Your files, found.
Your hardware,
reimagined.
Old family photos. A laptop that won't start. Files scattered across a drawer of drives. Let's bring what matters together, and put useful tech back to work.
Personal data services + thoughtfully refurbished hardware.
A drawer full of drives.
A plan to sort it out.
From getting files off an old computer to creating one organised archive, choose the starting point that sounds like you.
Practical help.
Upfront ballparks.
Draft Secondbyte prices informed by Australian service listings. All figures AUD. These are proposed customer totals, not live offers or confirmed quotes.
File retrieval from a healthy drive
$99–$199One readable source, up to 1TB, basic file copy and verification. Destination drive supplied by you. Disassembly, faults and extra sources assessed separately.
Consolidate & organise
$249–$449Up to three healthy sources and 1TB combined. Folder structure, exact-duplicate review and verified delivery. Detailed photo curation and cloud exports quoted separately.
Logical recovery assessment
$49Proposed assessment fee, credited if an agreed recovery proceeds. Indicative recovery budget $299–$599 including assessment, on stable media only. No success guarantee or automatic no-recovery/no-fee promise.
Convert your suitable PC to a NAS
$199–$349Labour for assessment, local file sharing, basic setup and handover. Parts, data drives, backup media, migration and on-site travel are extra.
Refurbished NAS system
$449–$699Draft budget for a suitable refurbished base system with basic configuration. Data drives and separate backup storage are extra. Not a stocked product or a promise that any mini PC supports multiple disks.
Reuse, wiping & recycling
Quote firstNo blanket disposal fee. Collection, documented sanitisation and specialist destruction may have separate fees. Partner fees confirmed before approval.
What's your starting point?
Estimate only. Work starts after assessment and written approval. No booking, payment or upload occurs here.
How these draft prices were informed, with sources
Public pages checked 7 October 2026. This is a small benchmark sample, not a market average. Providers differ in scope, minimum charges and inclusions; tax treatment is not consistently stated. Source prices below belong to those providers, not Secondbyte.
- Backup and transfer labour: Computer Crew publishes $20 per 15 minutes for remote work plus a session fee; on-site work is $40 per 15 minutes with a fee. This informs a proposed $90/hour workshop rate, not a like-for-like fixed package. [6] Computer Crew
- Recovery: PC Doctor lists readable-HDD logical recovery at $380–$680, logical SSD recovery at $480–$780, and physical HDD recovery at $880–$1,800. Its page says an encrypted return drive is included. Secondbyte's proposed stable-media recovery budget excludes return storage and is not a substitute for lab recovery. [1] PC Doctor
- Hardware benchmark: UN Tech lists an HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini, i5-7500T, 16GB/256GB, at $299 AUD, and an 800 G4 Mini, i5-8500T, 8GB/256GB, at $289 AUD. These are base PCs, not ready-made multi-bay NAS systems. Secondbyte's $449–$699 base-system target allows for setup and margin but still needs a costed bill of materials. [5] UN Tech
- NAS installation: KTP Digital uses a flat configuration fee based on complexity and asks customers to request a written quote; it does not publish a fixed installation fee. Our conversion range is a proposed labour allowance, not its price. [7] KTP Digital
- Documented destruction: Electronic Waste Victoria advertises a standard certificate service at $15 per device with a $150 minimum, and witnessed destruction at $35 per device with a $350 minimum. These minimums matter for single-device jobs. No partnership or certification is implied. [4] Electronic Waste Victoria
Consolidation package prices and the $49 assessment fee are Secondbyte planning proposals, not published competitor packages. Complex curation, recovery, recycling and large libraries stay quote-based until real pilot jobs establish labour and costs.
Less busywork.
Not less care.
Our planned approach uses local file-processing tools and a metadata-only AI assistant to help organise the work. A person stays responsible for the decisions.
Working with the file details.
Not looking through your photos.
Ordinary software would copy files, calculate checksums and extract permitted details such as file type, size and capture date. The AI would work from a filtered report, not the original photos, videos or documents.
It could prepare an organisation plan, flag missing dates, draft updates and help with administration. Our technician would review consequential actions before they run.
See the privacy boundariesNo surprise AI bill.
Proposed pricing policy: ordinary AI and automation costs are included in the agreed service price. You would not need an AI subscription, and there would be no separate per-prompt or token charge passed on afterwards.
Storage, parts, specialist services and any optional subscription would be itemised in advance. Extra work needs an approved scope change. Automation may reduce manual effort, but it does not guarantee a cheaper job or successful recovery.
The boundaries
we intend to build.
“Vision disabled” is only one setting. The real protection would be an agent account without permission to read customer files, plus a separate restricted processing worker.
What would the AI receive?
A minimised case report: a case ID, permitted technical fields, processing results and exceptions. Even metadata can be private. Names, full paths, GPS coordinates and unnecessary identifying details would be removed by default. Actual fields and any necessary exceptions would be explained before work.
Would anything leave the processing workspace?
The intended file-processing workflow keeps original content off AI services. If a hosted model is used, the approved metadata or administrative context sent to it leaves the local network. The provider, information sent, retention and training terms must be assessed and disclosed before launch. This prototype does not establish an all-local AI arrangement.
Would our files train an AI model?
The proposed service would not intentionally submit original customer content for model training. Whether a hosted provider retains or uses submitted metadata depends on its product, configuration and terms. No blanket “never retained” or “never used for training” claim is made here; those conditions must be confirmed before customer information is sent.
Can it delete photos or decide which ones are best?
No autonomous deletion is planned. Exact duplicate groups can be identified with content hashes, but matching names, dates or sizes do not prove two files are identical. Different edits, similar pictures and missing dates are preserved or flagged for review, not guessed away. This is technical organisation, not visual photo curation.
Who approves changes, handover and wiping?
The technician would approve consequential actions through an internal dashboard. That approval does not replace your consent: exclusions from delivery, scope changes, release of files, wiping and disposal need the appropriate recorded customer authorisation. AI drafts are not proof that copying or verification succeeded.
How long would you keep our information?
The quote and consent process would specify a correction window and deletion deadline for working content. Administrative records would have a separate retention policy. No period has been finalised in this prototype. Deletion would be logged and checked rather than assumed.
This website has no AI chat connection, file upload or live booking backend. Its enquiry preview stays in your browser tab. The business processing agent is planned, not running; the technician dashboard uses fictional demo data only.
Save the memories.
Keep the useful parts.
Rethink the rest.
An old computer isn't automatically e-waste. The proposed service separates what needs preserving from what can be repaired, repurposed or responsibly recycled.
Assess the machine and the files
Understand the fault, what you want to keep, and whether the hardware is safe and useful to work with.
Preserve first. Confirm the handover.
Copy accessible files, verify the result, and agree on the next step. No wipe is bundled into file retrieval.
Choose its second life
Return it, explore a NAS conversion, or authorise a separate sanitisation and recycling process. Suitability comes before reuse.
Old machine.
New home for your files.
A home NAS is shared storage on your network. Explore a refurbished system for photos, computer backups or a personal media library.
Draft budgets: $199–$349 to configure a suitable PC, or $449–$699 for a refurbished base system. Data drives and backup storage are extra. Final pricing follows assessment.
A home for the things
you want to keep.
Concept builder only. No inventory, quote or purchase is generated.
Old tech.
Still worth a look.
A proposed buyback program for selected computers and components. We would assess the hardware, make an offer where it makes sense, and find the right next use.
Not everything is waste.
Not everything is a buyback.
Suitable equipment could become a refurbished PC, a small home NAS, or tested spare parts. Equipment that cannot be safely reused would need an appropriate recycling pathway.
No guaranteed cash value or automatic trade-in credit. An offer would depend on condition, demand, testing costs and whether the equipment has a practical second life.
- 01
Tell us what you have
Model, approximate age, known faults and missing parts. We would check whether it is worth assessing before arranging a handover.
- 02
Assessment, then an offer
Ownership, condition and suitability first. Any price and transport or assessment fees would be agreed before commitment.
- 03
Your data comes first
File retrieval is a separate service. Buying the machine requires recorded ownership transfer and separate permission to sanitise its storage.
- 04
Test. Rebuild. Reuse.
Reusable hardware would be tested and its condition disclosed. Storage with unresolved customer data would not enter resale stock.
Useful tech.
Another chapter.
A tiny concept shop for rebuilt computers, small NAS systems and reusable parts. Every listing below is fictional, with illustrative AUD prices. Nothing is in stock or available to purchase.
No mystery.
No overpromising.
The important questions, before handing over a device or trusting a new backup.
Can you recover absolutely anything?
No. This concept focuses on retrieval from readable media and assessed logical recovery. Clicking, water-damaged, unstable or physically damaged drives need a specialist. Don't keep powering on a suspect drive, and avoid writing new files to media with deleted data.
What happens to my private files?
The proposed workflow uses agreed access, verified copies and a defined retention period. Originals stay unchanged during ordinary consolidation. No account passwords are collected. A live service would need a published privacy policy and agreed handling terms before accepting files.
Do duplicate files get deleted automatically?
No. Exact duplicates can be identified for review, but exclusions need your approval. Similar photos, edited files and different versions are not assumed to be disposable. You should receive a summary of the final archive and any unreadable items.
Does a NAS mean I don't need a backup?
No. A NAS makes storage easier to access, and mirrored drives can help with some hardware failures. Neither protects against every deletion, theft or disaster. Keep a separate backup and test that you can restore from it.
Can any old PC become a NAS?
Not every one. Drive connections, cooling, reliability, idle power and software support matter. A suitable machine could be repurposed; an inefficient or unreliable one may not be worth converting. Used storage needs assessment, and any sale would need clear condition, support and warranty terms.
How much would a job cost?
See the Pricing & quotes section for proposed AUD budgets and an interactive estimate. These are draft totals, not binding quotes. A written quote follows assessment; destination storage, parts, travel and specialist fees are itemised separately.
What's sitting in your drawer?
You don't need the technical answer. Just start with the story.