Water and fire damaged drives

A flooded office, a laptop bag left in the rain, a drive pulled from a fire. The casing may look ruined while the data inside is still intact.

Ask about data recovery Call 020 7237 6805

What to do straight away

Do not power the device on, and do not connect it to a charger.
Do not try to dry a hard drive with heat or leave it to dry out on its own.
Seal a wet hard drive in a plastic bag as it is, so that it stays damp, and send it quickly.
For a laptop, remove the battery if it comes out without tools, and send the whole laptop.
Tell us what the liquid was: clean water, salt water, floodwater or a drink.

How damaged devices are recovered

Hard drives

The electronics are cleaned or replaced, contamination is removed, and the drive is copied with PC-3000 at the first opportunity.

SSDs and memory cards

The board is cleaned of corrosion and damaged components are replaced so that the controller can run and the data can be read.

Laptops and MacBooks

With soldered storage, the motherboard is repaired until the data can be reached. See laptop data recovery.

Fire damage

Hard drive platters survive more heat than the casing suggests. Melted plastic and soot are dealt with before the drive is powered.

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.

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.

If the spill has only just happened and the laptop may be repairable, see our liquid spill advice as well.

Common questions

The drive was under floodwater for days. Is it too late?

Not necessarily. Keep it sealed and damp and send it as soon as you can. Time matters more once it starts to dry.

Does home insurance cover data recovery?

Some policies do, and business policies more often. Ask us for a written quote to pass to your insurer.

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