I would recommend Shaw Computer Services to ANYONE! 10/10 professionalism 10/10 genuine & caring 10/10 communication 10/10 skill (20+ years of experience) Full story: My entire hard drive had been wiped. I tried to recover it on my own with a second hard drive and messed up both drives. I really thought there was no hope for recovering my years of documents and photos. Philip responded to a local plea for help I put on Facebook, and several people also recommended his services. Even though I was slow to decide (it took me months to fully respond), he was patient, friendly, caring, and never judged my uncertainty or pressured me to reply. I've never experienced the amount of questions Philip sent me so that he could fully understand my problem. Imagine! Someone who doesn't just assume they know what the issue is! He would call me and update me with any progress, and I could hear the real concern for me in his voice when the first hard drive I provided appeared to be un-recoverable. When I found the second hard drive, things took a turn for the better and he was VERY excited for me! He had told me several times how he sympathized with what I was going through and would call me to brainstorm other options he was planning on taking to get me my precious files. Every step of the way, he communicated his plans, setbacks, and positive outcomes. He was extremely honest with me and made me feel at ease. When my files were finally recovered, he called me to schedule a remote view of my files on his computer. I was able to see all my lost files in real-time on the hard drive remotely before I picked up the final recovered products. I could tell that Philip's main concern was my happiness in his performance. He genuinely cared about me and was extremely professional. Shaw Computer Services went above and beyond anything I ever imagined a repair service could be and I am forever grateful I found this company! I will only be using their services from now on. read more

I generally research things very, very carefully before spending the kind of money I knew I would end up spending for data recovery. I called a half dozen other data recovery services that all had high internet ratings and were highly recommended in various articles. I checked a lot more than that out, but in the end, only found that handful that I thought would be worth looking into further by making contact. But, when I made the phone calls to those places, I found many of them provided vague information, or cookie cutter type responses, and they generally were not very helpful and often times did not seem particularly knowledgeable. One place said if they couldn't recover my data from my hard drive, they would send it to their affiliate. Then I told them what I had already done, and they said I had already done everything they would, and I would need to send my hard drive to them so they could ship it to their affiliate! Holy smoke! I thought, why in the world would I want to use them when I already knew as much as they did about data recovery? I had a bad feeling about every single place I called until I called Phil Shaw. Finally I found someone who very quickly gave me confidence in what he could do in recovering data. My impression is he is someone who really enjoys what he does, and doesn't like to be stumped, so would go all out to save someone's data if it was at all humanly possible. Most of all, I also felt I could trust him. He explained how the process was going to work, and made everything clear. Yeah, maybe I could have recovered the data myself, but in this instance I didn't want to take any chances and I do not regret my choice to go with Mr. Shaw one bit. He won't take advantage of you, or talk over your head, and you will know what he can or can't do very quickly. Just a good, honest transaction at a very fair price from a decent, knowledgeable person. You can't beat that. read more

Shaw Computers is the real deal. Not enough stars to rate this company on their professional service they provided my company. Our corporate computer hard disk stop working the day before thanksgiving. The data was backed up; however, the data was dated with over 56,000 items in QBPOS alone not to mention documents related to the business that needed to be working by black Friday and not to mention a months worth of data events. I called Shaw Computer Services at 10am thanksgiving day, thinking I would be leaving a message, when Phil answered the phone. Answered the phone on Thanksgiving!! Phil said bring the drive over after dinner and he would see if he could retrieve the data. Around 9pm the data was completely saved and backed up on separate drive. Better yet, he restored the original hard disk drive to operational status with 100% Data integrity. Customer service like this just does not happen like this any more except at Shaw computer Services. The price was more than reasonable and just a great company. If you have a data problem go to Shaw computer Services. The amount of work and aggravation they saved our company is not measureable, they are now my IT data team. Thankful Indeed!!!!!!!! Troy Englert read more

I had a computer that would no longer boot up, and I contacted Shaw Computer Services to attempt to recover the photos and documents on it.​Mr. Shaw was unable to recover the data on the hard disk for a price that was less than it would have cost me to send it back to the manufacturer. He takes seriously his policy of not charging anything if he is unable to recover the data, so he did not charge me anything, even though he did spend time and effort to remove the hard drive from the computer, examine it and try to find a donor drive. When he returned the hard drive and computer to me, he gave me clear instructions on contacting the manufacturer, including where to find the website and approximate cost. Additionally, Mr. Shaw let me know that he expects the computer (that I had given up on) would work just fine with a replacement hard drive. So I ordered a hard drive and will try to replace it myself this weekend. He also gave me advice about protecting my computers in the future from power outages and surges that likely caused the damage to the original drive. I hope I will not need Mr. Shaw's services in the future, but if I do, I won't hesitate to contact him. read more

I recently broke my USB drive which contained important data. I brought the broken USB device to best buy, the IT department at my work and several other places who all told me that it was irreparable and forget about it. I then looked online and came across the Shaw Computer Services. After sending him a picture of my USB drive he reassured me that he would have no difficulty retrieving my information from my USB drive and would have the contents back to me within a day. I liked the way he was confident by his work. I received a phone call few hours later that day (in spite of the fact that day was just immediately after severe snow storm hitting the area) from him and was told that all of my files were retrieved!!! It was such great news and such great service. I trust him a lot. I would strongly recommend using Shaw Computer Services. Don't hesitate and waste time looking for somebody else. He is the man if you are having any difficulties with a device. He was friendly, expeditious and most important he is very professional and keep all the data confidential whatever it is! I'm giving him five stars. Thank you again Mr. Shaw Ahmed read more

I can't thank Phil enough. He recovered nearly all my data from a dead hard drive and even brought the drive back to life should I need to recover a minuscule amount of unrecovered data (nothing important). The fact that he recovered my data and repaired the drive to make that option possible is next level. I was previously told by another service they could upgrade me to an SSD and told me they would destroy my old drive since it wouldn't respond. Glad I followed my mind and took it to Phil. Excellent response rate, flexible, and even walked me through typical file paths to find certain data. He had me in and out in the same week. He even told me if should I recover the missing folder/data (emails) to let him know where it was located. That's someone who is invested in his craft. He was very fair with pricing (quotes were less than 1/3 of others with a better response rate! Mind you my drive needed life support, I paid less than $450) It's not cheap, but hard to argue when he gets the job done well and at a much better rate. I got my work files back. Highly recommend!!!!! read more

We lost access to a hard drive full of a lifetime of photos as well as other documents and I was devastated. Per others suggestions, I brought the hard drive to Gadget Guru, but they were not able to connect to the hard drive or retrieve any files. They did direct me to Phil Shaw of Shaw Computer Services for more detailed technical help which is what we needed. It took a couple of weeks and Phil came through us. What he discovered was some of the discs in the hard drive were damaged after being dropped, but Phil was able to recover a significant amount of data for us. After the two weeks, he also created a folder of problem files for us to review in case we wanted him continue to work on them. I am so thankful for all he was able to recover for us and plan on retaining his services for any future tech help. I am glad Shaw Computer Services is local and I was able to speak to Phil face to face. The files he retrieved for us are priceless! His cost of services are very reasonable and worth every penny. read more

After visiting Best Buy and being told they could not recover my hard drive in store and that it would require additional services at a starting cost of $1,200, I searched for a local computer recovery services company and found Shaw Computer Services. Mr. Shaw quickly responded on a Sunday to my inquiry. To determine the possible cause, he asked some preliminary questions and shared his starting fee of $375 and up depending on the time required. After dropping off my hard drive, he provided an update within 24 hours and 24 hours later, my hard drive was completely restored and returned to me. While I didn't have a lot of saved information, the family photos were the most important to me. Mr. Shaw was able to recover all of my documents and photos. I am forever appreciative to his quick response and expertise. While his business is home based, the entire interaction was handled in a socially distancing responsible manner. And, the entire cost was no where near what that other store wanted! read more

Shaw Computer Services retrieved what Seagate couldn't. I had a Seagate External Hard Drive that I downloaded all of my 2 boys baby pictures, videos and special events on. Thousands of photos and videos. I put it away after I checked to make sure everything was on there. 3 years later I hooked it up to get some photos and it didn't work at all. Couldn't even get it to read on my computers at home or work. I called Seagate and sent it to them and they couldn't Recover any of my data and sent it back to me. They told me all of these things were broken, scratched and damaged. . It was a total loss. Contacted Phil Shaw through google. Gave him the hard drive. Low and behold I now have all of my pictures and videos back. To go from heartbroken to ecstatic was an amazing feeling. I would recommend Shaw Computer Services before I would recommend Seagate to anyone in a heartbeat. Thank you Phil!!! read more

Take your drive issues to Phil!!! I've had to use Phil twice to recover data both on an external hard drive (about a year ago) and just recently on a Internal Hard drive that went bad on my 2010 iMac. Phil repaired and backed up the external drive last year and this year was able to get into the bad drive and get the most important items I needed. Since the drive was going bad my time machine back ups weren't working. After getting the drive home I realized there was a file that was not opening on my drive and he stuck with me and found the file and sent it to me. I never felt as though I was bugging him and his intention was always to make sure I got as much as of my data as I needed. I'm telling you don't send your drive to some place that's going to charge you thousands of dollars. Phil does great work!!! He's on my speed dial for computer issues. Thanks Phil read more

Thank god I found Phil! I posted a desperate plea for help on Facebook and someone told me about him. I sent him an email explaining how I'd lost all my data and he called me the next day with how he thought he would proceed. He was honest with the pricing and told me exactly what would make the price go up, so there were no hidden fees (and it was more than a third cheaper than geek squad told me. They were the first people I approached). He was personable and up front with how he would retrieve my data. I needed my data ASAP but I didn't tell him so as not to rush him, but he still had ALL of my data ready for me the very next day! He even suggested and followed through with screen sharing so I could see what he retrieved and if it was good enough for me before I went to pick it up. The best and most pleasant service I've had for a long while. read more

My flash drive containing many important documents recently broke into separate pieces. I was panicked as to how I could retrieve my documents or the thought of possibly having to try and recreate everything. Luckily, I found Phil Shaw from Shaw Computer Services Data Recovery Services. Mr. Shaw was able to retrieve all my documents and place them on another flash drive without losing any of the files. I cannot thank Mr. Shaw enough, he was very professional, polite, caring, attentive and took the time to explain everything. He answered all my questions on transferring documents and helped me create back up files. If you need any data recovery, I highly recommend you call Phil Shaw at 443-364-8518, he is located in Ellicott City and he has a website: Shaw Computer Services Data Recovery | Ellicott City, Baltimore, MD (scsdatarecovery.com). read more

Phil Shaw is the real deal!! This guy is amazing, from start to finish, I felt he listened, addressed my concerns, and most importantly, recovered all my data that I had been told was lost and unrecoverable. He told me straight out that he does not charge if he does not recover the data and the turnaround time was a matter of days (instead of months as with other larger businesses). After recovering my data, he brought me in, sat me down, spent time with me as he went through and verified that he had recovered all the files that were thought to be lost. It was amazing, I had given up all hope. I had years worth of photos and movies of my five kids and thought a part of their childhood was lost, but Phil came through and delivered! I can't recommend him highly enough. 6 Stars! read more

My hard drive crashed! I spent several days on the phone with Dell, but they were unable to repair it and I could not retrieve any files. Everything was gone, it was horrible. I found Shaw Computer Services online and they consistently had great reviews. I spoke to Phil and explained to him what happened. He set up a time for me to bring the HD and within 24 hours he was able to retrieve all my lost files!!! Everything!!! He is truly an IT Superhero!! He is extremely knowledgeable, he explained everything to me that he was doing, and he saved my business files and personal files. If you need data recovery Phil is the best around and he works quick! Thanks Phil, I truly appreciate it! read more

I went to Shaw Computer Services with a corrupted Linux drive with 2.2 TB of data that I could no longer access in full. Phil Shaw determined that one of the heads had failed but he was able to circumvent the issue and image the drive. Due to its size it was a tall task, but Phil was able to recover over 99.9% of the data on the drive. He was very professional and clearly explained what the issue was and how he would attempt to resolve it. His shop is located minutes from my office which made our interaction much easier than shipping the drive off to someone across the country. I highly recommend Shaw Computer Services for any data recovery needs. read more

My cat puked on my external hard drive that had all of my pictures and Lightroom backups on it. I went to several businesses and was told that it could take any where from 3-7 weeks and a $600-$1500. I called Phil yesterday morning and dropped my hard drive off. He was able to fix the hard drive, recover 100% of my data, and even put it on another hard drive for me in less than 24 hours for a fraction of the price. I can't begin to express my gratitude and appreciation for him to recover 7 years of photos at a much less cost than other companies in the area. I HIGHLY recommend going to him if you need to have data recovered! read more

I am not going say that Best Buy fried my Cloud Drive; however, after Best Buy fried my Cloud Drive. They tried to get me to sign a waiver and tried to sell me Data Recovery services. Best Buy wanted a $450 deposit for services that might be on the high end of $700 to $800. I called around to several Data Recovery services. All the services I spoke with want me to leave a large deposit. However, Shaw Computer Service saved all my "Priceless" data for a reasonable rate without the huge upfront deposit. My name is Daymon and I totally recommend Shaw Computer Service. read more

I highly recommend using Shaw Computer Services. My Lacie external hard drive from grad school mysteriously stopped working - but I wasn't sure my data was worth recovering. I brought it into Shaw Computer Services to see what could be done inexpensively, and Phil was able to completely fix the drive and put it in a new case for a fraction of what Lacie quoted online for data restoration. Despite needing to order parts, the service was fast - I dropped the drive off on Friday and it was ready by Tuesday. I am super grateful to have access to my files! read more

Affordable data recovery at its finest. Personalized service, and highly competent. My 2 disks died terrible deaths, and Shaw Computer Services was able to recover the data from the primary drive. It needed not just a new controller (I could do that!), but the ROM was damaged beyond use, and the heads of the drive had failed. I can remove heads if a hammer is a tool, but this guy actually used care and skill. I can't say enough about his communication skills, technical skills, and people skills. A+ all the way around. read more