Data Recovery
Questions Answered

Data recovery is the process of retrieving inaccessible, lost, corrupted or damaged data from storage media including hard drives, SSDs, RAID arrays, flash drives and cloud storage. It encompasses both logical recovery (software-level issues) and physical recovery (hardware failure requiring clean-room intervention).

We recover from virtually all storage media: 3.5" and 2.5" hard drives, SSDs (NVMe, SATA, M.2), USB drives and SD/MicroSD cards, RAID arrays (all levels), NAS and SAN appliances, virtual machine disk files (VMDK, VHD, VHDX), cloud volumes (AWS EBS, Azure Managed Disk) and most database file formats.

The only way to know for certain is through a professional diagnostic. However, most data loss scenarios — even after fire, flood, head crashes and ransomware — can yield at least partial recovery. The key factor is how the device is treated after failure. Continued use or DIY attempts are the most common cause of unrecoverable data.

Yes. We serve clients across the UK. You can ship your device to us using our prepaid courier label, drop off at our London office or request on-site attendance. We also work with businesses in Europe, USA and Australia for remote consultation and data delivery.

No. We operate a strict no recovery, no fee policy. You only pay if we successfully retrieve your data. There are no diagnostic fees, no call-out charges and no admin fees if we cannot help. The only exception is for physical media such as donor parts or replacement read/write heads ordered with client approval, which may incur a small parts cost regardless of outcome.

Indicative pricing: logical (software) hard drive recovery from £149; physical HDD recovery from £299; SSD controller recovery from £399; RAID array recovery from £599. All prices are fixed after a free diagnostic assessment. You'll never be billed more than the quoted amount. See our pricing page for full ranges.

No. The initial phone/email consultation is free, as is the hardware diagnostic assessment once we receive your device. We provide a full written quote before any work begins, and you are under no obligation to proceed.

For standard cases: 50% of the agreed quote is payable upon approval to proceed, with the remainder due on successful delivery. For small jobs under £200, full payment is due on delivery. Emergency cases require full payment upfront due to the immediate resource allocation.

Standard service completes in 3–5 working days from arrival. Express service in 1–2 working days. Emergency runs 24/7 until completion, 365 days a year. All tiers include a free diagnostic completed within 24 hours of your device arriving at the lab. Because we hold over 14,000 donor parts on-site, we almost never have to wait for components to be sourced.

A clean room is a controlled environment with HEPA-filtered air, strictly regulated temperature and humidity, and very low airborne particle counts (Class 100 / ISO 5 means fewer than 100 particles per cubic foot). Hard drive platters are manufactured and must be opened only in equivalent environments — a single dust particle landing on the platter surface can scratch data irretrievably. We maintain Class 100 clean-room facilities on-site.

Your recovered data is delivered securely and then securely wiped from our systems within 30 days of delivery. You receive written confirmation of destruction. Our data processing practices comply with GDPR requirements throughout.

Yes. You'll receive progress updates at key milestones — diagnostic complete, work started, imaging complete and data ready for review. You can also contact your named engineer directly by phone or email at any time during your case.

Power it off immediately. A clicking or grinding noise from a hard drive indicates a mechanical failure — typically read/write heads that have failed and are dragging across or striking the platters. Every revolution of the spindle in this state causes further damage. Do not power it on again and contact us as soon as possible.

Stop using the drive now. Deleted files are not immediately overwritten — the space is simply marked as available. Every byte written to the drive after deletion reduces the chance of full recovery. Do not install recovery software onto the same drive you're trying to recover from. Call us before attempting any self-recovery.

No — not without professional advice. Initiating a rebuild on a degraded array where an additional drive may fail (common on aged arrays) can result in permanent data loss. The rebuild process itself can cause a second drive to fail under the I/O load. Power the array down safely and call us before proceeding.

For a hard drive or device that has been submerged: do not attempt to dry it with heat. Do not power it on. Place it in an airtight bag or container with a small amount of clean water to prevent the drive internals from drying and corroding. Courier it to us immediately — time is critical with water damage.

Yes. We ask you to approve a service agreement that covers the job scope, pricing, data handling practices and confidentiality obligations. This is signed (digitally or in person) before any recovery work begins. It protects both parties and ensures you retain full ownership and control of your data throughout.

Yes, absolutely. All data is handled under a signed confidentiality agreement. Our staff access your data only to the minimum extent required for recovery. Data is never shared with third parties, used for any purpose other than recovery, or retained beyond 30 days post-delivery.

Yes. Baycop Technologies Ltd is registered under GDPR and operates as a data processor for all recovery jobs. We maintain a full data processing record, enforce data minimisation principles and provide written confirmation of secure data destruction upon request.

Yes. We routinely work under client-provided NDAs for legal, financial and enterprise cases. Please mention this at the point of enquiry and we will accommodate your requirements before any device or data changes hands.