Had an SD card I wanted deleted files recovered. Kept me updated throughout and after 2 days of trying only got a few deleted videos couldn't use. No Charge because I didn't get my data. Great Guy Recommend. read more

Can't say enough nice things about Mr.Kotar. I dropped my portable hard drive on the ground and it was badly damaged. But, he was able to recover all of the data in just a couple of days. Mr. Kotar is a thorough professional and he provided regular updates about the case. Would highly recommend him for your data recovery needs. read more

Great communication --- steady emails on the progress .... exhausting every avenue for recovery.. Top recovery services provided ...

Kotar saved the day! The hard drive on our PC laptop stopped working and we had not backed it up in about three months. Kotar retrieved all of the data quickly, professionally, and securely. I highly recommend them. Added bonus: Neat art displays made out of hard drive parts are in the reception area! read more

We had a neighborhood power outage last week. After that, my PC could not boot up. Taking out the HDD and connecting it to an external SATA kit, it was complete silence from the drive. Following the instructions from couple YouTube videos, I removed the PCB and checked the 4 diodes on board with a multi-meter. They are still good. So, it could be a more complicated problem in the PCB or the drive mechanics went bad. It is time to enlist experts for help. Robert is local in Bay Area. So I don't need to mail my HDD out. And he gives free diagnostics. These are all positive. Robert texted me back in less than an hour after I dropped off the drive. It is bad. The heads crashed on the surface of the platters. There are scratches on the surface. But the recovery is still possible. He quoted me a price which I think does not justify the repair. The critical data in the drive was already back up in the cloud. What I will miss are some original photos and videos which I can live without. When I was about to give up, Robert offered an experimental process to recover the data with a discount price. That process does come with a 5% risk of losing data. And we are settled. At the end, he successfully recovered the drive and transferred the disk image to my new SSD. With that, my PC can boot up now! Thank Robert for saving the day! Of course, there will still be twists and turns. One Windows system file was corrupted and some applications can not work properly. After some struggle, I can replace that system file from a good copy and this story has a happy ending! read more

Robert is very professional and good at what he does! I know my photos and data are in good hand when I give the problem to him:) He was willing to work weekend and night to meet my time line without charging extra. I definitely recommend his work and service if you need to recover your data. read more

My 15 year old external hard drive crashed and wouldn't work- silly me did not back it up and my lifetime of photos and documents were all on there. Took it into a different shop that told me it was a hard ware problem and not soft ware so they couldn't help me. Found Kotar through yelp and brought in the drive. By the next day I received a text message from Robert stating exactly what was wrong with the drive and how much it would be. The price for hard ware recovery is very expensive because a clean room is needed with very precise tools to take the hard drive apart. So the total was definitely not cheap but worth it when I was guaranteed 100% data recovery. Also compared to other places when asking around the price was very reasonable. I also liked the fact that Robert does everything on site instead of having to wait for days while the item is being shipped off somewhere else. He recovered 100% of my data within a day- can't ask for anything better than that! Thank you so much Kotar Data Recovery! read more

Thank you Kotar Data Recovery! I brought in a dead hard drive from an old Mac, and they were able to recover everything that was on it, even though there was significant physical damage to the platters. All of my photos were restored! I changed my mind several times about what I wanted them to do with my data, and they were flexible enough to comply each time. A little on the expensive side, but worth every penny! read more

We had all of our kids' baby photos among other things on one external hard drive for a long time. Why didn't we ever think to back them up in other places, I don't know! The external HDD was working fine until it wasn't. A couple of weeks ago, when I tried to get one of the photos from there, it crashed. My computer would not recognize it, and it ended up crashing my computer, too. I tried to connect the HDD to another computer and the same thing happened. At that point, I realized how stupid we were to have all the data on just one HDD. I was really afraid that I might have lost all of the photos! I first brought it to a local tech service shop. While they were able to get some data back, they could not recover any of photos that I needed. Then I came across Kotar Data Recovery through online search and read about positive experiences that many people had with them. I contacted them and got an immediate response from Robert. I brought the broken HDD and Robert gave me a quote within 2 hours with the most likely scenario and the timeline. He asked a few clarifying questions while he was working on my case. 4 business days later, I received a text and email notifying me that he was successful recovering all the data!! I picked up the loaner drive and confirmed that he was able to get all the photos that I needed + everything else back!! I was really happy and relieved. Now everything is backed up in multiple places. Throughout the process, Robert was extremely professional and responsive. I can recommend Kotar Data Recovery to anyone who needs help getting their data back. They brought our memories back!! read more

They are very professional! Due to a stupid human error done by Verizon, my phone was reset with proper backup. The photos included precious baby photos and at least a year worth of photos. They gave free estimate and quickly responded all my questions. Give them a try if you need any data recovery! read more

Little expensive but reliable services for data recovery, professional people. I would recommend there services.

My external hard drive failed. I had several terabytes worth of personal and business related data that I was at risk of losing since I made the mistake of not making a backup. I also needed some of the business files very urgently. I contacted Kotar Data Recovery. I explained the criticality of the situation and Mr. Kotar himself spent the weekend working around the clock, providing me with multiple updates during the day on the data recovery progress. I was dazzled by the quality and speed of his work. It was a tough job, which I had made even harder since I had a 256 bit encryption password guarding the data. He recovered all of the data in less than 72 hours. I am very grateful to Mr. Kotar and his team for helping me preserve years of precious memories and hard work. I will not forget it. If you ever have trouble with your data, don't take risks. The technical service provided by Kotar Data Recovery is quite simply the best I have ever experienced. read more

I've used them for both professional and personal data recovery. They have great customer service and have been 100% successful in my data recovery needs. From a professional point - they recovered as much as possible and were willing to work nights/weekends to expedite the data recovery (at premium pricing of course) but it was well worth the money spent and helped keep the company alive with data recovery read more

Pretty poor service. Robert seems to procrastinate a lot. Definitely an academic individual, but not built to serve customers. Essentially wasted a month of my time. If you are unable to fix a drive, please say so from the start. Nice guy, but 10/10 would not recommend. read more

Robert, is extremely sharp and knowledgeable about the field of Data recovery. I would strongly recommend Kotar Data Recovery. Also Robert has bight integrity regarding his work, so he only charges if he is able to deliver the results read more

We lost all of the data on my son's iPhone and Kotar was able to get all of it back!! They were super responsive and diligent. Robert worked until 11 pm to make sure he could get the data recovered in time for us to send the phone back to ATT for a trade in. Highly recommend! read more

Robert and his team did an outstanding job on a very challenging case (badly damaged 1TB RAID drive). His communication was superb. He was extremely polite and respect. I could not recommend a business more highly. Thanks Robert! read more

Robert is awesome!!!! Retrieved information from a drive we had given up and forgot about 6 years ago! It was dropped and badly damaged but Robert worked his magic and pulled everything from it. Robert was very professional, detailed, down to earth. No BS, just real answers. Recommend Kotar for any data recovery needs. Best you can get! read more

Excellent service. Saved me from months of worries by recovering my RAID drives that had my kids photos since their births. Thank you Robert!! read more

Very reliable and professional, all of the data was recovered. Everything we needed/asked for we got!

This was a great experience. He was efficient and up front with everything. I was able to drop off my Flip video camera circa 2010(with Splash Mountain damage) and within 18 hours I got the files back on a USB. Clear communication and finished the job. read more

I had an SSD hard drive failure that needed to be recovered immediately (work related). Kotar was quick to get me the hard drive recovered the following day. Unfortunately, not all the files were included on the newly created drive. Realizing this mistake, what did the owner do? He delivered a newly corrected drive to me on CHRISTMAS DAY! Not going to get into the symbolism here, just that I highly recommend this company. This company is ethical and cares about their customers. read more

This place is the best! My external died on me a week before a huge editing project was due. Data recovery is expensive, but if you're in a pinch you don't really have any other option. My drive was in really bad shape, but $800 dollars later everything was recovered. I was able to relink all the project files without a problem and didn't suffer any loss in image quality. I highly recommend Kotar Data Recovery!! read more

My hard drive broke 2 months ago.I sent it to 2 companies, but both of them were unable to recover my data. But then I found Kotar.They were proffesional and what is most important, succeeded in recovering my data. The price was quite high, but they told me that the first two companies probably additionaly damaged the drive, while attempting to restore the data, and that if I brought it to Kotar in the first place, the price would be lower. Therefore, I recommend Kotar, as your first choice. You'll save time and money. read more

Having a drive crash, I searched for a local company I could work with to try to retrieve the data. I selected Kotar for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons was the 100% guarantee if they were unable to retrieve the data. It was expensive to try, but with the guarantee, I decided to allow Kotar to try. Sadly, the drive was too far gone to be able to retrieve the data. So, even though they tried (and they did for several weeks, trying different processes), Kotar lived up to the guarantee, and refunded the entire amount. (+ interest) For their integrity, honesty, and persistence trying to recover the data, they deserve this 5 star review. read more

I do IT (Computer Repair) for a living. My customer isn't on a monthly retainer where I could monitor backups, etc. And their RAID 1 configured server hosting Quickbooks and important company doc's died. I decided to go with Kotar because he stated he had a clean room for such delicate work. All hard drive data recovery centers should always have a clean room becasuet could completely damage your data if dust were to get on the drive! If they don't... RUN! Anywho... Once we got our data back that super important quickbooks data was there. I was able to open the company file, convert it to quickbooks online and moved them to the cloud. The other important doc went on Google drive. I asked my client how was Kotar. She said she felt like he cared about her important documents and she liked him! Thanks to Kotar. for taking care of my client. I appreciate that! Hence the review. I now have a Hard Drive Recovery Center I can refer clients to. read more

I was referred to Kotar by Michael over at SuperTech Geek. I had a hard drive that wasn't recognized by my computer, and traditional software recovery wasn't able to recover any data. I left my drive with Robert in the morning, and just a few hours later he texted me saying he would be able to recover the data. We conducted all of our business over text. He gave me the quote and I gave him the go ahead. Less than two days later he said the data was ready for me to pick up. It was hard for me to make it all the way to South SJ on a weekday, but he told me he was going to be in the office for an urgent case on Saturday. I went by and picked up a loaner drive with all of my data. He set me up with a prepaid UPS label and packaging. All I had to do was go home, transfer the data to my own computer again, and then drop off the drive at a UPS store. Very convenient! Turnaround time for the service was very quick, and communication was prompt and concise. I would recommend Kotar to those who have serious data recovery needs. read more

Robert Kotar doesn't only know his profession, he is very easy to work with. He comes with exceptional communication skills, letting you know the progress of each step along the way. He was able to recover my data, 100%. A lifesaver. Thank you Robert! read more

My drive (which I stupidly hadn't back up in months) completely stopped working. Kotar DRT texted me to say "the heads crashed in parking ramp" and quoted a price for attempting recovery of my data. I don't know what that means, so I asked a few IT guys that DID know what it means and they all said that it WAS bad and that the price seemed completely reasonable considering the scope of work required. Three days later (over a weekend), my data was completely recovered and I picked up a loner drive to transfer my data back to my system. I had 15 days to get the drive back, but don't worry, if you really need more, just call. Great customer service, speed, and Robert is super nice. read more

I've lost data before but was able to just move on without it. This time, I was in the middle of trying to finish my quite complex 2011 tax forms when my drive stopped spinning. I tried but failed to fix it with a replacement PC board purchased from eBay. With the added demands of the State to file (or else!), I decided to seek a professional firm for help. Kotar Data Recovery produced a new hard drive, complete with all of my old data and programs. I'm a self employed business owner in Scotts Valley who takes pride in good customer service whenever possible. Robert might have me beat. I don't know when he sleeps or has a day off, because I handed him my drive at closing time Friday night and he was done by Sunday night. David L. Bertsch read more

I had a SSD (solid state drive) that died with a weeks worth of work, and a client waiting for my project. The drive wouldn't show up on my computer. I messed around with it till the pc finally saw the drive, but the size was zero kb. But I Needed that DATA!! So I searched for local recovery centers and finally found Kotar. I called, and Robert said he would get right on the recovery. So I took the drive to Robert and dropped it off. It turned out that the main CPU had died, plus there was encryption on the memory chips. So Robert pulled the chips, downloaded all the data from the memory chips, then spent many hours to decrypt the chips. After a lot of effort (including working on weekends) he finally succeeded in recovering ALL of my Data! It was not cheap, but not way expensive like some of the other companies. And, they are local. I really liked that. I now have a loaner SSD from Robert with all of my files in perfect condition. I am very impressed by Robert's efforts, knowledge and communications. He was very responsive and friendly to work with too. I can't recommend Kotar enough. If they can solve my problem, they can probably solve yours. Thanks Robert! I set up a backup schedule so if i ever have another disk crash, i will have a backup. However, if something like this ever happens again, i will definitely call Kotar. read more

My mini Mac stopped working after I upgraded. I had neglected to sync with the cloud and couldn't access anything. Took it to Mobile Kangaroo in Mountain View but they couldn't get it to work. I found Kotar Data Recovery via Yelp and contacted them. Very easy transaction, I made an appointment and drove up to the office. Mr Kotar came out and took the hard drive while I waited in the car. Within a few days he contacted me with good news. He worked hard into the evening and texted me around midnight to let me know that he had managed to access the information. He loaned me a portable hard drive so I could retrieve the information. Not everything came through but about 75% made it, including all the photos. Very happy at the recovery. It was expensive but worth it. read more

I had an external hard drive (platter) suddenly fail on me and needed it repaired. The drive had irreplaceable video footage on it and I would have been in a world of hurt if the data was lost. After seeing the positive reviews on Yelp, I brought my drive to the Kotar Data Recovery team. Robert quickly diagnosed what my problem was and contacted me later that day with a quote and an estimated timeline for recovery. Despite the damage being worse than expected, Robert and his team were able to recover all of the data from my drive. They kept me apprised of their progress regularly via text message and gave me a loner drive to transfer data off of after the recovery was complete. I would highly recommend you back up your important data in multiple places to make sure this type of situation never happens to you. However, if it does: call Kotar Data Recovery. read more

My laptop hard drive crashed. I am IT knowledgeable and knew that after some diagnostics that it was really bad! I had not backed up for two weeks and so there were a number of files that I needed off the hard drive. I looked at various other companies, but knew that this was not going to be an easy case. Based on the Yelp reviews I decided to go directly to Kotar and am so glad I did. Robert contacted me a few hours later with a quote and time estimate. It was more expensive than I was hoping, and took more time than expected because the hard drive was in such bad shape, but he was finally able to get a complete image onto a new hard drive. It was so nice to be able to boot up my computer and see everything there. So much better than having to download everything from scratch, and try and make up those files that I was missing. Definitely worth the money and time. Thanks Kotar! It was a great customer experience and I hopefully I will not need to use Kotar again, but I would if I needed to! read more

Data recovery is expensive. Kotar Data Recovery rescued all my data from a failed external hard drive and communicated all along the way. Took a little longer than originally estimated but I liked taking it to a local small business that doesn't ship it out for repairs. Free estimate too. They do have their own clean room in order to open the hard drive. Highly recommended! read more

We had 2 external drives that were not working. We took them to a computer repair shop, but the technician said they could not get the data from them. We were stressed out and very disappointed when we heard the news. They referred us to Kotar Data Recovery. At Kotar's, we requested estimates for both external drives because we were not sure which one was our son's which he needed the data from and which one was ours which we did not need. By the time we received a call that same day with the estimates and explanations of what was wrong with the external drives, we figured out which drive belonged to our son. The next day, we picked up an external drive on loan to us that had all of the information from our son's external drive! We could not wait to tell him the great news! We will be repeat customers if we ever need data retrieval, and we highly recommend Kotar Data Recovery. read more

I have had to use their service several times now. This company is the real deal they actually do the work themselves they don't send it out to some company back East . They are very competent and do the work at a very fair price. I do not believe there is a better company anywhere for data recovery then Kotar. I rarely write reviews but this company really deserves a good review. read more

Kotar recovered all my files perfectly from my failed hard drive! For a reasonable price, in a short time, they even provided a new portable hard drive for transferring the data and future backups. They're truly a "life saver"! My laptop was slowly failing, I thought it was a virus from my kids' download but then Windows wouldn't start fully. I *thought* I'd take it to a big box office store's "easy" computer service, but they couldn't deal with HD failure except to outsource for some unearthly estimate, uncertain results, and weeks more time. I'm so glad I found Kotar instead: Robert gave me a quote & estimate within an hour of looking at it, and they didn't start until I agreed. They kept me updated with the progress, and offered 3 options for transferring the data. His estimate was spot on: "Recovery is possible. 100% success rate" and the price. Thanks Robert, and thanks Kotar!! You all saved my wife's business files, family pictures, and everything else I thought was lost!! read more

Long ago I did a careful search and selected this company to help with a very critical issue. My wife works in the Museum in San Francisco, and she has asked for a help. Damaged RAID which contained unique information - museum archives. KOTAR did a great job! Recovered the data we have considered to be lost forever... Robert had also recommended more reliable setup for the Museum data backups. Now I have a problem with my home RAID, and I am happy that I found the KOTAR contact information. Pleasure to work with them! read more

The hdd in my old MacBook Air failed on me. I went to Kotar. They did the analysis and quoted me a reasonable price which was much lower than other quotes. Based on their analysis, the successful recovery rate was also much higher than other places. Since I had backups for most of the pictures on my hdd, I didn't go forward with the recovery. But I feel they are very professional and will choose them for future tasks. read more