Four short steps — device, maker, symptom — and out comes an engineer's read-out: the likely fault, the thing to do this minute, and how long that repair normally runs to. Leave your details and it gets confirmed personally, as soon as we can.
Finding out costs nothing — not online and not on the bench. Money only enters it once you approve a fixed quote, and on most jobs only if the recovery works.
The exact figure goes into writing once the free diagnostic is done — finding out costs you nothing. No fix, no fee covers logical recoveries (deleted, formatted or corrupt data); drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work, so 50% of the quote is payable upfront — and every bit of that is set down in writing before anything is touched.
Post to: Cambridge Data Recovery, Compass House, Vision Park, Chivers Way, Cambridge CB24 9AD — marked for the attention of Cambridge Data Recovery. Downloads: ↓ shipping form (PDF) · ↓ terms & conditions (PDF)
Leave your details and an engineer rings back with the next step and honest odds. Nothing is owed and nothing is assumed.
An engineer reads it personally and comes back to you shortly. Ready to post the device now? Send it to Compass House, Vision Park, Chivers Way, Cambridge CB24 9AD, marked for the attention of Cambridge Data Recovery.
Would rather talk to somebody? Ring 0800 689 0668 (Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm) — describing the fault down the phone works just as well.
Nearly everything that lands on the bench falls into one of three fixed bands — the device sets the price, not how desperate the situation is. One written figure follows the free diagnostic. Logical recoveries are no fix, no fee; drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage need invasive work, so 50% of the quote is payable upfront (see below).
USB sticks and memory cards — SD, microSD and CF.
A single hard drive or SSD — internal or external, laptop, desktop or Mac.
RAID, NAS and servers — imaged and rebuilt per drive, priced to the job.
CCTV / DVR recorder drives are a fixed £400 + VAT, and a standard forensic investigation is £800 + VAT, payable 100% upfront (larger cases scoped and quoted in writing). No fix, no fee applies to logical recoveries — deleted, formatted or corrupt data, or a healthy drive the system just can't see. It does not apply to drives with electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage: those need invasive work — a new PCB or controller, head/motor repair, NAND chip-off or firmware/service-area access — so 50% of the quoted price is payable upfront for the donor parts and lab time. Jobs at the difficult end — a board burnt beyond reading, media snapped through, a rebuild spanning a whole shelf of disks — sit above those bands. The figure for those is written down after the free diagnostic, and nothing starts until you have seen it.
When your device arrives it gets a proper engineering examination, not five minutes with a free scanner. Within 2 working days you will have answers on all six of these:
The electrics are looked at first: board, bridge and power rails checked over, and the drive's one-of-a-kind ROM secured before anything else happens.
Heads, spindle motor and platter surfaces are judged before the drive is asked to attempt a single difficult read.
Service area and translator inspected on the PC-3000 — the layer where faults sit completely invisible to ordinary software.
A measured read on hardware imagers shows how much of those platters or NAND chips will genuinely hand data over.
The file system is mapped out: what is whole, what is damaged, and which of your actual folders are coming home.
One figure for the recovery, priced against the real fault. Take it or leave it — you owe nothing either way.
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.
↓ 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.
Wrap it properly, put a note with your name and number in the box, and send it tracked.