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Summary
When a hard drive partition displays itself as RAW in Disk Management, it cannot open until you format the disk. To fix a RAW drive without losing data, you need EaseUS RAW drive recovery software for help. Follow this page's full instruction, and try to recover data from a RAW drive, RAW partition, and RAW file system in HDD, USB flash drive, pen drive and SD card.
What's RAW Drive Recovery?
For a non-system disk, when you try to open it in Windows Explorer, it prompts you a window asking you to format the disk before you can use it. It's very likely that the disk has file system errors at the moment.
The "Format disk" usually fixes the hard drive problem, but it erases data on it. While clicking "Cancel" does not work, you'll be guided to the other error message: The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
This is quite a common hard drive issue in Windows 10/8.1/8/7. When you cannot open a local drive or a removable disk, like a USB flash drive or SD card in this way, do not worry. It's usually because the hard disk file system becomes RAW. Go to Windows Disk Management(This PC/My Computer - Manage - Disk Management), and you will see the RAW drive like this.
Besides, there are many other situations which suggest your hard drive become RAW. For example:
(1) Run the chkdsk command, and it says "the type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drive."
(2) For the disk that contains the operating system, the computer cannot boot, and it says "Operating system not found".
In conclusion, many reasons would turn a new or used hard drive into RAW, and we give you some examples here.
- System failure
- Power issues
- Disconnection without safe ejection
- Power off a computer in the wrong way
- HDD/USB/Memory card malfunction, bad sectors, or corruption
If it's a new hard drive you don't use at all, directly format the disk and convert RAW to NTFS or other file systems as instructed. This will bring it back to normal. However, if it's a hard drive that carries plenty of data, you need to use professional RAW drive recovery software to recover data from a RAW hard drive/partition. Next is a step by step guide to fix a RAW HDD/USB flash drive/pen drive/SD card without losing any data. Hope all of you can happily solve the RAW drive problem in the end.
How to Recover Data from RAW Hard Drive/Partition
It's a pity to see a RAW drive, and you have to format it to make it usable again. Formatting a hard disk helps allocate a recognizable file system like NTFS, FAT, FAT32 to it, but disk formatting will completely erase data, and it's impossible to locate the lost data in recycle bin. Thus, we recommend you try to export data from the raw drive before formatting. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is such capable hard disk data recovery software, and it's super easy and quick to scan and recover data.
One good reason you must choose EaseUS RAW drive recovery software is that even you formatted the disk at first, you can still recover files from formatted hard drive without a hitch. It works as an all-round expert in retrieving data after deletion, partition loss, disk formatting or virus/trojan attack.
EaseUS RAW Drive Recovery Guide
Step 1. Locate the RAW hard drive
- Download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your Windows PC or laptop.
- Launch the software. Make sure that Windows has detected your RAW hard drive and correctly listed the drive letter on the disk map.
- Left-click on the RAW drive and then click the "Scan" button.
Step 2. Scan the data on the RAW hard drive
At this stage, the software would work very hard to search all data through the entire drive, and timely display the data as the scanning task goes on.
Tip: users are allowed to pause the scan process for an instant recovery as soon as the target files show up, but it's better to stay and wait for a complete scan till the end.
Step 3. Check files under the "Extra Files" result
- Besides the general scan results of all lost data on the selected drive, the "Extra Files" is specially designed for RAW hard drive/USB flash drive/micro SD card data recovery, under which you're likely to recover what you want with a high success rate.
- Of course, check all the scan results if necessary. Choose the target files and click the "Recover" button. You should save the items to a new location.
Do You Need Specialized Data Recovery Services?
You may need further help for tough data loss situations like reformatting drive, RAW disk, partition loss, repartition failures and system boot error. Consult with EaseUS Data Recovery Experts for cost-efficient one-on-one manual recovery service. They could offer the following services after FREE diagnosis:
- 1. Unformat the drive
- 2. Repair the RAID, RAW disk or operating system
- 3. Recover lost partition (the one that cannot be recovered by software)
100% of people found this article helpful.
Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. Why cannot I recover 2GB data for free?
-
It is recommended to check the version installed is Free or Trial because they are different versions.
Trial has data preview function but cannot save any files, while the Free version enables to recover 2 GB files. The default free space is 500 MB and you may share the product on social media to get another 1.5 GB.
- 2. Why cannot the recovered files be opened?
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A file is saved as 2 parts on the storage device: directory info (which is comprised by file name, time stamp and size info, etc.) and data content.
If the files with original file names and folder structures cannot be opened, one possible reason is the corrupted directory info. There is still a chance to recover the data content with the RAW Recovery method in our software.
- 3. Why isn't it suggested to recover the files back to the original drive?
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The storage structure of the lost files would be altered or damaged by any changes on the drive. If you save the recovered files back to the same drive, the original data structures and data content would be corrupted or overwritten, which causes permanent data loss. So you should prepare another disk to save the files.
- 4. How can I check whether my data is recoverable or not before purchase?
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The Free version helps you save 2GB files to better verify the recovery quality of our product before purchase.
- 5. How long does it take to scan the drive?
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It strongly depends on the capacity of your hard drive and the performance of your computer. As reference,most drive recoveries can be completed in around 10 to 12 hours for a 1-TB healthy hard drive in general conditions.
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