Data recovery from Mac and PC We get it back.
A computer that no longer starts is not a computer with lost data. In most cases the storage is untouched — nobody can simply reach it any more.
- In-house clean room
- Never outsourced
- Our lab
- Transparent & fair
Two very different worlds
In older laptops and most PCs the storage sits in its own drive. If the mainboard is faulty it is removed and read out — often nothing more is needed. Current MacBooks are different: there the storage is soldered to the logic board, and the key to its contents is created in a security chip on exactly that board. Desoldering therefore achieves nothing. The route goes through the repair.
Mac & PC
Whether logical or physical — in most cases the memory is still intact. The diagnosis shows what exactly is wrong.
No longer starts
A faulty power supply or a short on the logic board. The storage is usually untouched by it.
Liquid damage
Coffee, water, drinks. The corrosion starts immediately and keeps working underneath the components.
Drive faulty
The hard drive or SSD in the device has failed — with the fault patterns typical for each.
System does not boot through
A damaged file system, a failed update, a deleted partition. The data is usually still there in full.
From symptom to cause.
Nobody searches for a fault pattern. You hear a noise or read a message — and the most pressing question is: may I switch the device on one more time?
Symptom
No sign of life, no charging indicator
Likely cause
A short on one of the supply rails or a faulty charging controller.
What to do now
Do not switch on repeatedly and do not work through other power supplies.
Symptom
Liquid in the device
Likely cause
Corrosion that keeps working underneath components even when everything looks dry on the outside.
What to do now
Switch off immediately — hold the power button for ten seconds — unplug the charger, do not dry it, send it in at once.
Symptom
Question mark or error message at start-up
Likely cause
The system cannot find the drive. The cause can be a contact fault on the board or a faulty drive.
What to do now
Do not start a recovery or a reinstall.
Symptom
Starts, but the file system is damaged
Likely cause
An aborted update, a power cut or a deleted partition.
What to do now
Do not run a disk repair — it writes.
Symptom
Very slow, hangs on access
Likely cause
Defective sectors on a hard drive or worn memory in an SSD.
What to do now
Do not check it, have it imaged.
Repair in order to read out
With soldered storage, data recovery is a board repair followed by reading out. Under the microscope we look for the component that collapses the power supply, replace it and bring the computer to the point where it starts. From there it does the rest itself: the security chip decrypts and the data can be copied off. That is why we repair devices instead of desoldering storage.
Equipment we use
In Frankfurt. Never outsourced.
Why this takes so much effort.
No jargon for its own sake — the reasons from which price, duration and prospects of success follow.
Why desoldering does not work on current MacBooks
Since the introduction of the T2 chip and even more so with Apple Silicon, the storage is soldered in place and its contents are always encrypted — regardless of whether the user switched FileVault on. The key is created in a security chip on the board and never leaves it. If the storage is removed and read externally, what remains is ciphertext. The only viable route is to repair the original board far enough that it starts and decrypts by itself.
The most expensive mistake: repair first, think about the data later
The usual manufacturer repair for a faulty board is to replace the whole board. That means a new security chip — and the old key gone. The storage goes into disposal with the old board. If important data sits on a broken Mac, data recovery therefore comes before the repair. Afterwards it is too late, and irreversibly so.
BitLocker and FileVault
With a recovery key or login password, an encrypted computer is an entirely ordinary case. Without one it is not. The BitLocker key often sits in the Microsoft account or in a company’s IT administration — both are worth a look before giving up. Please enclose it with the job.
Liquid damage is a race
On an energised board, liquid acts as an electrolyte: metal is removed in one place and deposited in another until conductive bridges form. That is why a device often still starts after a spill and no longer does three days later. Switching off and cleaning are the only measures that stop the process.
File systems
APFS, HFS+, NTFS, ReFS, ext4 — each has its own administrative structures and its own routes to reconstructing them. For the order of work in the lab that changes nothing: first a complete image, then the structure on the image.
What determines the route.
Details for your storage medium.
Storage can be removed
PCs und ältere Notebooks mit eigener Festplatte oder SSD, MacBooks mit steckbarem Laufwerk. Hier genügt in der Regel das Auslesen außerhalb des Geräts.
Storage is soldered
MacBooks mit Apple Silicon oder T2-Sicherheitsbaustein sowie viele flache Windows-Notebooks. Auslöten liefert nur Chiffrat — der Weg führt über die Platine.
Budget devices with fixed storage
Chromebooks, sehr flache Einsteigergeräte und Tablets mit verlötetem Speicherbaustein. Zugang über die Platine oder über direkt kontaktierte Leitungen.
Before you do anything.
Bring the medium in or send it to us. The Economy diagnosis is free — you find out what is possible before anything costs money.
Take the medium out of service immediately — every further use can accelerate the loss.
No recovery attempts with tools from the internet.
Do not open the device or medium yourself.
Take it to a reliable data recovery specialist — analysis first, then a quote.
The mistakes that make it expensive.
Almost every well-meant reflex makes the damage worse. That is why you find not only the rule here but also the reason — nobody follows an instruction without one.
After contact with liquid, do not switch on and do not charge.
Voltage on a wet board drives the corrosion. Every attempt costs substance.
Do not start a reinstall or a recovery.
Both write to the drive — frequently exactly where the lost data sits.
Do not run a disk repair.
It rebuilds administrative structures from damaged information and overwrites the references from which something could otherwise still be reconstructed.
With soldered storage, no reset and no firmware restore.
Some of these operations erase the storage completely and discard the key material. The difference between “revive” and “restore” is here the difference between data and no data.
With a broken Mac, do not order the repair first.
If the logic board is replaced, the key is gone — and with it the data.
What this roughly costs.
The decisive question is whether the storage can be removed. If it is removable, the fixed prices for hard drives and SSDs apply. If it is soldered, it is a board repair — and that is calculated individually.
Your case
Files or a partition deleted, the drive is fine
What it becomes
Create an image, reconstruct the file system on the copy.
Guide value
€299
Your case
SSD in the laptop is no longer recognised
What it becomes
Board work on the power supply or controller, then read it out. Price up to 1 TB, above that in stages.
Guide value
€499 · +€100 per further TB
Your case
Laptop hard drive is clicking
What it becomes
Head swap in the clean room, then a sector-by-sector image. Price up to 2 TB, above that in stages.
Guide value
€899 · +€100 per further 2 TB
Your case
MacBook with soldered storage no longer starts
What it becomes
Repair the board until the computer starts — after that it decrypts its storage itself. Not a case for the fixed-price table.
Guide value
after diagnosis
Examples are guide values, not an offer. What your case costs is fixed in writing after the diagnosis — only then do you decide whether we continue. Where it says “after diagnosis” above, our price list does not know the case as a flat rate; it is calculated individually and itemised in the quote.
Our diagnostic tariffs.
You set the pace. Shipping both ways is included in every tariff — from Standard upwards we collect from you. And you always get a written quote before we start the recovery.
Economy
0 €
free diagnosis
- Diagnosis
- approx. 5 working days
- After approval
- Regular queue
- Updates
- By email
Written quote · free shipping both ways
Standard
99 €
incl. VAT · per medium
- Diagnosis
- within 2 working days
- After approval
- Scheduled with priority
- Updates
- Email and phone call
Written quote · free collection and return
Emergency
249 €
incl. VAT · per medium
- Diagnosis
- next working day
- After approval
- Moved to the front
- Updates
- Named contact
Written quote · express collection and return. Arrives before 12 noon: diagnosis the same working day.
The Economy diagnosis is free of charge. With Standard and Emergency the diagnostic fee applies even if you decline the quote — it is not offset against a later recovery. Either way, you decide freely after the quote whether we continue.
Four steps to your data.
- 01
Send it in or drop it off
Order online or hand it in without an appointment in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen.
- 02
Diagnosis
We examine the medium and send you a written quote.
- 03
Approval & recovery
We only begin the recovery once you have approved it.
- 04
Your data back
On a storage medium in the parcel or via an encrypted cloud download.
Where even we reach a limit
The computer is the case in which the order of decisions matters most. Almost all limits arise from what happened beforehand.
Logic board already replaced
With it the security chip is gone — and therefore the key to the soldered storage.
Recovery already performed
Where a reinstall happened, things have been overwritten. How much is decided case by case.
Encrypted without a key
Without a recovery key or password a recovered image stays unreadable.
Far advanced corrosion
If traces underneath components have already dissolved, the board can no longer be brought into a bootable state.
Answered briefly.
What does data recovery cost?
We work with transparent fixed prices based on the fault pattern — depending on the medium from €99, €299 or €499; in cases of total damage individually. Before every recovery you receive a written quote and decide freely whether we continue.
Do I pay even if no data is recovered?
The Economy diagnosis is free — if you decline afterwards, no costs arise. With Standard and Emergency the diagnostic fee (€99 or €249) applies even if you decline; it is not offset against a later recovery. The recovery itself is only charged after your approval.
How long does it take?
Depending on the tariff, the diagnosis takes about 5 working days (Economy), 2 working days (Standard) or one working day (Emergency) — with Emergency, the same working day if the medium arrives before 12 noon. How long the recovery itself takes depends on the fault pattern and is stated in the quote.
Is my data safe with you?
Yes. We work in line with the GDPR, pass nothing on to third parties and never outsource. Your data is stored exclusively on our encrypted server and completely deleted after handover.
Can I send the medium in?
Yes. Shipping both ways is included in every diagnosis tariff; with Standard and Emergency we collect the medium from you. Or you come to our lab in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen without an appointment.
My MacBook no longer starts. Can I remove the SSD and read it elsewhere?
Not on models with a T2 chip or Apple Silicon — the storage is soldered and the key sits in the board. On older models with a removable drive that is exactly the usual route.
Apple offers me a logic board replacement. What about my data?
It would be gone afterwards. The replacement brings a new security chip with a new key; the old storage goes with the old board. If data matters: recover first, then repair.
Coffee over the keyboard. What now?
Switch off by holding the power button for ten seconds, unplug the charger, do not switch on, do not use a hairdryer, do not put it in rice — and bring it in for cleaning as fast as possible. Here hours really do count.
Is my Windows laptop simpler than a MacBook?
Usually yes. If the drive is removable, it is taken out and read. Slim models with soldered storage behave like a MacBook.
Data Recovery Professionals
A worldwide group of independent, owner-run data recovery companies. Members share methods from professional data recovery, forensics and software development — so on rare damage patterns the knowledge of the whole group stands behind your medium.
Every hour counts. Let us talk.
Bring the medium in or send it to us. The Economy diagnosis is free of charge.
Wasserweg 8–10 · 60594 Frankfurt am Main