Open, and looking at it costs nothing · 9am–5:30pm, Mon to Fri Ring instead, it is quicker: 0115 8220606
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NDR / What yours will cost

No charge to look · one fixed figure follows

First the fault. Then one written price, and it stays put.

Two questions, and back comes the likely cause, your price band, and the one move worth avoiding tonight. Further down this page sits the form itself. An engineer at the intake lab then looks the device over at no charge — and what you pay is the figure that follows in writing, nothing beyond it.

Ask an engineer, and the first look is free
0115 8220606

The likely cause, from two questions.

How the work runs →
Online check · costs you nothing NDR-2026-····

Which of these is your data on?

Whichever is nearest will do.

Two taps produce a plain answer and the single thing worth doing before anything else. It is not a diagnosis; a diagnosis wants the drive itself under an engineer's hands. Treat it as the answer the phone would give, on hand at three in the morning while the phone is not.

Now for the detail.

Nothing is charged for looking, the figure is fixed and put in writing, and no money changes hands before you agree to it. Whatever you send reaches the support desk, answered within one working day. The desk is staffed 9am–5:30pm, Monday to Friday.

What follows once you send it.

01

Back to you within a working day

What you write is read by a person rather than sorted by a script. Back comes an honest first view of the odds, one instruction on what to leave alone meanwhile, and the address to post it to. Half an hour is common while the desk is staffed; overnight arrivals are answered after nine the next morning.

An engineer repliesMost often the same day
02

The fault named at the bench Free

Every device gets a case number and goes straight onto a bench. That is where the actual fault is named, alongside the survey saying how much of the platters, or of the flash, still reads. Allow roughly 48 hours for a single disk; several disks take longer, and you are told which when the parcel is booked in.

Each device gets its own case numberThe bench starts the day it arrives
03

The figure, and your call on it

The figure arrives in writing with the findings beside it. Say yes and the bench starts; say no and the device comes home with the postage at our end. Neither answer leaves you owing anything for the diagnosis, and there is no clause further down that quietly reverses it.

One fixed figure, in writing

Where to send it, and the paperwork.

Want it on paper instead? →

Send it here · tracked and insured · desk staffed weekdays, 9am–5:30pm

Manchester Data Recovery
Peter House
Oxford Street
Manchester
M1 5AN

Any small box or padded bag does the job, provided this form goes in with the device as a printed copy. We collect from nobody and there is no counter to visit. Tracked and insured post, then — or carry it into the intake lab yourself on a weekday.

The disk travels; the machine stays: tower, laptop, Mac or DVR, take the disk out of it and send that on its own. Most repair shops will do that for you over the counter, often while you wait.

Two exceptions travel whole: a NAS may be sent complete, since intake accepts entire units, and a portable drive may stay in the enclosure it lives in. Servers and RAID sets are the other way about — bare disks, each marked with the bay it occupied. No phones. No tablets.

1Your contact details
2What failed

Tick whatever applies

RAID / server: disks only. The controller stays with you. Before you pull a single cable, note the bay each disk sat in and write that number on the disk itself — 1, 2, 3… NAS: entire units are accepted at intake, so send the whole box where that suits you better; otherwise pull the disks and number them likewise.

3Symptoms noticed

Symptoms — tick every one you have seen

4What you want back
You get a phone call as soon as the diagnosis ends, and the same figure by email afterwards. 0115 8220606 · nottinghamdatarecovery.co.uk No files back, no bill — on most jobs
Complete it on screen, print one for the box, or do both. Send it ahead and your case opens before the parcel has left you.

Everything typed here lands on the printed sheet as well. Working from paper instead? Download the PDF — fill it in by hand, and the same rule holds: a copy rides in the box beside the device.

Packing it up.

Assume it breaks easilyNothing beats the box it came in. Failing that, pack every face until shaking it produces no movement at all. Cards and pen drives want soft wrapping of their own before they go anywhere near cardboard.
Put a value on the data, not the hardwareTracked and insured, whichever carrier you pick, and keep the receipt. Whatever the outcome, the return journey is paid for at this end.
Write the bay number on each diskA server or a RAID set means bare disks, each inked with the bay number it came from; the NAS is the exception and can travel assembled. Sequence counts — put an array back in the wrong order and it will not assemble, and working that order out from nothing adds hours to the job.
Awkward to get at? Ring firstWhere the disks look awkward to reach, or the kit is too heavy for one pair of hands, ring 0115 8220606 before you start; an engineer will talk you through shifting it safely.

Go through this list before you tape it

  • Every password belongs on the form: the Windows sign-in, a FileVault password, a BitLocker recovery key. There is no side door into encryption for a lab either — keep a key to yourself and this bench halts at exactly the point you halted.
  • Name what you cannot afford to be without: list those folders and the copying starts there.
  • Send a portable drive whole: the cable can stay at home. A WD My Passport keeps its bridge board keyed to that one disk and no other, so the two must arrive together.
  • Hang on to the mains adaptor unless an engineer here asks for it. Whatever has snapped off or rattled loose goes into a bag and travels alongside. Bin nothing.

Worth repeating: whatever the checker told you, leave it switched off and unplugged. Plenty of what reaches this bench was made worse by one more try to see whether it might work today.

What people ask before anything else.

Is the online checker a diagnosis?

No. The checker guesses from the boxes you ticked; a diagnosis is an engineer at a bench with the hardware in front of him, ruling things out until the fault can be named. Only the second of those sets a price. Take the checker's word for what not to do tonight, and the bench's word for what it costs.

What will it cost me?

£250 + VAT covers a pen drive or a memory card. A single hard disk or SSD comes to £300 + VAT; a DVR or recorder, £400 + VAT. Where a second disk is involved — a NAS, a server, a RAID set — the entry point rises to £500 + VAT. Which of those applies is decided by what you send, and the checker names it before anything goes in the post. Every band appears in full on the pricing page, and one written figure comes out of the free diagnosis.

Is no recovery, no fee actually true?

On most jobs it is: nothing recovered, nothing to pay. Two sorts of work sit outside that — a device some other lab has already been inside, and hardware that has taken an electrical or physical knock. Where yours is one of them you hear so at the start, long before agreeing to a penny.

How quickly does an answer come back?

Inside one working day at the very outside. With the desk staffed, half an hour is common, and something sent overnight has an answer sitting there after nine. Diagnosis is slower: about 48 hours is normal once one disk is on a bench.

A price in about two minutes.

Checker, then form, then parcel, then bench — and the decision is yours, taken with the figure in front of you and no charge for the look.

0115 8220606

Send it for a free look Posting it to Manchester