Screens, motherboards, power circuits and Windows installations all fail without touching what is on the drive. Where the drive lifts out, it is read on separate equipment and the state of the machine becomes irrelevant — which is why a laptop that will not start is usually a cheap recovery rather than a disaster.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/nvme0 → Device: Dell XPS 13 · 512GB NVMe → Status: WILL NOT POWER ON — board fault → Client: confidential · Oxford, Oxfordshire $ bdr engineer-working → Drive: removed · healthy → Imaging: 480 GB / 512 GB · 100% read → NTFS: rebuilt · files intact $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 28,400 files → ✓ photos — 19,100 files → ✓ laptop recovered — data back
Failed screens, motherboards, power circuits and Windows installations have nothing to do with your data. Where the drive lifts out it can be read on separate equipment, so a machine that will not start is usually an inconvenience rather than a loss.
Two quite different situations that feel identical from the outside.
Increasingly the first thing to establish, because the answer sets what is possible before any fault is diagnosed.
Most laptops and every desktop still use a removable drive — 2.5-inch SATA, or an M.2 SSD that unscrews. Those come out and are imaged on separate hardware regardless of what the machine is doing, which is why a dead laptop is usually a straightforward job.
A growing number of ultrabooks solder the storage to the mainboard. Where the board still functions, data can often be extracted through it; where the board has failed, there may be no route at all — and on machines with hardware encryption tied to that board, none whatsoever. Tell us the make and model and we will establish which you have before you send anything.
The badge matters less than the drive inside.
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Samsung, MSI and the rest — including machines whose maker no longer exists.
Tower and small-form-factor, including multi-drive machines and those with RAID configured on the motherboard.
Where the drive is awkward to reach, send the whole machine and we will remove it.
IDE and PATA drives, older SCSI, and machines old enough that the operating system is itself part of the problem.
Assessed honestly — we will tell you before you send whether it is something we can take on.
Priced on the drive, not on the machine around it.
A single laptop or desktop drive is from £300 +VAT, confirmed after a free 48-hour diagnostic. Most jobs are no fix, no fee; clean-air or donor-part work carries a 50% deposit with the balance due only on success.
Send the drive on its own where you can — cheaper to post, less to go astray, and any local computer shop will remove it in minutes. If you would rather not, send the machine and we will take it out. Full write-ups: a vintage Compaq IDE drive, Dell SSD Recovery: Files Gone, and TRIM Running and a dead laptop with a perfectly good drive.
Send the drive in for its free diagnostic with a brief note on the machine and fault; an engineer evaluates it and confirms the exact quote in writing before any work starts.
Getting your data back starts with getting the drive to us — you don't need to send the whole machine. Pack the drive safely, enclose your contact details, and once we've run the free diagnostic we confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Need a scoped quote first? Describe the machine and fault on the form and an engineer will assess it and reply with a tailored quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01865 593000.
The technical questions we get most about laptop and PC recovery.
Usually, and often easily. A failed screen, motherboard or power circuit has nothing to do with the drive, so where it lifts out it can simply be read on separate equipment. A dead laptop is generally an inconvenience rather than a loss.
The drive alone where possible — cheaper to post and quicker to start work on. Any local computer shop will remove it in a few minutes. If the machine is awkward or you would rather not, send it whole and we will do it.
Then it depends on the board. Where it still functions, data can often be extracted through it. Where the board has failed — and particularly where encryption is tied to it — there may be no route at all. Tell us the model and we’ll say before you send anything.
Almost certainly not. A corrupt Windows installation is a logical problem: the operating system cannot run but the files are sitting there. The drive is read on other equipment and the data extracted regardless of whether Windows works.
Switch it off and leave it off. Clicking after a fall means the heads have been damaged, and every further power-on spreads it. That one is time-sensitive in a way most laptop faults are not.
From £300 plus VAT for a single drive, fixed in a written quote after a free 48-hour diagnostic. Most jobs are no fix, no fee; physical drive-level work carries a 50% deposit with the balance due only on success.
Free diagnostic, a flat £300 + VAT per machine, no fix no fee on most jobs, and every make of Windows laptop and desktop PC recovered. Start your recovery today.