How to Convert/Change RAW File System to NTFS without Data Loss

How to fix RAW drive without formatting or losing data?

The RAW drive is a hard drive partition which has not been formatted with the file system, neither FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 nor NTFS/NTFS5. The RAW drive can be caused by a number of reasons such as virus infection, format failure, accidentally shut down the operating system, power outages, etc. When you access the RAW drive, you will get an error message like "The disk in drive is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?". In this situation, if we click "No", the drive cannot be accessed. On the contrary, if we click "Yes", we will lose all of the files stored on this drive.

Then how can you fix raw drive without formatting or losing data? The recommended solution is:

• First, do not follow as Windows asked. DO NOT FORMAT THE RAW DRIVE.
• Second, download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to get all crucial data out of the RAW drive.
• Last, after you make sure that all the useful data have been stored in a safe place. Then you can format the raw drive to FAT/NTFS.

Video Tutorial: Recover Data from Raw Drive before Converting Raw File System to NTFS

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful data recovery software that can first help get all data out from the RAW drive. Then you can format the RAW drive to NTFS, FAT or other file systems with no hesitation. Besides, EaseUS Data Recovery software can recover deleted files, recover files from the raw drive, recover files from formatted drive, recover files from lost or deleted drive, etc.

How to recover data from Raw drive with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard works well to recover files from the raw drive. The following is a step-by-step guide for you to convert/change RAW to NTFS without data loss.

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.

1. Step 4. Convert/Format RAW drive to NTFS file system:
2. Open This PC/My Computer > Right-click RAW drive > Select Format > Set file system as NTFS/FAT etc and click Start > OK.
3. After recovering files from RAW drive successfully, you can format the raw drive to NTFS file system and then access the raw drive as normal. Now you have converted/changed RAW file system to NTFS without losing any data.