Three questions: what the device is, who made it, what it is doing. Back comes an engineer's read-out: likely fault, the single thing worth doing before anything else, and a realistic timescale for putting it right. Leave your number and it gets confirmed by a person.
Nothing to pay for an answer — not here, not at the lab. Money only appears once you accept a fixed quote, and on the bulk of jobs only when the recovery works.
Your exact number goes in writing once the free diagnostic is done, and reaching that point costs you not a penny. 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 — every term of it written down before a case is opened.
Post to: Edinburgh Data Recovery, 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ — marked for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. Paperwork: ↓ shipping form (PDF) · ↓ terms & conditions (PDF)
Leave your details and an engineer calls back with the next step and the honest odds. Nothing owed and nothing assumed.
An engineer reads it himself and gets back to you shortly. Packing the device now? The address is 4 Redheughs Rigg, Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ, marked for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery.
Would sooner talk to somebody? Ring 0800 689 0668 (Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:30pm). Describing it down the phone works every bit as well.
Three fixed bands take in nearly everything that reaches this lab. The hardware and the fault set the number; how bad your week has been does not come into it. One written number comes out of the free diagnostic. Logical work carries no fix, no fee. Electronic, mechanical, physical, water or fire damage means invasive work, so 50% of the quote is payable upfront (detail below).
Pen drives and memory cards, SD and microSD through to CompactFlash.
One hard drive or SSD, internal or external, out of a laptop, a tower or a Mac.
Arrays, NAS boxes and servers, imaged disk by disk and priced by the count.
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. Work at the hard end — a board burnt past reading, media snapped clean through, a rebuild spanning a shelf of disks — sits above those bands. Those numbers are set down in writing when the diagnostic finishes, and no work begins until the figure is in front of you.
Your device gets a full engineering examination, not five minutes with a downloaded scanner. Within 2 working days these six questions are answered:
Electrics come first. PCB, bridge chip and power rails go under the meter, and the drive's unique ROM is secured before anything else is attempted.
Head stack, spindle motor and platter surfaces are assessed before the disk is asked for a single awkward read.
Service area and translator are read on the PC-3000. Faults at that level are invisible to anything you could download.
A controlled read on lab imaging hardware settles how much of the platter or the flash will give anything up at all.
The volume is mapped out: what survived, what is damaged, and which of your own folders are coming back.
One price for the recovery, set against the fault we found. Accept it or decline it. You owe nothing either way.
Nearly everything on this bench came by tracked, insured post. It is the safest way to shift a failing drive, and a parcel handed in at a North-East post office is usually here the next working day.
Still bolted into a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR box? Get the hard drive or SSD out first. The bare drive travels on its own. Stripping machines down is not a job this lab takes on. Flash soldered to a motherboard, as on Apple Silicon Macs and a couple of very thin laptops, is our one flat no: if it will not unbolt, it cannot be worked on.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Address it for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. From Aberdeen that is roughly 130 miles and two and a half hours down the A90, or next working day by tracked post if you would rather not make the run. You get a call the moment it is booked onto the bench.
Not sure what belongs in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you tape it shut, or work through the free online diagnostic.
Wrap it well, put a slip carrying your name and number inside, then post it tracked.