A failed SSD. A same-day deadline.

Solid-state drives are, in some ways, trickier to recover than a magnetic hard drive when they fail — the failure modes are different, and getting at the data means working with the drive's own controller and firmware rather than simply re-reading platters. It calls for specialist tooling rather than a generic approach.

Because the data was time-critical, the client asked for our emergency service: assessment and recovery worked through the same day rather than queued behind standard jobs. That kind of priority turnaround carries a higher cost than a standard case, reflecting the dedicated time it takes — but for a business against a deadline, it can be worth it.

Every file was recovered — a full 100% of the customer's data — and the whole job, from drop-off to a working MacBook ready for collection, was completed in four hours.

The total cost for the complete job, data recovery plus a new genuine Apple SSD fitted and loaded with the recovered data, came to around £500.

That full-service approach matters: a straight repair swap typically replaces the failed drive and hands the machine back empty, with the advice to restore from a Time Machine backup. A Time Machine backup is only as good as its last successful test — and an untested one can turn out to be corrupted at the exact moment it's needed. Recovering the data itself, then copying it onto the new drive, removes that risk entirely.