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A situation in which a hard drive requires recovery can happen to every PC user. It may be needed for various reasons. One of them is file system corruption.
Most often, the disk file system changes to RAW after the computer was turned off incorrectly, when the lights were turned off, or the user saved time and pulled out the power cord of the system unit from the outlet. Another reason is viruses that change NTFS to RAW format of HDD drives. How to fix this problem, read this article.
Then how can you fix a raw disk without formatting or losing data? Once the quick scan is completed, a deep scan will automatically run to find more . Step Select the file you want to recover by file type from the scan results. It is better to choose another location instead of the original hard drive to avoid overwriting data.
This page will show you how to recover data from the original file system. Tools that may help you are not provided as standard on any operating system. So, you will need to use data recovery software that understands the internal systems used to store files on the drive and uses that knowledge to find the raw disk space that was occupied by the lost files.
If the disk has been received, Windows will display it among other partitions on the hard drive. But when you try to open it, the computer will give you an error and ask you to format it. In addition, any actions with this volume will be unavailable: error checking, defragmentation, etc. (it is useful to read “”).
The software will soon begin a quick scan to find all the files on the drive. And then a deep scan will automatically begin to find more data. Select a possible drive containing your files and let it create file structures for recovery.
The file system shows that the source and disk space become 0 bytes. The disk is not formatted, you want to format it now. . Sometimes you won't be able to format a drive even though it asked you to do so. If you have installed, you will be able to complete this file recovery task with the risk of data loss removed. This is a complex procedure and quite often ends in lost files. By installing the software in front of your partition project, you allow yourself to retrieve any lost files and protect your operation form ending with lost files or folders.
There is no RAW file system as such. If the disk receives this formatting, it means that the computer drivers are not able to determine the type of its file system - NTFS, FAT or FAT32. In practice, this happens in several cases:
If the OS volume is damaged, the “Reboot and select proper boot device” or “Operating System not found” warnings will appear when the computer boots.
Does it sound difficult? Technicians can help if you can't find a solution, and there are many FAQs and user tutorials to help you along the way. The beauty is this: you don't need to have much experience, and it's okay if you make a mistake. You will be able to restore the formats of hard drives - both internal and external - and other equipment that you may be using.
You can get a live view of the software, navigate through menu options, and search for problems and solutions specific to your network. You will feel like a safe purchase of the software as you will feel secure about your files and folders. You should pay attention to the following points.
If the problem occurs on a non-system drive, but it contains important information that will be lost when formatted, use standard Windows tools or third-party programs to fix the error.
Basically, the standard chkdsk utility helps fix problems with formatting in RAW.
You need to format the drive on the drive before you can use it. This volume does not contain a recognized file system. Formatting the disk will reinitialize the file system. It creates a new, ready-to-use, empty volume. It does not restore the old file system or its data.
The exact cause determines whether the corruption can be repaired or repaired, or that you need to recover the data using data recovery software. This is the safest option. Because repairs can not only fail, they can be wrong!
After checking, the computer will repair damaged sectors and the NTFS file system on the problematic volume.
Important! This method is effective if the flash drive or hard drive has been formatted in NTFS.
The chkdsk utility will also help when the system disk is damaged. But for this you will need a boot disk or flash drive.
In the recovery environment, the partition letters are different from the names of the logical drives. To avoid mistakes, open the list of computer partitions in the command line.
Since file recovery software will restore a virtual file system in memory from which you can recover data, you will need an additional drive to copy the data. Sometimes fixing the " " is all that is required to restore access to the volume, however in other cases this is not the case.
It can detect invalid values, and it can check whether the boot sector points to the correct file system structures. Some values are more critical than others. For example, an incorrect jump code may prevent the partition from loading, but you can probably access the partition by driving the disk.
Enter diskpart → list volume → the list will indicate which disk is the system one.
There are third-party programs that help restore the NTFS file system if for some reason it was reformatted to RAW. They do not damage the user’s information stored on the volume, unlike the chkdsk utility, which can “affect” them during the recovery process.
After all, no boot code is required to access the volume. It keeps a copy of the boot sector in its current state so that repairs can be undone. He will either find it or he won't. In fact, you are not alone in this matter. Now, let's talk about these issues in detail.
If you know others, we really appreciate you sharing them with us. And you can refer to the "Copy Section" column to get the . Convert lost chains to files? Once the disk check is complete, you can check these files to see if they contain data. Then you will see a folder like this.
Important! This method is most effective if the RAW file system appears on a flash drive.
This is a multifunctional free utility that works with hard drive partitions using a large number of options. The program is presented in a portable version, so it does not require installation. Main disadvantage
These files are definitely not accessible because their extensions have been changed. But in reality, few people can remember the extensions of each file, especially when there are many lost files, so this method is unattainable. Just search for such tools online and some of them are even free.
In this situation, using data recovery software may be a good choice. Do not install the program on a disk where data loss occurs, otherwise the lost data may be overwritten, causing the lost data to be lost forever. Some of you may be asking why choose "Full Scan" rather than "Open". This is because the first one will perform a deep scan of your device, which gives a better chance of data recovery.
Most often, the disk file system changes to RAW after the computer was turned off incorrectly, when the lights were turned off, or the user saved time and pulled out the power cord of the system unit from the outlet. Another reason is viruses that change the NTFS to RAW format of HDD drives. How to fix this problem, read this article.
If the disk is in RAW format, Windows will display it among other hard drive partitions. But when you try to open it, the computer will give you an error and ask you to format it. In addition, any actions with this volume will be unavailable: error checking, defragmentation, etc. (it is useful to read “”).
There is no RAW file system as such. If the disk receives this formatting, it means that the computer drivers are not able to determine the type of its file system - NTFS, FAT or FAT32. In practice, this happens in several cases:
If the OS volume is damaged, the “Reboot and select proper boot device” or “Operating System not found” warnings will appear when the computer boots.
If the problem occurs on a non-system drive, but it contains important information that will be lost when formatted, use standard Windows tools or third-party programs to fix the error.
Basically, the standard chkdsk utility helps fix problems with formatting in RAW.
After checking, the computer will repair damaged sectors and the NTFS file system on the problematic volume.
Important! This method is effective if the flash drive or hard drive has been formatted in NTFS.
The chkdsk utility will also help when the system disk is damaged. But for this you will need a boot disk or flash drive.
In the recovery environment, the partition letters are different from the names of the logical drives. To avoid mistakes, open the list of computer partitions in the command line.
Enter diskpart → list volume → the list will indicate which disk is the system one.
There are third-party programs that help restore the NTFS file system if for some reason it was reformatted to RAW. They do not damage the user’s information stored on the volume, unlike the chkdsk utility, which can “affect” them during the recovery process.
Important! This method is most effective if the RAW file system appears on a flash drive.
This is a multifunctional free utility that works with hard drive partitions using a large number of options. The program is presented in a portable version, so it does not require installation. The main disadvantage of TestDisk is that it does not have a Russified interface.
What is raw markup on hdd, memory card and usb flash drive. How to fix the error “chkdsk is not valid for raw disks” and return ntfs.
A fairly common problem: the contents of the memory card or hard drive are inaccessible, Windows OS (7 - 10) displays the message "chkdsk is not valid for the disk." The file system format is RAW.
What is raw, is it scary and how to fix the error (returning the NTFS file system) - read here.
When you connect the device to the USB connector, you see in the properties of the file volume information that the flash card has a raw file system type and is not formatted in the standard NTFS or FAT file system.
Windows OS assigns a RAW label to a volume with an undefined file system. This occurs if none of the system drivers could recognize the file system. In the case of Windows OS, we are talking about FAT(32) and NTFS.
Thus, RAW is not a file system, but a sure sign.
Most often, RAW markup appears if:
A raw disk has some symptoms that definitely indicate problems with the disk. Among these symptoms:
File system information is stored in two places:
If one of these sectors is damaged or not found, chkdsk reports that the utility is not valid for raw disks.
If your device has raw markup, you cannot view its contents or perform file operations. Also, the disk cannot be checked for errors or defragmented.
As a result, files stored on the disk become inaccessible, although they are physically still there and can be restored by any recovery program.
Important! If your disk or partition is a raw file system type, the Windows operating system will prompt you to format it, warning you "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it?" (Disk not formatted do you want to format it now?).
Don't settle for this: if you format the HDD, you will lose all the data on the raw disk!
You can access files by correcting the MBR partition Table or converting raw to ntfs format. This can be done virtually without loss of data or formatting.
Since the raw disk still contains data, let's try to return it (if not completely, then at least the most valuable files).
We will need the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard program. How to use it when recovering data from raw – read below.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is quite a suitable program:
Data Recovery Wizard is a paid program when it comes to full-featured use.
Advice. Alternatively, you can try free apps like Recuva or the ones we suggest in [this review].
1. First, download the program from the developer’s website:
The program is compatible with Windows 7/8/10, although it can be installed on earlier versions of the OS.
2. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and in the window that appears, select the file types to recover (or activate the “All file types” option). Confirm the operation by pressing .
3. If a disk partition is deleted or detected in Explorer as RAW, use the Lost Disk Drives option.
Select the problematic disk with deleted data (Section “Lost disks”) and click the Scan button.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will search for files available for recovery on the specified disk or SD card.
4. Once the scan is complete, a list of found files will be displayed. Check the required ones and click the Recover button to restore.
Important! Always save files to another drive to avoid overwriting.
After recovering files, the raw disk needs to be formatted in order to be used further for storing files. Read how to do this correctly.
By the way. Windows OS allows you to format a disk to NTFS using the built-in Diskpart formatting utility via the command line.
Thus, if you recover data from a raw disk in advance, you can safely return the NTFS partition and format it. If you first format the disk and then try to recover the data, the likelihood of recovery will be significantly reduced.
If you are unlucky and accidentally formatted a raw partition, losing data on it, use the Auslogics File Recovery program (it is useful to read the article at the link).
In addition to the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, you may find other tools useful for recovering raw partitions.
The free console utility TestDisk allows you to find lost file volumes. This way you can return files from the raw partition.
You can return ntfs using TestDisk as follows:
Power Data Recovery has tools for searching for deleted/lost partitions: Lost Partition Recovery. With this feature you can quickly recover a raw partition.
Unlike the TestDisk console utility, Power Data Recovery has a very clear interface. Thanks to this, you can recover files and then format the problem area of the disk in FAT or NTFS.
The Hdd Raw Copy program (developed by Toshiba) is designed for low-level and sector-by-sector creation of a disk image. It will be useful when creating a complete copy of a hard drive or SSD. Having created a duplicate disk, you can safely experiment with the RAW partition: restore files on it, format and convert to other file systems.
In addition, the HDD Raw Copy utility will be useful for backing up, creating duplicates, restoring information and migrating data.
The next time you turned on the external HDD on USB, the OS “advised” to format the disk. I checked the controller itself, installing another HDD in it - it works. The problem is in the HDD itself. Please advise what to do.
Answer. If the OS advises you to format your hard drive, there may be a partition table violation. Try restoring the raw disk system using the TestDisk console utility.
If the file system of the flash drive has become RAW, then when you connect the removable drive to the computer you will see a message stating that to use the disk you need to format it. Do not rush to click the “Format disk” button - all data recorded on the flash drive will be deleted. First, try restoring the drive using the built-in utility. If this method does not help, format the drive after saving the necessary files.
Before trying to fix the error, you need to make sure that the file system of the flash drive is really damaged, that is, displayed as RAW. In this case, RAW is not a photo format, but a “raw” file system that replaced NTFS or FAT32 as a result of an error.
To verify that the drive is now RAW, look at how the drive appears in Computer and Disk Management. In the Explorer window, the flash drive will not display the amount of data; in Disk Management, the removable device will be marked as having a RAW file format.
Do not format the drive right away, so as not to be left without important data. First, use a utility that detects and fixes disk errors. It is usually used to eliminate failures in the file system of hard drives, but restoring a flash drive with its help is also possible.
The first “f” in the command syntax is the letter of the flash drive whose file format needs to be restored without data loss. The second letter is the parameter for correcting errors detected during scanning. If the CHKDSK utility fails, a message will appear in the interpreter window that the tool is not available for RAW disks.
If the file system fails, to extract data from a flash drive, you can use the DMDE program, which detects and saves all information recorded on the media, however, the most effective recovery tool is, but it costs 999 rubles and not everyone can afford it. If you decide to use the first, then the instructions are below for you, but if the second, then follow the link to the program, we have prepared special instructions for you.
A detailed scan will start, as a result of which all files and folders recorded on the flash drive will appear in the program window. The names of the data will be different, so you will have to look for the information you need using the preview function. To save files in a different location, check them and right-click them in the DMDE window. Select “Recover files” and specify the folder to which you want to move the data from the flash drive. 
If the DMDE program did not help, try other utilities -, MiniTool Power Data Recovery,.
Once data extraction is complete, you can think about fixing the error in the file system. Restoring the format is done by formatting, therefore:
If quick formatting does not solve the problem, and the drive still remains RAW, then perform deep (low-level) formatting of the flash drive. It cannot be done using built-in Windows tools, so you will have to use special software - for example, the shareware HDD Low Level Format utility.
What is RAW actually? In fact, there is no such RAW FS (file system) at all.
In practice, the file system of a partition such as RAW means that none of the FS (file system) drivers installed in the OS determined the name of the disk system or any partition.
If the disk FS is recognized as " RAW", then assigning a volume label, reading data and other actions with a partition or disk become impossible. At the same time, the OS displays the capacity of the partition, and when accessing it, it advises you to format the partition.
For hard drive:
- The drive or connection cable is damaged. It happens that the hard drive is detected as RAW if the connection cord does not fit well into the connector or it is damaged.
- The so-called “Broken Sectors”. A large number of such “white” sectors on the hard drive leads to damage to files and the file system as a whole.
- The file system structure is damaged. The file system can be damaged not only due to bad sectors, but also for other reasons.
- Partition tables are corrupted. If for some reason the partition tables are damaged, the entire disk will be detected as RAW.
- Restoration or complete reinstallation of the OS (operating system).
- Action of viruses. Viruses, malware, etc. can delete some important parameters or change them, thereby damaging the hard drive information.
For hard drive partitions:
- Malware and Viruses. Programs that contain viruses, ways to damage parts of the table or hard drive partitions, which leads to damage to information.
- System reinstallation (Windows).
- Many hard drives and partitions. A large number of partitions and disks on a PC can also lead to RAW partitions.
You must understand that data recovery and storage is not available. If an error occurs from Windows, click on the button " Format disk».
If the data on the RAW disk is valuable, Windows boots
If the data of a partition or disk is important, but it is defined as RAW, do not rush to format the partition or disk as a whole. Try checking the disk for errors and fixing them later. This can completely or temporarily restore the functionality of a partition or disk.
- Go to Disk Management as described above.
- Remember the name (letter) of the disk with the RAW file system.
If none of the methods help, then you can try using data recovery programs.
To do this, you can try using the programs: “RAW Recovery” or “Partition Recovery”.
Consider the process of recovering data from a RAW disk using the second program, Partition Recovery.
After launching the program, you will be provided with a list of existing partitions and disks of this PC. You need to click on the RAW section twice. In the picture there is a RAV section under the letter E.
