Computer Repair and Data Recovery

I found John through a referral and also on Unilocal.
I called him, he was with a client, asked me to call back, I did.
I dropped off my PC, and he worked on it all night
(weird viruses) and I had it back the next day.
He was kind and patient and extremely knowledgable. Didn’t overcharge me, was honest and cleaned up my PC!

John is the real deal. He knows how these things tick and gets in under the hood and fixes. Then he optimizes. Then he tells you why it behaved poorly, how to keep it working better, what to watch out for, when it’s time to upgrade. In the time I was there, he had 3 other clients and he solved for all of them. There was a mangled PC; John salvaged the hard drive, recommended some replacement PCs, the guy went out and bought it, then John set the whole thing up for him and managed the data transfer, new apps, etc. This is not a Geek Squad pimply-​faced kid who keeps checking his Snapchat. John is a seasoned computer pro with tremendous experience and the «bedside manner» of a great doctor.

I am one of the owners of a local wine bar. This past Saturday, our computer crashed, leaving me dead in the water, so to speak, and unable to conduct any transactions. In a blind panic, I contacted John, based on his rating AND that the fact that he is local. I explained my situation and he came out in 15 minutes — ON A SATURDAY. He quickly diagnosed the problem, made a run to local electronics company to get a part, installed the part — and cleaned out the inside of the tower, which was filthy from years of neglect — and got my server back up and running. We quickly discovered that there was also an issue with our POS (Point-​of-​Sale) program, so I had to get the phone with this company. John’s work was done, but he stayed and helped us explain the issue to the tech on the phone.
John left, but called back later to check on us. We were still trying to solve the problem so John CAME BACK to try and help us again! He stayed for about an hour and a half. He did all he could, but the issue was clearly not an easy fix and had to be resolved by the POS company. I tried to pay John for his time, but he refused to accept it. The issue went unresolved overnight. John called me the next morning to check in again! He even stopped by to offer further assistance! Unbelievable.
John is not your average IT repair flunky or young hipster. He has 30 years experience as a computer and IT executive. He’s written software and managed teams for some BIG companies over the years. He now has another full-​time business, but does this «on the side» out of compassion and a sincere desire to help people that are less knowledgable than he and vulnerable to incompetence and overcharging. He is friendly, patient, extremely knowledgable, very professional — and VERY fairly priced. He could easily charge more. He gave me some suggestions on how to improve our network and its functionality (which I plan to implement) and even called one of his friends, a «network guy» to see if he’d come by and help us «clean things up.» So we’ll be doing that very soon too.
What began with a simple call for a quick technical fix ended up as a full-​service network assessment — one that will, without question, save us from much inevitable headache and hardship that was waiting for us down the road.
I cannot recommend John highly enough. He is now our «Go To» guy for any future IT issues. Thanks John!

John is amazing. I was traveling for work, staying locally with family. While on my trip, my laptop hard drive crashed, leaving me without a computer for work during crucial meetings. The blue screen is not your friend.
I called John, and he was able to fit me into a very busy schedule at the end of a week with literally zero notice. He had a spare drive thankfully, which he installed and configured, and even though he thought the data recovery component was not going to happen after seeing how badly messed up my drive was –ended up spending extra time and was able to recover ALL my data from my old drive! All of this for a very affordable price and with what amounted to a 48 hour turnaround time.
He has years of experience with computers, having built large scale computer systems over many years, and is extremely knowledgeable. He’s very matter of fact, tell me the problem, let me diagnose and fix it kind of attitude. Which is exactly what I needed, so I am very happy. He also is extremely busy wearing different hats, so I was totally fine with fitting into his schedule as he had time because hey I was springing my problem onto him with no notice, I was just thankful he had any time to give me. I’m sitting here typing this review on the rebuilt computer, and so grateful his business exists.
He also offers a ‘new computer’ service where he’ll uninstall OEM software and put on quality AV and malware products, also recommended if you want him to get you setup from scratch on a new computer.

If there were more stars, I would give them! My external hard drive crashed, along with my whole life for the past 12 years! I called John and he had me come over the same day. Took my old drive and did his magic and recovered all my files onto a new drive that I bought, with his recommendation. I know nothing about computers and drives, and welcomed his suggestion on what to buy.
He was professional and courteous, has a great sense of humor, which came in handy while I sat there in a panic fearful that all my files were gone forever. The cost was very reasonable and I would not hesitate to call him again, should I need help in the future.

This guy is so RUDE. I called this guy looking for some info and he was literally talking to me as if I were a child or something. I cant imagine this man getting any business from anyone. Here’s a tip, pal. Show some respect for the customer. I wouldn’t take my PC anywhere near this jerkoff because if he spoke to me the way he did in person, as he did on the phone, he’d be icing his face with a raw steak for the next 2 days.

I’m a customer service expert by training. I wish every customer experience could be like the one I had with John. He diagnosed my computer’s death at no charge and took 10 minutes just to confirm my data was recoverable so that I didn’t have to worry. He even referred me to parties that could support with my unique hardware needs. I’m very grateful and would like to you to support this kind of human being, his generosity and astounding expertise.

Called to get help as my computer crashed. He told me he was with a guest and asked me where i was located. I told him and his response was im in los gatos… hmmm ok. Then he asked me what happened, i explained and he got iritated and said he was woth someone. I asked why he asked me what the issue was then…
He got more irritated. Not the type of service i am looking for.

John is the man… my hard drive crashed and I lost everything. Luckily I had backed everything up. John picked up a new HD for me at a better price than I could find, installed it and charged me half what everyone else at BB, F@@s, etc… quoted me. In addition he installed several great anti virus/​malware etc software programs. He takes my calls and always makes time to answer my dumb dumb questions.

John was great. He helped me fix a screen problem, all the while fighting a cold. We got it fixed. John will now be our go-​to guy for future PC problems.

Just a note of thanks to John who quickly helped me diagnose the major issue i had with a crashed Seagate 3TB external HDD (never buying Seagates again based on their double digit failure rates… Look it up.)
John spent time to determine the probable cause that required a «level 2» clean room fix and provided 2 good recommendations (go see my Kotar review)… The end of my story is that i recovered over 600GB worth of priceless family photos and video taken since 2001… John was like that perfect doctor who calmly talked you through the situation… His costs can’t be beat but more importantly, his technical knowledge (that spans decades) is exactly what you’d expect. Don’t be fooled by his «storefront»… He’s worth the visit… Thanks John.

John did a fantastic job for me– I called him on Sunday morning and needed him to recover data from my HD.
He was able to do this and I got my data back the day after. He was very responsive — which is very important.
He is a real professional! Highly recommended.

After trying to work with Clickaway, I looked at this Unilocal site for computer repairs and found John’s information. He was willing to meet with me within the hour of my call, he fixed the slow computer same day and charged me considerably less than what the big place did, but with more explaination of what was wrong and with considerably more IT knowledge. John seems highly educated in this area, very reasonable in his rates, and timely in his efforts to get your computer operational.
Highly recommend!

I found John after our Windows computer was taken over by CryptoLocker ransomware. I knew that dealing with it was beyond my tech ability but didn’t want to take the 8-​year-​old PC to a big box or franchise type of support. So I turned to Unilocal and found John in Los Gatos. That turned out to be my lucky day.
John took my call instantly and told me to bring the computer to his apartment that evening. He is in the real estate business during the daytime but spends nights and weekends helping people with computer problems.
John was able to stop the virus from wiping out everything and could have restored the system. But he instead suggested we would be happier with a new computer. He sent us to a specific guy at Fry’s, who was able to help us choose a new computer. We didn’t even open the box — dropped it off with John, who set it up for us (including better, free anti-​virus software) and downloaded our data from the cloud.
I recommend John highly. He is knowledgable, straight forward, and the best bargain in tech support you will ever find. Definitely a gift from heaven via Unilocal

John is a computer wizard! My computer had a nasty virus and locked me out and I didn’t have a backup program — thought I’d lost all my photos. I dropped off my computer on a Sunday and John was able to fix it all by Tuesday morning. He backed up all my files to an external drive and installed new anti virus software. Computer works great!

John is God. He took my call at 11PM on saturday night ! He actually picked up the phone. Who does that?
Let me recap. I got the screen of death and 8 beeps on my laptop on a saturday night and I hadn’t backed up my work since a month. I totally freaked out and started looking on Unilocal for solutions. Most computer repair shops are closed on Sunday and I was completely audacious and I called him at 11. He was most personable EVEN at that unearthly hour, actually tried to troubleshoot via phone and when we couldn’t figure it out, he told me he will look into it on Sunday morning.
I woke up with his welcome call and drove down to Los Gatos. It’s not a short drive, but what the hell, I would go to the end of the earth to recover my data and especially if someone is willing to work with me on a Sunday.
He greeted me, and we got down to business asap. He took my machine apart in seconds and walked me through all the steps. I watched the painful post mortem and swore to myself to keep backing up. He found the issue, straightened it out and voila! my computer came on. He is a miracle man! It took 1 hour of his precious sunday morning, he got late for his breakfast appointment and he installed a couple of programs to keep my laptop clean and healthy for free.
He charged me most reasonably for his work. He knew I would hand over my first born gladly to have my computer fixed ;)
He makes me believe there is hope in humankind. I am still in shock about my little discovery. I am going to tell ALL my friends and everyone who owns a computer about him so he can retire on the income he makes from my recommendations!
Salute to the kindest and sharpest computer technician in the bay area! Thank You!!!

I meet John today, after my computer just start to smoke ! Yeah literally smoke coming out of the sides!
He’s a genius, he find out what was the problem in minutes, fixed and updated all my protection !
I’m a happy camper tonight with my computer running without no problems or smoke!

Last Saturday my desktop became infected by a horrible virus which took over my computer. I immediately panicked and went onto Unilocal!to find help. I came across John’s page and gave him a call. He actually was in my neighborhood and met me a minute from my house and took my PC to his home for diagnostics etc. I basically implied that this was my baby and was fearfull of loosing my my media on it. He assured me not to worry and that he would give me a call the next day. So I went to his house, which is where his business is based out of and he gave me tips and loaded extra spyware and malware software on my PC for FREE! And most importantly got rid of multiple viruses I had on my PC. Long story short. I definitely recommend John for ALL of your computer needs!

Knowledgeable, personable, capable and excellent customer care, John is a true professional. He is not after the $ like other shops. He wants to help each of his customers.
I had a crashed hard drive and being in a tech company made me pretty handy about this kind of things as well. I knew there was a good chance I could fix it by doing a PCB transplant. I ordered a donor board but needed someone with soldering skill to move the ERPROM from the old PCB to the new one. I called John and he invited me over to his house that night. He spent a few hours that night helping me inspecting the drive and trying different methods of recovery. At the end, he told me that he would rather not earn the money because his soldering tool was not precise enough. He didn’t want me to risk losing any data. Instead he recommended me to go to someone with better soldering tools. I had a lot of respect for that. I wanted to pay John for his time and he wouldn’t charge me a penny. He said «but I just made a friend».
During the night, I had the opportunities to witness in person how John treated his customers calling in and how diligently he worked for them. All I can say is if I have any computer issue again I would go to him without hesitation.

I saw all the 5 star reviews on here so I called John about my laptop being unable to boot despite trying to do startup repair and booting up in safe mode. Normally this is an issue that I would be able to resolve but this time around I had no answer for the problem and I’m glad I went to John.
Basically he runs a small computer repair business at his home. Make sure to call him before you get to the address… I made the mistake of going to the location first assuming that there was going to be a storefront. He has many years of experience working with computers so I was confident that he would be able to solve my problem which he did. His rates are very reasonable since he doesn’t need to pay a fee to keep up a storefront.
Anyway I highly recommend John and it was a positive experience.