When a laptop or desktop won’t boot, the panic is usually about the computer — but what you actually want back is the data, and that’s a separate question. A machine that won’t start, blue-screens on load, or was dropped may have a failed drive, or a perfectly healthy drive behind a dead motherboard or power fault. We recover the laptop data recovery either way: the files come out whether or not the computer will ever run again. Diagnosis is free and no-recovery-no-fee applies.
Repeated power cycles and “startup repair” on a machine with a failing drive make things worse. If it won’t boot cleanly, stop, and let us get the drive out and imaged.
The first thing to establish is whether the computer has failed or the drive has. A dead motherboard, a failed screen, a spilt drink or a broken power circuit can leave a completely healthy drive trapped inside a machine that won’t start — in which case recovery is simply a matter of removing the drive and reading it. If instead the drive itself has failed — clicking, not detected, or throwing read errors and blue screens — that’s a drive recovery in its own right. The two look identical from the outside, which is why the free diagnosis comes first.
Where the machine is the problem, we remove the drive and image it on our own hardware, then return your files — no dependence on the dead computer. Where the drive is the problem, it’s a full recovery: a laminar-flow-hood repair for a mechanical hard drive, controller-level work for a failed SSD, then a careful image and rebuild from the copy. Modern laptops with soldered or hardware-encrypted storage are recovered with the drive in place on the board, so for those we ask for the whole machine.
We recover laptops and desktops of every make — Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, MSI, Microsoft Surface and self-built PCs — running Windows or Linux, with hard drives, SATA SSDs or NVMe storage. Bring or post the whole machine if you can, along with the charger; if it’s a desktop and you’re confident, the bare drive on its own is fine.
Very often, yes. A machine that won’t start frequently has a healthy drive behind a dead board or power fault; we remove the drive, image it, and return your files independently of the computer. If the drive itself has failed, we recover it directly.
No — repeated boot attempts and automatic repair on a machine with a failing drive can make the data harder to recover. Power it down and let us image the drive first; repair can come after the data is safe.
If the storage is a removable drive, that alone is enough — but if it’s soldered to the board or hardware-encrypted, as many modern laptops are, we need the whole machine and, where relevant, your password.
Usually. A drop can damage the drive or just the machine; if the drive is clicking, power it off and let us recover it under our laminar-flow hood, and if the machine is the casualty the data often comes straight out.
A free diagnosis first, always — then a fixed written quote before any work begins, and no fee at all on most jobs if the data doesn’t come back. Recovering the data from a healthy drive in a dead machine is typically a lower fixed price; a failed drive is quoted according to the fault after the free diagnosis. Drop your device at our Leeds address in The Pinnacle, or post it in fully insured from anywhere in Yorkshire; whichever route it takes, it’s handled in-house by our own engineers and never outsourced.
Free diagnosis, a fixed quote in writing, and no fee on most jobs unless your data comes back. Stop rebooting a machine that won’t start cleanly — get it to us and we’ll take it from there.