My parents (in their 80s) had their a hard drive crash with all their financial records, journals, etc. They went to Chao for data recovery. He claimed to have access to a ""clean room"" for data recovery. But he did not use the clean room and his work area is filthy - like a dirty computer junkyard with dust all over. We wanted full data recovery - got partial data and high percentage of the files are unusable - missing file extensions - raw data blocks with no file name nor extension, empty folders, etc. We paid $169 extra for expedited service. Took him 6 weeks of excuses. We kept asking for a price but he could not give it because he was never in the office to know how much time would be spent on the project. When I finally told him I was going to pick up the drive and take it someplace else - he said it was done. The final price was going to over $1600 in addition to the $169 we already paid - for the partial data recovery of unusable data. He would not let us take the drive without paying, but I was able to negotiate down to a little less than $1000. We have been trying to get a partial refund and his only response is that he is working with his partner on the issue. But then he has been completely unresponsive. He did not keep repeated promises to have it done. Much of the recovered data is unusable. He only gave a partial recovery rather than a full data recovery as requested. The drive we got back was covered in dust (and potentially damaged even further as he said he replaced the head, did the recovery, and then put back the old damaged head - apparently all in dirty/dusty conditions). I would never let anyone I know go here, and would recommend anyone considering using his services, to look elsewhere. This has been a horrible experience, especially for my parents - as they still do not have usable data, the drive may have been damaged further, and we are out a large amount of money and can't afford to get anyone else to look at the drive until we get a refund. I do not recommend this place at all.
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