Arlington, VA · Data recovery · Board-level
Board-level data recovery in Arlington, VA
Told your data is gone? Get a second opinion. Dead, water-damaged, or will not turn on, the memories inside are not always lost. We recover data at the board level, by hand, at our own Repair Center, and you see what is recoverable before you commit. Walk in, or mail in from anywhere in the US.
Written diagnostic first. You approve a fixed price before any work. If we cannot recover your data, you do not pay a recovery fee.
It was never about the phone. It is what is on it.
Water did not erase your photos. A dead screen does not empty the memory chip. In almost every case the part that holds your pictures, messages and files, the storage chip, is one of the toughest components on the board. It does not need power to keep your data, and it is not usually what fails.
What fails is the circuitry around it, and that is board-level and chip-level work: we bring your storage back online just long enough to copy your data off.
We treat every recovery like it is the only copy. Because for you, it usually is.
- The wedding video
- The baby's first year
- The last voicemail from someone you have lost
- Years of work with no backup
The situations people bring us every week.
Just your photos? Just one folder of voicemails? Tell us what matters most and we target that first.
Recovery is not guesswork.
A clear process, and you are in control at every stage. Your timeline is confirmed in the written diagnostic, and nothing chargeable happens without your approval.
Written diagnostic
Walk it in, or mail it in tracked. A technician examines the board under a microscope, finds the real failure, and writes down what is actually recoverable. The $65 diagnostic applies toward your recovery.
Your options in writing
You get clear options and one fixed price before any paid work, with an honest read on your odds. Everything is in writing, so you can review it, look anything up, and decide without pressure.
You approve, then we recover
Nothing chargeable happens until you say yes. We repair the board at the component level, or read the storage chip directly, in-house at our own Repair Center.
Your data back
We return your files on new, encrypted media. If we cannot recover your data, you do not pay a recovery fee.
"It cannot be recovered" often means "we do not do board-level work."
When a store or carrier says your data is unrecoverable, it usually means their process could not reach it, not that it is physically gone. The standard repair path replaces the whole board or the whole device, and your files live on the storage chip inside it, which gets set aside still holding your data.
We do the opposite. We work at the board and chip level to bring your storage back online and pull your data off. If you have already been told nothing can be done, it is worth one more look.
Phones, computers, drives and cards.
iPhone
Won't turn on, water damage, black screen. Board-level repair to boot the phone and pull your photos, messages and contacts.
MacBook & soldered SSD
Liquid damage, no power, T2 and Apple Silicon. We work at the board and chip level to bring your storage back online and copy your files off.
Samsung & Android
Smashed, dead, or will not boot. For hardware failures where the phone cannot start on its own.
SD, USB & flash
Not detected, "0MB", "no media", corrupted. Including monolithic cards many labs refuse, recovered at the chip level.
Hard drives & SSDs
Clicking, not spinning, not recognized. Controller and power-rail repair and chip-level reads.
Other storage
Cameras, drones, and memory cards. If it holds data and it failed, bring it in for a look.
Stop, do this first
Power it off and leave it off. Do not charge or plug in a water-damaged device, and do not turn it on to "check if it works", that is the most common way a recoverable device gets destroyed. Do not put it in rice, it does not stop corrosion. Do not run repair tools on a drive you want back. The sooner we see it, the more we can usually save.
On iPhones, where the memory chip is intact, we recover the data in roughly 9 out of 10 cases, because we use quality donor boards and do the work by hand.
We recover data other shops write off.
We will not promise a number no honest lab can prove. Every case is different, so we look first, tell you honestly where yours likely falls, and only charge a recovery fee if we actually get your data back.
Why some cases are hard, and why that is our work.
Water damage
Water does not erase your files, it corrodes the board around the storage chip. The chip usually survives. We clean the corrosion and repair the circuitry so the data can be read.
A dead board
A destroyed board does not mean lost data, it means the path to it is broken. We repair the shorted lines and failed parts, or move the intact memory chip onto a working board.
Power damage
A surge or a bad charge burns the power circuitry, not your memory. A sacrificial chip usually takes the hit while the storage stays intact. We repair or bypass the damage to reach it.
Overloaded storage
Phones ignored for months on a full-storage warning can quietly push the memory to its limit. If the chip is still healthy, the data comes back. If it is physically gone, we tell you straight.
A rare device
Some imported phones need a matching donor board sourced before recovery is possible. When that is the case we say so plainly, and its cost is quoted and approved before anything is ordered.
The honest limit
When the storage chip itself is physically shattered, some data is genuinely gone, and no one can repair a memory chip. We evaluate first and tell you what is realistic before you commit a dollar.
Straight answers to what people ask us most.
My phone won't turn on, can you still recover the photos?
Can you recover data from a water-damaged phone?
A shop or carrier said my data cannot be recovered. Is it really gone?
Can you recover data from a modern iPhone with soldered, encrypted storage?
Can you recover data from a MacBook with a soldered SSD?
How much does data recovery cost?
What happens if you cannot recover my data, do I still pay?
How long does data recovery take?
Is my data private, will you look at my photos and messages?
Before you give up on your data, let us look.
Photos you cannot retake. Messages you cannot rewrite. When a device dies, the memories inside are not always gone. Written diagnostic, an honest answer, and you decide from there.
Walk in to Arlington VA or mail in from anywhere in the US. If we cannot recover your data, you do not pay a recovery fee.