USB stick and memory card recovery

Holiday photos on a card that now asks to be formatted. A USB stick bent in a laptop port. A wedding shoot that will not read. Small devices, and often the only copy.

Ask about data recovery Call 020 7237 6805

What goes wrong with flash storage

USB sticks and memory cards store data in a flash memory chip managed by a small controller. Problems fall into two groups. Either the device still works but the files have gone, through deletion, formatting or corruption. Or the device itself has failed, physically or electronically.

The first group is usually recoverable with the device intact. The second can mean repairing a broken connector or, where the controller has died, reading the memory chip directly and reconstructing the data. That is specialist work, and the evaluation tells you whether it applies.

For photographers and videographers

Deleted or formatted cards are often recoverable in full, provided nothing has been recorded since. Cameras write new files over the old ones, so the single most important step is to take the card out and stop using it.

Tell us the camera model and the file types you shoot. Video from many cameras is stored in fragments, and knowing the format helps us rebuild complete, playable files.

Recovery starts with a professional evaluation, charged at £94.80. It tells you what has failed and what can be recovered, and you then receive a fixed price for the recovery itself.

What to do now

Remove the card or stick and do not save anything else to it.
Do not accept a prompt to format or "scan and fix" it.
If the connector is broken, do not try to straighten or glue it.
Keep any broken pieces together and send them all.

We collect drives and devices by insured courier from anywhere in the UK, or you can post yours tracked and insured, or bring it to the workshop in London SE1. See how to send a drive safely.

Common questions

I formatted the card in the camera. Are the photos gone?

Usually not, if you stopped using the card straight away. A quick format clears the index, not the pictures.

My USB stick snapped in half. Is that recoverable?

It depends on whether the memory chip itself is cracked. If it is intact, the data can often be read. Send all the pieces.

Get a price from a technician

Tell us the make, the model and what has gone wrong. A technician replies with a price and the quickest way to get your laptop to us – normally the same working day.

020 7237 6805

Creative IT workshop
Unit 1, 80 Willow Walk, London SE1 5SY
Monday to Saturday, 9am–6pm