Deleted is not
the same as gone.
When you delete a file, almost nothing happens. The operating system marks the space as available and moves on. The actual data sits there untouched until something else needs the room — which is why the single most useful thing you can do right now is stop using the drive.
no fee.
If I cannot recover anything meaningful, you pay nothing. Not a reduced fee, not an evaluation charge, nothing. You cover return shipping if your drive has to come back, and that is the whole exposure.
I would rather turn down a job than take money for a bad outcome. It is also the only honest way to sell this — everyone credible in recovery works this way.
cost
under 500 GB
typical job
beyond verifying
I do logical recovery.
Not surgery.
There are two kinds of data recovery. One is software work on a drive that still functions. The other involves opening the drive in a cleanroom and transplanting parts. I do the first kind, properly, and I will refer you to someone who does the second rather than pretend.
- Files deleted by accident, including emptied trash
- Drives and cards that were formatted or reinitialised
- Corrupted partition tables and file systems
- SD and CF cards a camera says are unreadable
- External drives that mount but show nothing
- Phone and camera media pulled out mid-write
- Salvaging what is readable off a failing-but-spinning drive
- Drives that click, grind, or do not spin up at all
- Anything needing a cleanroom or platter transplant
- Chip-off and board-level NAND work
- Fire, crush and serious water damage
- Encrypted volumes without the password or key
- RAID and server arrays — specialist territory
- Any device that is not yours to access
If the drive is making a noise it did not used to make, turn it off now. Clicking or grinding means physical damage, and every extra minute of power makes it worse and the eventual cleanroom job more expensive. Do not run recovery software on it, do not freeze it, do not leave it plugged in. Unplug it and message me and I will point you at the right lab.
Flat rates,
quoted before I start.
Priced by the size of the drive, not by how many files come back or how badly you need them. You get a fixed number after the free evaluation, and it does not move afterwards.
Memory cards, USB sticks, phone storage and smaller drives.
- Free evaluation and file listing
- Full logical recovery attempt
- Recovered files sorted and named
- Delivered by download or on your drive
Typical laptop, desktop and external backup drives.
- Everything in Standard
- Sector-level imaging before any recovery
- Deep scan for renamed and orphaned files
- Priority in the queue
Big external drives, media libraries and NAS members.
- Everything in Large
- Multi-pass imaging on unstable drives
- File-system rebuild where possible
- Return drive included if needed
Rush handling — add $100
Your job goes to the front of the queue and I work it the day it arrives. Worth it for a wedding shoot or a work deadline; not worth it for holiday snaps from 2011.
Single-file rescue — $49
You need one specific thing back — a dissertation, a contract, one video. Flat fee, and it only applies if that exact file is what you are after.
For comparison: labs generally charge $300–$900 for the same logical work, often with a separate evaluation fee on top. I am cheaper because this is one person with good tools and no storefront — and because I decline anything that needs a cleanroom rather than marking up a referral.
Four steps, one of
which is free.
Tell me what happened
What the device is, what it is doing, and what you need off it. No card, no account, no commitment.
Free evaluation
I image the drive and scan it. You get a list of what is actually recoverable and a fixed price. Still free at this point.
You decide
Seeing your filenames in a list is how you know it is real. If the list is not worth the price, walk away and owe nothing.
Recovery and handover
Files delivered by encrypted download or on a drive. Your original media comes back untouched. I wipe my copies after 30 days.
I never work on your original. Everything happens against a sector-by-sector image, so the drive you send me is the drive you get back. If a device is degrading, imaging it first is also the only way to stop the recovery attempt itself from destroying what is left.
What is it
doing?
Describe it in whatever words you have. "It says it needs to be formatted and I clicked no" is a perfect problem description and tells me a lot.
The two things that genuinely help: what you were doing when it went wrong, and whether anything has been written to the drive since. If you have already run recovery software on it, say so — it changes the approach, and it is not a reason for me to judge you.
Unplug the drive or card and leave it alone. Every write to it is a chance of overwriting the thing you want back. This is genuinely the highest-value thing you can do, and it costs nothing.