Recently, one of my lab partners offered to swap out my PC for a more powerful CPU and we thought the easiest path would be to install my existing hard drive in the new PC. It seemed like such a straightforward procedure yet I didn't have a complete backup. Big mistake. Somehow, the old drive received an electrical surge which fried the amplifier that drives the head stack. If you don't know what this means, the result is that the drive became completely unreadable. At least according to all the best efforts of me and my colleagues. It turns out there were a couple of files on that drive that would take hours upon hours to recreate; that's when I happened upon X FIles Recovery. I had no idea why the drive could not be read. The above explanation was provided to me by Chris, the owner of X Files Recovery. After about a week of intensive diagnostics, Chris was able to figure out what went wrong, obtain a new part, and proceed to recover the entire formerly "unreadable" drive. Thank you, Chris! I highly recommend X Files Recovery to anyone who has what seems a hopeless case of lost files!! read more

Chris was able to save all of my data from my Raid-0 drive that failed. He did it for a fraction of the price that I was quoted from other data recovery businesses. This guy knows what he is doing. read more

I left my had drive to be fixed last yearend Chris said it would cost $1200-$1500 if he could get the data. I talked to my aunt in Brazil since the HD was hers, and she was going to make a decision and let me know. I completely forgot about the HD and a few months after when she reminded I contacted Chris and he said he wasn't sure if he still had it. I complained he should've called me if he was going to do anything with it. He said he did, but I never got a voicemail to confirm. He said he was going to look for it and if he found it he wouldn't do any work on it. Like I wanted him to. Luckily he found the hard drive, but my review is to write about his lack of professionalism. read more

X Files Recovery - Data Recovery Near Me - Somerville, Massachusetts

Do not be fooled by the (very) unassuming building--I am convinced X Files Recovery is the best place I could've chosen for my data recovery needs. I had an external hard drive that randomly crapped out after only 3 years and I was DEVASTATED at the thought of losing everything that was on it. Chris kept me updated throughout the process and he was amazingly able to recover everything I wanted despite my hard drive being in really bad shape. I was over the moon. I had no idea data recovery was so expensive before this, but I know Chris gave me a super fair price compared to another quote I was given. He also got me a new hard drive to put the salvaged data on, and gave me some great advice. I recommend him wholeheartedly! read more

I called for price estimate on recovering music files from a laptop that hadn't turned on in about a year. The estimate was $450-$900. Here are my issues: 1) That price range is HUGE, laughably so, and with no accountability or further explanation about what might make it one end of the spectrum or the other. 2) I ended up getting the work done by another local company for less than $200 Based on what I actually paid and their quote, at best they are extremely overpriced. I wouldn't trust it. read more

My girlfriend had an issue recently where a word file she had been working on for months was corrupted and would no longer open, and no working backup of course. After hours of googling solutions and sending the file to Microsoft customer support, still nothing. I tried calling several other data recovery services in the area... one said it would be too unlikely to succeed and too expensive for us to bother trying to recover it with them, another place took a look at the file and said nothing could be done. Chris from xfiles agreed to look at the file... couldn't guarantee success but gave a very acceptable upper limit for what it would cost. He made an image of the drive and worked with that, so my gf was able to take her computer back and there was no risk to her system from the recovery procedure. Since it was a large file, a large hard drive, and many days had passed since the file was last successfully saved and the recovery was attempted (according to what I've read, the more time passes in between, the less can be recovered) it took a few days to recover the file, but Chris kept in touch and communicated the progress. In the end we were able to recover a very large chunk of the file... the great majority of the text that had been lost. The price was also very reasonable... not exactly cheap, but nothing compared to the work that was invested in the file; I would go through xfiles again in a heartbeat if I had a similar issue again in the future. Chris was friendly, communicative, and extremely helpful. He explained the procedures that would be used to try and recover the data and was not condescending at all (unlike--let's face it--a huge number of people who work in tech support). I do some programming and feel like I know how computers work reasonably well, but with an issue such as a corrupted file or data recovery I really had no idea what to expect, so I really appreciated the way Chris consulted with us. read more

Chris recovered all of the data from a failed external drive which contained many professional images on it. He did it much faster than Tech Fusion had said they could do it, and for less, too. When one is anxious about recovered data, if it can be recovered at all, obviously the faster one knows the reality, or has the actual data recovered, the better! He did this pretty quickly. Chris made the process fairly painless given how stressful it was! I highly recommend X Files Recovery for any data recovery. read more

Chris was absolutely nothing short of amazing! My girlfriend's Mac had stopped booting, and she hadn't backed her files up in a bit. I asked Chris if he could somehow back them up to an external drive, and I'd run a disk utility on it. Turns out, the hard drive had completely failed--but he was able to pull about 300 GB of data off the failed hard drive! I've worked and taught in IT for 16 years, but data recovery is nothing I've ever attempted. Very, very glad to have found Chris and X Files Recovery! read more

It's a pretty simple story: I had a huge computer crash and lost all my data. I brought it to Chris, and he recovered it. He also backed it up... ...which was very handy when my laptop got stolen less than a week later! (Hopefully I have now worked this bad karma out of my system.) I was able to go back to Chris and he still had all my data and he put it on an external hard drive that I brought in. A few months on and this spell of bad karma seems to be gone. I credit Chris. read more

Two weeks before the end of the semester, my laptop's hard drive stopped working. I normally back everything up to my external at the end of each semester, and I thought I lost a whole semester of hard work. I took the drive out and I could not get any other computer to recognize it. The IT people at my school said I should take it to a professional. I shopped around a bit and decided to go with XFiles Recovery because it is local (most places, even ones 'based' in Boston, actually ship your drive to CA for repair then charge you middleman money for it), and he gives an honest, competitive price (data recovery costs a pretty penny, and I have a student's budget). Chris got everything off of my drive and even gave me a new drive for my laptop. All within 4 days. He knew that I was on a tight clock, and he kept me updated through the whole process, even calling me on a Saturday afternoon to let me know that it would be ready for pickup the next day. You will not find another company in Boston with Chris' combination of technical competence, affordable pricing, and willingness to work within your budget and schedule. I highly recommend XFiles. read more

My hard drive crashed on my PC and I had little to no backup. I was able to drop the drive off and they did a great job recovering 100 percent of my data at a reasonable cost. They also helped me load it on to my pc to make sure everything was there and working properly. If they couldn't get me the data cost would have been zero so they are confident and they deliver. Thanks! read more

Excellent service throughout! From communication, to explaining the process, to getting all the data in a timely manner Chris was too notch. His price was clearly explained and he got everything back!!! Awesome turn around time as well. Would gladly recommend this place to anyone for data recovery! read more

After trying the do-it-yourself route and conferring with other professionals about my failed hard drive issue, I took it to X Files. While not cheap, Chris and his team salvaged all of my data. Call first to set up an appointment. He is attentive, communicative, and speedy. I would definitely recommend coming here when you need those files recovered. read more

I wished I could give negative stars for reviewing a poor business as these guys. They advertise to me open at 9am. But when I brought my laptop in at 9.50am, they were still closed. So I called their phone number. Surprisingly someone answers my call and rudely told me that since I did not make an appointmentwith them that I could not expect them to be there. I calmly told him that if that is the case, he should put down on his website that it is by appointment only instead of posting that they open at 9am. After discussing calmly with him, he finally told me that he would be open for business at the location between 1 and 2 pm today but still could not commit to a specific time. Then he forewarned me that it would cost anywhere from $490 to $900 and at least a few business weeks to get done even without looking at the problem first. I asked what was the reason for both the high price and the long delay and he said if I could not afford it then don't come, which was entirely offensive to me. I then asked him what makes him think that he could both charge more and take longer to d stay in business and he could not answer it except tell me that I won't find a lower price for what I needed. I thanked him and told him that I just wanted him to consider my suggestion of changing his website to read correctly the information he just gave me. I then went across the subway station and got a price of less than half of what he wanted to ch arge and promised delivery the same day today! This business does NOT deserve to stay in business. Why do all these other clients give them a5 star rating? That is doing all the test of us a disfavored! !! read more

My 1 TB hard drive became invisible to my system one day with no warning. After $50 and waiting 3 weeks for a highly advertised firm to find my data, they came back with a requirement for much more money to open the drive in a clean room. I picked it up from the first firm and took it to Chris at X Files the same day. Chris delivered a free analysis in 24 hours. He too found that opening the drive was necessary, but he had the parts on hand and quoted half the price of the first place. A week later I got my data on a new drive. He even held my check until I got it home and found that everything was there! The experience with Chris was very pleasant. He knows what he's doing and is easy to deal with. The price seems reasonable once you realize that he spent quite some time replacing read heads under a microscope. I cannot recommend X Files Recovery enough. read more

Fair price, honest asessment , technically capable and just an all around gentleman...

Chris from X Files Recovery saved my life 2 times in one week!!! I am so grateful for his recovery services. He deserves more than 5 stars. My hard drive stopped working, which is the kiss of death as a photographer... I lost a lot my personal and client files. I initially took it to a different Boston company, who was unable to fully recover the data. Luckily, I found Chris and he was able to recover ALL of my files! This was priceless to me. Beyond talented, he was also very professional, responsive, and prompt. As a stroke of bad luck, my new drive misfunctioned again in the same week.. LUCKILY, Chris still had a copy of my data. He saved the day again! I highly recommend his services. I learned my lesson (have multiple backups) but if I ever run into any data recovery issues... I will only go to X Files Recovery. As an extra bonus: it's only minutes from downtown Boston and has free parking available. Thanks again, Chris! read more

Although my data from my SSD was not able to be recovered (the current software is not up to date with new technology) I had a great experience here. It seemed like Chris really cares for his customers and has integrity in his work. I hope I never have to come back here again (who wants to lose data?!) but I would definitely trust X Files to recover my data. read more

I took my dead drive to X Files. It had already been sent to a company in Rhode Island--they told me it would be $1100.00 to rescue data...or $900.00 if I could wait 2-3 months...ugh! Chris gave me great service, rescued all the data and charged far less than the other Rhode Island company. Great place. read more

I'm a grad student in the Boston area. Less than a week before my final hand-ins, I had a hard drive crash that took down with it my entire semester's worth of work that was due soon, not to mention many other important documents. My university's IT folks who are usually good at helping out in these cases tried but failed; they told me that the data wasn't easily recoverable even if I went to a professional data recovery company, who, they said, would make me pay through my nose. Sure enough, everywhere I asked, I got quotes that hit the sky with no guarantees I'd even get the data back in time for my hand-in. But I was helpless. After knocking on several doors and many phone calls later, I stumbled upon "X Files Recovery" run by Chris. Chris came across as a man who talked less and let his work speak for him; he did not make any big promises too soon, not wanting to jinx the situation, and explained to me very practicably what procedures would be required for the recovery and how long it might take. Also, seeing that I was a student and sensing my anxiousness, he quoted a reasonable price, much lower than his competitors. I was convinced that he was the man for the job and decided to trust him with it. In less than three days, weekend included, Chris toiled hard to complete the painstaking procedure that the other companies I'd talked to had said would take at least 5-7 days. Chris also kept me constantly involved in the process, contacting me frequently to let me know of the status of the recovery; this really helped calm down my nerves at the time. At the end of it, he sent me a comprehensive listing of filenames he was able to recover for me to double-check. All through, he was very professional and seemed in control. I highly recommend Chris from "X Files Recovery" for any data recovery and similar needs. Look him up at http://www.xfilesrecovery.com/contact.html and pay his store a visit. He's a real life-saver! -- Student, Boston read more

After a few computer proficient people attempted to fix my external drive, XFiles was recommended to me. I spoke with Chris who was very knowledgable and professional. Chris was able to move the files to a new drive that I provided in just a few days. I'd recommend Chris and his services to anyone who needs his type of service. read more

I am so happy I found Chris at X-Files Recovery. He had really great reviews and I gave him a call. From the very beginning Chris gave me a price range, which I thought was very fair and kept me informed throughout the recovery process. He answered every email in a timely manner and he also sent me a snap shot of my recovered photos, videos and all my other data. I had a 1TB external drive with almost 600gb to be recovered. He is very very thorough and recovered more than 95% of my data, which was mostly my life in Photo's. He is meticulous and went through my external hard drive several times to make sure he didn't miss anything. Chris was wonderful to work with. I would highly recommend his services. read more

I got in trouble when my Dell encrypted drive didn't want to boot anymore . I thought my data was secured but not against mechanical failure . I'm lucky I found those guys because I've tried with another company that wanted to send my drive away and it was no promise to recover . The price quoted was also too high for me. . X Files Recovery recovered my files at a much reasonable cost. I recommend them - remember X Files Recovery . They will help you. They are Awesome! read more

Came to get my hard drive recovered after my computer crashed. Chris was very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable! Hard drive recovery is never cheap, but Chris definitely had the best prices. (I also checked out other services like Geek Squad, etc. for comparison) In all, it took maybe 4 days from when I first gave my PC to him to when I picked up my files. I would definitely recommend X Files Recovery and Chris! read more

Chris at X Files Recovery was able to recover data from my two old, non-functioning PC towers within a few short days! Very efficient, reasonably-priced and very good communication! I will be using X Files Recovery again in the future! read more

Chris is amazing! My hard drive was reformatted with all of my finals saved onto it. I was panicking about having to re-write 30 pages worth of final exams, and he was great at assuring me he was going to do the best he could to get my work back. Chris was able to recover all of my data in one day and communicated with me the entire time! His price was less than I had expected, considering all of the time and work he had to put into retrieving my data. It was a great experience and I will definitely return if I ever have technological problems again. read more

X Files saved my business! If I could give them ten stars I would. I am a professional DJ and all my music is stored on an external hard drive. Well after 3 1/2 years my drive suddenly stopped working with no warning. It was a complete nightmare!! I first went to the highest rated place on here. They plugged in and told me it was dead and there was nothing they could do about it. They said they could look at for $1000.00 with no guarantee. I felt terrible and left. I called Xfiles and explained my situation. Chris gave me a quick consult over the phone and asked me to please bring it in. He said his business specialized in my situation. He said would check it out and let me know the next day if he could get my files off the dead drive. All of this at no charge! Well I went to their office and remained hopeful. He explained to me the process, how long and gave me a general idea of the charges. All of the charges were depending on the work he did. Well Chris called me the next day and let me know the best new ever! He could recover my files, 100%! It took about week and he also placed all my old files on a new drive I brought to him. He kept me in the loop all the way. He even called me half way through when there was an issue. Just great customer service. As far as the price it wasn't cheap, but it was fair compared to what it generally charged for this type of work. Definitely less than the competition! I am a happy customer and would recommend them to anyone! read more

Chris from X files Recovery did an amazing job recovering all my data and my doctoral thesis after a freak crashing of my hard drive. The price was extremely reasonable compared to other places given the level of damage to my hard drive and the location was easy to get to from South end. He even stayed open late to wait for me to drop off my computer after I got out of work. I'm very happy with the work he did and highly recommend his services read more

I have used X Files Recovery for both a home computer failed hard drive and also for a RAID drive recovery at our business. In both cases, Chris came through on the recovery. I had personally tried just about everything to recover my home computer's hard drive before contacting X Files without any luck. And within a couple of weeks, Chris had recovered everything successfully. I would definitely use their services again should the need arise. read more

I just called in a panic about lost data and the guy talked to me on the phone for a long time for free. I think I'm out of luck in terms of getting my data back, but he was just so friendly and helpful. Would recommend! read more

100% DATA RECOVERY...100% SATISFACTION! I recently had a catastrophic data loss due to a short power outage and a problematic back-up. After much research I located X Files Recovery and contacted Chris. I cannot recommend X Files Recovery highly enough. I know there are outfits out of Canada and California that are offer this kind of recovery work but to have in my backyard in Boston was so helpful...I dropped the problem disc off and when I picked it up I was able to sit with Chris and review the few problem files that were not identified, rename them and move them to their appropriate area before bringing the new disc home. The migration of data back to my home computer was smooth and uneventful. Certainly if you are not in the Boston area I would NOT let it deter you from using Chris...it was just an added benefit that he was in my backyard. Lastly, again...after much research, I found his fee to be very fair and reasonable. And his turn-around time of 5 days was excellent. All in all this was a VERY positive experience...after my initial fears of the data being gone irretrievably. USE X-FILES!! read more

Although I'm willing to believe that other reviewers were treated well, I was not. Wherever I use quotation marks, it's a direct transcription. (Short version: poorly communicated service and expectations, insulted and swore at customer) My computer mysteriously died, and I needed to know whether my hard drive was functional and/or what I needed to do to access time-sensitive files related to work. Fearing the worst, I called on a Saturday to ask for data recovery assistance, because X Files Recovery was one of the few options with Saturday hours. When I brought him my laptop, Chris did not explain the differences between the available services very well, and when I tried to say I didn't understand, he brushed it aside, assuring me that he'd run a diagnostic and then we'd figure out what I needed from there. That made sense to me, so I didn't question it. He asked if I'd be able to get to the store within an hour if necessary, and I told him I could try, though I was going downtown and would not be nearby. It sounded like an unlikely situation, and I can work with emergencies. Around 4:20 PM, I got a call from Chris, telling me the hard drive was readable and this wasn't a data recovery job after all. I thought he was telling me I didn't need his help after all, so I asked if I should pick up the computer on Monday (because I couldn't get back to Cambridge before 5 PM, when I thought they closed). He replied "What, you don't intend to work with us anymore?" and directly accused me of asking him to diagnose my computer for free without genuinely intending to use his services. I asked what our next steps were if this wasn't a data recovery job, and he started talking about "data transfer," which I didn't know was an option, didn't realize was part of our planned deal (he had never mentioned it before that moment), and didn't understand what it entailed or what he needed from me. I tried asking clarifying questions, which seemed to irritate him, because Chris told me, "I think you are wasting my time," that our business was concluded, and that I should pick up the computer on Monday. When I arrived to pick up my computer today, the first thing he told me was, "In my experience, people who don't fill out their address aren't willing to pay" (referring to a section of the contract I hadn't filled out correctly when I had been in a state of panic and confusion). I felt it was inappropriate to insult a customer who was about to give him money, and told him so (less politely than I wanted to, I admit). He responded by SWEARING AT ME several times and saying "Nevermind, I don't want your money. Get the f*** out!" Needless to say, I will NOT be using their services again. Let the buyer beware. read more

One day all of a sudden, my external hard drive stopped working. I shopped around in Cambridge and took it to several shops e.g. Micro Center and Techfusion. They are all very expensive and some charge a fee for diagnosis. When I got to X Files Recovery, Chris told me there would be no diagnostic fee and they would not charge anything unless they know they can recover the files. It sounded reasonable so I left my hard drive to him. A day later, he informed me that he could do the recovery and quoted me $500 for the job. It was a couple hundreds more than what I expected. But I just want my files back so I managed to a get a little discount from him and agreed on $465. Two weeks later, Chris showed me the files recovered in his shop and copied the data to the new hard drive I brought with me. And two weeks later, I contacted Chris again to make sure he had my data all deleted from his machines. Overall my experience with Chris is very positive. He's very professional and answered my questions promptly. It was an expensive lesson for me but I would recommend X Files Recovery to others. read more