One of my RAID arrays failed and I learned a valuable lesson in keeping copies of data in multiple locations. Contacted Kotar Data Recovery and, with some of their knowledge, guidance and searching, I was able to copy my data off my RAID array. I was ready to bring it in if I wasn't able to recover my RAID array myself, but serendipity was on my side. While I don't hope to have a more difficult set of problems to need solving, I will definitely bring the next set of problems to Kotar. It's definitely worth it to have knowledgable people on your team. Someday, I'll repay them for their kindness and generosity in sharing enough knowledge with me to DIY myself through this data crisis. Until then, 5 stars from me and a recommendation for anyone having data troubles to reach out to Kotar. read more

Robert at Kotar was able to recover my 1.7 TB of data from a failed four drive raid 5 array. He rebuilt two of my failed drives and even though there were scratches from a failed head on the drives, he was able to finely polish those defects off rebuild the array and recover all my data. Prior to finding Kotar, I had shipped my drives to another well known data recovery company in the Mid West, known for it's expertise, only to be told, my data was not recoverable. Finding Robert and Kotar was pure luck on my part. I got back not only 10 years of family photos, but much of my years of bookeeping, tax and and finanacial records. Thanks again to Kotar or the fine work done. Wil S read more

I purchased a SanDisk 2TB SSD last May while they were on sale, I thought I got a good deal until 3 month later, when it stopped working. I contacted SanDisk and they told me they can replace it with a new one. They couldn't do anything about the data on it. My friend recommended me to contact Kotar Data Recovery, maybe they could help me to get my data back. Upon inspected my SSD, Robert, the owner of Kotar, told me it could be done, but it will take sometime. I paid the fee immediately and asked him to start. Well, he was right, it took quite sometime to get the data back. To be exact, it took over 7 months to get all my 1.4 TB data back. But I was too happy to see the data again! I strongly recommend Kotar to everyone who unfortunate loss their data. read more

Kotar Data Recovery Team did an amazing job and helped me restore 4 TB of data from the broken flash drive! I highly recommend this company!

I had a user at work that did not save her data on shared storage. There was a decade of data on her PC that was never backed up. One day, the PC stopped booting up and we were hearing a clicking sound from the hard drive. I brought the hard drive to Kotar Data Recovery, and they were able to recover all the data onto a new drive. When we popped the newly recovered drive into the PC, everything was back to normal. Kotar Data Recovery is such a life saver, and I wouldn't hesitate to use their service again. read more

I accidentally dropped my external HDD and my computer could no longer read it. Kotar messaged me back within the hour on a Sunday evening and I made an appt for 9:15am the very next day. Communication was quick, clear, and fast via text. Appointment was on time and dropoff was smooth. Analysis showed data would be 100% recoverable, but in my case, the data on the drive was not worth the cost of recovery. Had there been meaningful and important data on the drive, I would have absolutely approved the service. Upon picking up my drive, Robert recognized my vehicle and was already out the door to hand me back the device, safely packaged in a static free bubble pouch. Hopefully I wont need his services in the future, but if I do, I know I'll be back. read more

Robert was great and was able to recover data from our water damaged iPhone 13 pro max. The process, payments, and timeline were clearly communicated. Though it took longer than expected, Robert was patient in communication and responsive when I kept following up for updates. Overall, for 100% data recovery and how respectful and nice Robert was throughout the entire process, I'd recommend him to anyone who needs help recovering data. read more

Thank you so much for the help here. I was able to make an appointment easily and get my drive checked out without issue. The drive itself had an issue, but troubleshooting the issue and coming up with a quote was free of charge, which is amazing and greatly appreciated! read more

AVOID THIS BUSINESS! Do not come to Kotar unless you want to be in the hole for a couple thousand dollars & have your data taken for hostage. Almost one year after entrusting Robert with getting our data recovered, and NUMEROUS back and forth, we've gotten excuse after excuse about why he can't 1) return our data storage 2) issue a full refund for his policy of "no data, no charge" guarantee. Honestly, it's not hard to explain to a customer that you couldn't retrieve the lost data. I get it. Not everything is possible. Clear Communication IS. Or perhaps instead of misleading customers saying that you'll issue a full refund if you aren't able to complete the job, take a deposit instead! Deposit for your time to try and figure out the problem, and then collect the remainder at the time of product retrieval. That way it protects both parties. We paid several thousand up front, and a whole year later, we not only have our storage held hostage by KOTAR, but we still haven't received our full refund! It's SO FRUSTRATING! What in the world is going on. We will be filing a report with the Better Business Bureau and the Dept of Consumer Affairs to see if they can help escalate this issue. If KOTAR can stand by their business principles and issue the remaining refund and return our data drive, then we can avoid this hassle. read more

I am a technical professional, and due to a power outage, some critical data on a platter drive that hadn't been backed up was lost. Having plenty of background in Linux and Windows filesystems, I attempted DIY data recovery, which can work if the data is only corrupted. I attempted to back up all sectors of the 2 TB block-device platter drive to a file on a 10 TB drive. The 2 TB drive only yielded 180 MB of image. I realized this drive was probably damaged, and even powering it jeopardizes the data on the drive. I powered it down and looked for a professional service. After leaving messages with no response at a couple places, I called Kotar Data Recovery. Mr. Kotar was courteous, and very knowledgeable regarding filesystems and block devices. I described everything I had seen, what I did and my conclusions. He agreed that the drive was damaged. He signed an MNDA for my company's sake, and I delivered the damaged drive. Through examination he determined the drive had indeed crashed hard and there were microscopic scratches on the platters. He gave us a very reasonable quote. His company has a standard caveat that if he fails in the recovery, the customer is refunded in full. We paid him. Over the next two days he texted me with updates on his progress. Some of the texts had very late timestamps, implying he was working long hours on this project. In the end, everything was recovered! If you have data recovery needs, I would highly recommend Robert Kotar's services. You will experience kind and professional service with reasonable pricing. read more

These guys are fabulous. My IBM PC failed, so they recovered everything from the crashed discs and helped me restore it on my MacBook Pro. It took quite a bit of time to get this all accomplished, but they stuck to the cost of the original quote and work to make sure everything was done well. read more

Not sure why There are bad reviews at all, but Robert was very helpful and responsive. All the people who complained probably spammed the poor guy as he was working on their stuff... He finished on time was very formal and respectful. Data recovery is expensive, He knows what he's doing. It's worth it. I had an Iphone XS Max 512gb. Apple does everything in their power to make it difficult for you to recover stuff.. Robert will save your stuff. Phones, Hdds, etc. Trust the man and let him work peacefully. Would go again. read more

Kotar company was professional and reliable. They were able to recover the data that my team really needed. Thank you very much

One of my portable drives failed several years ago. There are my photos on it. I accidentally damaged the portable drive, and I think it was hit heavily during a trip somehow. The portable drive has sound when it is plugged into a computer, but the OS never recognizes it. I tried different laptops with different OS, Windows, Mac, or Ubuntu. None of them worked. Usually, I would keep personal data in multiple places just in case. So I searched for my old photos on all my old computers and other portable drives. Unfortunately, I did not find them. I started using Google photos since 2014. I think I found some of my old photos in Google photos, but I am sure lots of them are permanently gone. It makes me really sad. I once thought that the drive might recover by itself after a while. But it never did. As time goes on, I almost give up until I find Kotar Data Recovery at Yelp. It seems to be a professional data recovery company simple according to my intuition. It offers a free analysis service, too. I decided to give it a try. Mr. Kotar is a nice person. He quickly examined my portable drive. He told me that an external force hit it, the magnetic read head hit the disk's surface, and there are scratches on it. But he is very confident that he can fully recover my data in the drive. His explanation is professional. That ignited my hope. We negotiated the cost and finalized the deal. Even at this time, in fact, I don't think these data can be fully recovered. But whatever, it's worth a try. After a week, Mr. Kotar told me that he successfully recovered all my data and sent me a screenshot. When I saw one of my wedding photos, I felt so excited! It's worth the price! Thanks to Mr. Kotar and his business. All my old personal photos and other old documents (for example, my homework in college, :-) ) are recovered! Now I'm transferring them to a private Synology NAS server. I bought this server when the portable drive was damaged. That was a lesson I learned in a unpleasant way. Best wishes to Mr. Kotar and his business! read more

I was a customer with Kotar, and it took a VERY very long time for Robert to tell me my case was practically impossible. It took nearly 5 months and during that time his communication was inconsistent, he always came up with excuses when i asked for updates and he would plain not return my calls. I literally started to feel like he wasnt working at all on my case and that he would never return my phone. His customer service is GOD AWFUL. I didn't expect him to be able to recover the data, so that was not surprising. What was surprising was the continued dishonesty, lack of transparency, the inconsistency, the non-responsiveness and the SUPER LONG AMOUNT OF TIME it took! I've since called other data recovery specialists, and they have all said there is NO REASON whatsoever that it should take longer than 2 weeks to give me a guaranteed answer whether or not they could perform the recovery. If you want excuse after excuse and TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, go ahead and take your chances with Kotar. I don't even understand how he is still in business, honestly. I can assure you there will be a lengthy explanation in response to this honest review. Always beware when the company owner takes the time to justify such garbage service. I read several scathing reviews of Kotar before submitting my phone but i also read so many sparkling reviews as well! So, like a fool, i took my chances.... DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!! READ THRU THE 1 STAR REVIEWS!!! THEY ALL HAVE A SIMILAR REPORT!!! THEY ARE TRUE!!! This is truly an awful, awful company. Dont waste your money or your time like i did... PROS: smart guy, knows his stuff! Hence the 2 stars... CONS: EVERYTHING ELSE!!! read more

They succeded in recovering my data files from a bady corrupted solid state drive in just over 48 hours after paying for their rush 72 hour service. Their business processes were a bit different than I expected, but they were straightforward in explaining their capabilities. read more

Kotar is very quick in responding to inquiries. Honest and forthright when it came to estimates and recovery. I would definitely recommend them. read more

Robert was a pleasure to work with! The files successfully recovered and saved. Thank you

I'll responding to the business's reply to warn other potential customers. Before taking your business here, take a look at the company's ratings with the Better Business Bureau and the number of lawsuits that are pending against the company and the owner. That information plus the pattern you'll see in the negative reviews on Yelp and Google will tell you all you need to know. If you take your business to this company, you are playing roulette. You may get your data back, as the positive reviews have stated, or you may end up forced into taking some unpleasant steps to get your money back. The above response from the owner is a sample of what you will deal with. His methods are to delay, prevaricate, and play the victim all while claiming his unprofessionalism is all a big misunderstanding. Don't fall for it. read more

Great service, super knowledgeable, very nice, very considerate about making sure copies he had were deleted once I'd confirmed I had the data. I didn't think the dead hard disk was recoverable at all, but Kotar managed. Highly recommend! read more

Robert is a very kind person and fantastic at what he does. I had a SD card that got damaged because of a faulty card reader, and lost all my time-sensitive pictures for work. I contacted Kotar and was able to drop off the SD card on the same day. Robert was a life saver and managed to recover the images by the following day, while providing me with a great price. Kotar is very efficient and professional and I highly highly recommend them if you want to recover your data. read more

Kotar himself will give a free estimate on your drive, and will patiently put up with your questions about details. He has a lot of experience and his location is easily accessible from anywhere in the local area. Fast turnaround on estimates, no pressure to accept the offer; no hard sell. In my case, I elected not to go ahead with the repair. My drive had very serious damage so it was very expensive. However, I appreciated the professionalism every step of the way and the straightforward business dealings. A lot of recovery companies will be very pushy and intimidating in what is already a very stressful situation. I appreciated the fact that this was not the case here. read more

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Friendly and quick to respond. Gave me options and great customer service. Very professional. Did not feel like they wanted to price gouge me. read more

Robert from Kotar just recovered all the data on my iphone that stopped working. I am so grateful. Without his help, I don't know if I can ever recover the data. The rescued data is my life of the past 8 years and means so much to me. My case is a hard one. Robert worked two weeks on it, solving one problem after another. To get it to me as soon as possible, Robert worked weekends too, and on the last day, he stayed in the office till 11:30pm, to finally deliver the perfect data to me. Thank you, Kotar, from the bottom of my heart. read more

Brought my laptop in with a damaged hard drive as a last resort because I was hearing nothing but bad news from anybody who took a look. I left Kotar a message and they got back to me the same day! I had my laptop dropped off to them and by the next couple of days I got the update that my data was recoverable on their end. I was extremely thankful since I had almost lost all hope. They gave me a date as to when the files would be ready for me on a loaner external hard drive and they got it done! Overall it was such a stress-free and reassuring experience. Going back every time for data recovery needs! Highly recommend! read more

Robert and his team did a great job in recovering 10k worth of memories/pictures and some videos; a few of the videos are really old as in back in 1982. I am more than thankful that I've decided to have Robert and Team worked on my external HD. It's all worth it with the amount I paid. Robert was kind enough to reconsider the cost since I approached him more than a year ago. However, I was not ready then because of the cost. The time came when I was ready and decided to contact him again. Thank you and Kudos to you all!! read more

My external hard drive was not being detected on any of my computers. Kotar Data Recovery was able to fix the issue and return my data quickly. I was very impressed by the great customer service and communication. I recommend Kotar for any data needs for your computer! read more

I brought them a frozen hard drive on a Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening I was told that they had recovered all of the files. There were numerous photos of my children, etc. on this drive. They got everything back for me. I picked up the data on Monday. I had previously had my work IT guy look at it, as well as BestBuy, neither could get any data from the drive. The communication was very good as they updated me several times with status updates. I would definitely recommend them and use them again if I need data recovery again. Thank you! read more

Worst service ever. Robert took the iphone, mac and money and set the deadline in 14 days. 14th day: replied, but postponed till 2PM. No update then. 18th day: no reply at all 19th day: no reply on new message and call. I had to call from another phone (!!!) to make Robert pick the phone up. No surprise, he took the phone, and admitted that he didn't work on my case and was busy on "more urgent cases". Promised feedback in "couple of days" 22nd day: no feedback, I contacted myself and I heard complaints about "difficult case", and no explanation about breaking the promise. Update "ASAP" 33rd day: having no any update, I contacted Robert again, he promised feedback in 2 days. 36th day: no update, after I wrote and asked why he broke the promise for the 6th time in a row, I was told about "problems with heart" and that "for sure" he will update me on Saturday, and that this NEVER happened in 8 years. 46th day: no update for 7th time in a row, I contacted and asked again what have happened. Explanation was "case is difficult" and problems with keeping me updated is "just a coincidence". PROMISED (haha) to give me the final result after 5 days. 52st day: no update (8th time in a row). I contacted and asked to give me my mac, iphone and money back. Finally I was able to get everything back, 38th day after the deadline. I understand that data recovery can be unsuccessful, but there were too much lies and broken promises about work on my case. I don't beleive at all that failure to contact the client can happens 8 times in a row is a coincidence. Absolute mess. PS: after getting a bad review Robert started to write long meaningless explanatory emails, claiming that he want to keep good personal (!?) relations, but I would better see this passion to talk with client before. read more

Robert and his team are amazing. Passionate and driven data recovery professionals. We had a solid state drive as part of an oceanographic instrumentation platform, which was badly corrupted. The drive was no longer supported by the manufacturer, and Robert built a custom data recovery tool for us. We (and our client) had given up on getting the data back, so Robert's call was a welcome surprise! read more

These guys are the best in the business. My father very unexpectedly passed away and his computer was locked with a password. With 3 businesses to run without him, I knew I needed everything in his computer. Robert understood the gravity of the situation and did everything he could to successfully (!!!) recover all of the data for me- he even stayed in the shop late on a Friday night to work on it himself. Can't recommend this place enough. Thank you so much for the work you did! read more

The best customer service, communication & saved all my files from my broken external drive. Thank you Kotar!

Kotar Data Recovery is life saver! My wd passport ultra external hard drive just stopped working. This is the second time this happened to me. Doing some research I found Kotar Data Recovery. What I like the most about them is there local and do everything in house, which all the other companies I researched send the hard drives out of state. Also they do a free inspection of the device to see if the data is recoverable. No data no charge. Which the other company wanted to charge me based on how expedited they did the process of inspecting the device. So other companies will charge you just to inspect the device not including recovering the data were Mr. Kotar and the Kotar Data Recovery Team do it for free! Mr. Kotar and The Kotar Data Recovery Team were so great got my data back 3 days later it was great! There pricing for the data recovery was really reasonable and Mr Kotar and The Kotar Data Recovery Team were so pleasant to deal with. Great communication and updates. Just a pleasure to do business with. Mr Kotar and The Kotar Data Recovery Team is the place I would recommend my friends, family and people too! Thanks again Robert and the Kotar Data Recovery Team read more

Kotar fixed a defective motherboard from an old touchscreen computer that would suddenly not turn on. It was running normal again within a few weeks. I'd highly recommend their services to anyone who requires diagnostics, troubleshooting or repair. read more

We used the Kotar data recovery service to recover data from a corrupted disk. They were really professional and explained to us the process and were really efficient during the entire course of it. All the lost data was recovered and I highly recommend their services for data recovery. read more

Great service and very personable. Although they couldn't save my wife's iphone x, they gave me alternatives which I liked. Some businesses never suggest other solutions and usually charge you just to inspect it. For them, they don't ask for payment unless they are successful. I would highly recommend! read more

I had a badly damaged old portable hard drive. Kotar spent many hours and who knows how much money and resources to recover my files. They were successful in recovering all of my files. I highly recommend their services. read more

My RAID drive was severely corrupted and Robert was able to recover my drive and save valuable family memories. Highly recommended!

After searching and calling around different companies for cost estimate on data recovery on an external hard drive (it's the spinning variety and my desktop could not recognize it anymore) and is the data recovery done on site or sent elsewhere, I narrowed it to Kotar Data Recovery. They were clear and professional: no charge for the evaluation, provided an estimate within 2 hours, and no charge if no data is recovered. I received my recovered data per the estimate timeframe and they were patient as I was evaluating the recovered data. Great service, highly recommend. read more

After looking for a trustworthy and professional business that could savage my data from my cloud, I found Kotar I gave them a call and they were very helpful and professional, I took my dive the same day and they were able to provide me with a competitive quote but most important assured me that data was going to be recoverable. Data was recovered eith no problems, Robert was very helpful and professional..strongly recommend read more