Home / Data Recovery Cost

Data Recovery Cost & Prices

Plain numbers for Swindon and Wiltshire: six fixed bands cover nearly every recovery, and the figure for your job goes into writing after a free diagnostic — never after the work. Everything shown is plus VAT.

Learning the truth is free. Diagnose online or at our Oxford location; the only bill is a written figure you approved, and logical jobs stay strictly no fix, no fee.

// what you'll pay

Six bands cover almost everything

Price follows the device and the fault, never the panic. Nearly every job that reaches us from Swindon and Wiltshire fits one of the six bands here, and your personal figure is confirmed in writing once the free diagnostic has run. Each band is plus VAT.

£250 + VAT

SD, microSD and CompactFlash cards plus USB pen drives — files read back from the flash memory itself.

£300 + VAT

A single hard drive or SSD from any laptop, desktop, Mac or external enclosure, and NVMe blades at the very same figure.

From £500 + VAT

RAID sets, NAS boxes and servers — the total tracks the member count, as every disk is imaged on its own before the rebuild.

£400 + VAT

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

£400 + VAT

BitLocker decryption — a sound encrypted drive opened with the recovery key you provide.

£800 + VAT

The standard forensic investigation, report included; £400 + VAT buys the forensic binary-image and deleted-file service instead, with no written report.

In short: £300 + VAT covers one hard drive or SSD, with NVMe at the same money; RAID, NAS and server sets open at £500 + VAT and grow with the disk count; CCTV / DVR disks and BitLocker unlocks each sit at £400 + VAT; the standard forensic investigation with its report is £800 + VAT. Your own written figure starts with a free diagnostic.

// what sets the band

Three questions decide the figure

Urgency isn't one of them. What places a job in its band:

// diagnostic & no fix, no fee

One free diagnostic, one written figure, no surprises

Every case opens with a free diagnostic — the online assessment costs nothing and so does the engineer's bench check at our Oxford location. What comes out of it is a single fixed quote in writing; the decision to proceed, or not, stays entirely with you.

No fix, no fee applies to logical work alone — files that were deleted or formatted, corruption, or a healthy drive that simply won't appear. If that data can't be brought back, your bill is zero.

Where the bench finds electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, half of the quoted figure is paid before the invasive stage begins — donor PCBs, head swaps, NAND chip-off and firmware-level repairs all consume parts and clean-room hours — and the balance falls due only once your data is actually recovered.

Anything forensic — CCTV / DVR footage, BitLocker unlocking and ransomware cases among them — is settled upfront in full. The standard investigation runs to £800 + VAT with its full written report; a cheaper binary-image and deleted-file extraction at £400 + VAT is offered where no report is required.

Post or courier the media to our Oxford location — under an hour up the A420 from Swindon, or next-day by tracked post — and the free diagnostic is finished inside 2 working days of arrival. Knowing precisely where you stand, in other words, is free.

// worked examples

Four jobs, priced the way yours will be

The kind of cases Wiltshire sends us in an ordinary week, with the band and the policy each one landed under — your own number is always fixed in writing before anything starts.

A wedding archive deleted from a healthy external drive

A Marlborough photographer, an emptied folder, no physical fault: logical work at £300 + VAT, protected by no fix, no fee — a blank result would cost her nothing.

A laptop drive ticking after sliding off a van seat

Head damage means donor parts and clean-room hours. The band is still £300 + VAT, with half paid upfront for the invasive stage and the rest owed only if the files come home.

An accountancy practice NAS that dropped off the network

Four disks out of an Old Town office, imaged one by one and reassembled in software — from £500 + VAT by member count, and a purely logical rebuild keeps its no fix, no fee cover.

Footage needed after a break-in at a Calne farm shop

Recorder disks are forensic territory: £400 + VAT, settled upfront, with the relevant clips exported and documented ready to hand over.

// related services

Other ways we can help

// the pricing questions everyone asks

Common questions

£300 + VAT flat — laptop, desktop, Mac or external, with NVMe blades priced identically. The figure goes into writing after your free diagnostic, and logical cases keep no fix, no fee cover.
Completely. Both the online assessment and the engineer's bench check at our Oxford location cost nothing, and they produce one fixed written quote. Finding out what's wrong is never billable.
For logical cases — files deleted or formatted, data corrupted, a sound drive that won't show up — a blank result means a bill of zero; that's the no fix, no fee promise. A drive whose fault proves electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage, however, takes half upfront for the invasive stage, and forensic matters are settled upfront in full.
RAID, NAS and server sets begin at £500 + VAT, counted per member disk with each one imaged before the rebuild. 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 each come in at £400 + VAT — everything forensic is paid before work begins.
No — each band is quoted plus VAT. Your written quote splits the recovery fee from the VAT line so the full total sits in front of you before you approve a thing.
Start the free diagnostic online, or send your media to our Oxford location by tracked post or courier. The assessment is finished inside 2 working days of arrival, and the fixed written quote is yours to accept or decline.

One figure, in writing, before anything starts.

Free diagnostic, fixed written quote, and the go-ahead stays yours — nothing is charged without your approval.

// getting your device to us

Post or courier your device — it's simple

Most customers post or courier their media to us.

Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops) — only drives that can be removed and sent to us.

  • Wrap the device in bubble wrap or a padded envelope — no need to include cables or power supplies.
  • Print and enclose the booking-in & shipping form (PDF) with your name, phone number and a brief description of what happened.
  • Send by Royal Mail Special Delivery or any tracked courier for full insurance in transit.
  • Prefer to hand it over in person? You can drop it in at reception at the address shown, Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm.
// send your device to your nearest location

Oxford Data Recovery

John Eccles House, Oxford Science Park
Robert Robinson Avenue, Littlemore
Oxford, OX4 4GP

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

Mark the package for the attention of Oxford Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.

Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.