasive stage, and forensic matters are paid upfront in full.
Arrays, NAS boxes and servers begin at £500 + VAT and are counted a disk at a time, each one imaged before any reassembly. On the forensic side, the standard £800 + VAT investigation includes its report, the £400 + VAT binary-image and deleted-file extraction does not, and CCTV / DVR work and BitLocker unlocks are £400 + VAT each, with all forensic work paid before it starts.
They are not: every band takes VAT on top. Recovery fee and VAT appear as two separate lines on the written quote, so the whole total is sat in front of you well before you agree to anything.
Two options: fill the free diagnostic in online, or send the media to Cambridge tracked and insured. Assessment closes 2 working days from it landing, and the written figure then waits on your decision.

A number in writing, before anything is opened.

Diagnosis first and free, the written figure second, and not a thing happens until you say the word.

// getting your device to us

Getting it here — no great performance

Most of what reaches this bench arrived by tracked, insured post. It is the steadiest way to move a poorly drive, and a parcel posted in Norfolk is usually on the bench the next working day.

Is the drive still bolted inside a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR recorder? The hard drive or SSD needs to come out first, and only the bare drive travels — taking drives out of machines is not something we do here. Storage soldered to a motherboard (Apple Silicon Macs, one or two very thin laptops) is the single thing beyond us: if it will not come out, it cannot come in.

  • Bubble wrap and a firm box or padded envelope, packed so nothing shifts about. Cables, caddies and power bricks are no use to us — keep them.
  • Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF), write your name, your number and a couple of lines on what happened, and put it in with the drive.
  • Royal Mail Special Delivery covers it tracked and insured door to door; a courier of your own does the same job if that suits you better.
  • Rather hand it over yourself? Reception at the address below takes drop-offs, Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm.
// where your device is headed

Cambridge Data Recovery

Compass House, Vision Park
Chivers Way
Cambridge, CB24 9AD

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

Mark the parcel for the attention of Cambridge Data Recovery. From Norwich it is about an hour and twenty down the A11, then two minutes off the A14 at Junction 32 — or next working day by tracked post. You hear from us as soon as it is booked onto the bench.

Unsure what to put in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you seal it, or run the free online diagnostic.