Remove file system from disk. RAW file system. How to recover NTFS without losing files. RAW format: what is it

Recently ran into a situation where my old external USB disk stopped reading in Windows, being detected as RAW... This indicates that Windows cannot determine the structure of the file system on the disk. The reason why a partition is determined by how RAW can be different: the disk may not be partitioned, the partition table header may be erased / damaged / missing, the disk may have bad sectors, or there may be physical problems with the disk itself or its controller.

From the user's point of view, such a RAW disk is displayed in the explorer, but its size is defined as 0 (zero). When trying to open or read data from a RAW partition, various errors of the form appear:

To use a drive in E: drive, first format it. Do you want to format it?

You need to format the disk in Drive E: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?

E: \ cannot be accessed. File system volume is not recognized.

Cannot Access Disk. The volume does not contain a recognized file system.

Note... We deliberately do not consider the option with physical damage disk since by software it is not cured. General recommendation: it is advisable to first check the disk using any S.M.A.R.T.status viewer.

As a rule, the easiest way to restore disk performance is to delete the current RAW partition and re-create it with formatting. But the data will, of course, be lost, which may be categorically unacceptable. Let's try to run a disk check with standard utility CHKDSK check:

The utility returned that CHKDSK could not be performed on RAW discs.

The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

To restore the original file system on a RAW disk without formatting, we will use a free console utility TestDisk.

Download, unpack the archive with the utility and run exe in mode No.Log
Find the disk, the file system of which is defined as RAW and select Proceed
Next, you need to select the type of disk partition table. Typically, it is automatically detected as Intel for MBR partitions either EFI GPT for GPT tables. However, in some cases, you need to select None
To run the analysis of the disk data structure, select Analyze, and on the next screen Quick Search
The TestDisk utility will display a list of the partitions found. Using the key P you can display a list of files on the found partition (Q- exit the viewing mode), If the partition also has a P mark (the partition is highlighted in green) - this partition will be restored. Mark D - deleted. Use the left / right arrows on your keyboard to change the label.
Advice... Enough useful functions mode of viewing files on the file system - the ability to restore individual folders / files to another disk. To do this, in the viewing mode, press the key C.
After all partitions are marked for recovery, click Enter and Write(here, be careful not to overwrite the partition table with garbage). If you want to perform a deeper analysis of the disk, select DeepSearch.
Advice... Be aware that if you restore this way system disk, in addition to the partition with Windows itself, depending on the OS version, there may be other partitions: a partition with a boot loader, a partition with a recovery environment, etc. To understand the structure Windows partitions I recommend to get acquainted with the articles,. In the event that the boot sector of the disk is damaged, the TestDisk utility will offer to try to restore it using the option RebuildBS.
After that (a reboot may be required), the utility will restore the original structure of the partition table and file system (as a rule, it is NTFS or FAT32) on the RAW disk and you can access the files stored on it.

There are situations in which a user can lose access to his hard disk (or its separate partition), while the file system this disk(or its problematic section) will begin to be identified as "Raw". On such a hard disk, there may be data that is necessary for the user to be accessed (often at any cost). In this article, I will try to help a user in such a situation, I will explain how to fix it. RAW format HDD disks , and also tell you about the tools that will help us with this.

To understand what “RAW HDD format” means, you need to refer to the translation of the word “RAW” itself. Translated from English, the word "raw" means "Raw, unprocessed"... Accordingly, this term denotes disks on which either the file system is not installed at all (the disk is not formatted), or their file system is damaged for some reason (the structure of the MFT file table is broken, incorrect data of the MBR partition table, etc.).

Originally, RAW was the default file system for CD-ROMs. Blank disks preparing for recording were detected by the system as using the RAW "file system".

Illustration of RAW format - HDD disk

Nowadays, every hard drive that is not formatted in the NT file system format (such as FAT or NTFS) has the status hard disk"RAW". Check out the most effective ones.

Reasons for the appearance of RAW status on a hard disk

To understand how to fix the RAW format of HDD disks, you need to understand the list of reasons that cause it. I would point out the following determinants:

Power surges;
Problems with the hard drive cable (the cable is damaged, poor contact of the cable with the hard drive, and so on);
PC problems;
Bad sectors on the hard drive (especially noticeable when accessing the hard disk when it responds with a slowdown);
Damage to the structure of the file system or damage to the partition table;
Incorrect reinstallation or;
The activities of various viral programs.

So, we have identified a list of reasons causing the RAW status of a hard drive. Now let's decide how to fix RAW format of HDD disks.

RAW format of HDD disks - how to fix

So how to get rid of RAW format HDDs? I suggest doing the following:

Use the capabilities of the system utility CHKDSK... If the RAW status appears on one of the hard disk partitions, and you have access to command line(or use a live build on CD (DVD) or flash drive), then run the command line as administrator, in which type:

chkdsk X: / f (where X is the letter of the problem drive)

After this check, usually the RAW problem will be resolved and you will receive your working disk back.

If you have boot disk or a USB flash drive, then boot from them, select the "System Restore" menu option, go to "Advanced Options", then "Command Prompt", and there enter the above command. When doing so, make sure you select the correct letter for the desired section. To do this, type in a line one by one the commands:

dispart

list volume- (this allows us to find out the letter of the drive we need)

exit

You can also connect your hard drive to another PC and run the CHKDSK command from it;

Use third party apps

In the matter of eliminating RAW format on HDD disks we can also be helped by various auxiliary programs (for example, MiniTool Power Data Recovery or TestDisk).

The first of the mentioned programs will allow us to recover the necessary data from a RAW disk.
Download MiniTool Power Data Recovery (link just above), click on “Lost Partition Recovery” in the main window.
Select the RAW drive and scan it by clicking on "Full Scan".
Then decide on the partition and files that you want to restore, click on "Save", indicating the path where you want to save the recovered files.

To use the TestDisk utility, download it, run it as administrator.

Select "Create" and press enter, then use the arrows to select the problem disk and press enter again.
Then decide on the type of partition table you need (the utility will do it automatically) and press "Enter".
Search for problematic or lost sections by selecting Analyze and then Quick Search.
After the utility finds the required volumes, select "Write" to save the resulting partition structure.

Video instruction

Above, I presented the answer to the question about the RAW format of HDD disks, indicated the reasons for the appearance of RAW disks and described the tools for solving this problem. In most cases, the appearance of this format of your disk can indicate both hardware and software problems on a PC, which are described by me in the list of causes of this dysfunction (except for a situation when the disk is new and not formatted). To solve the problem, I recommend following the list of tips I suggested above, this will help you effectively fix the problem of RAW format HDD disks on your computer.

In contact with

If the file system of the flash drive has become RAW, then when you connect the removable media to the computer, you will see a message stating that you need to format the disk to use it. Do not rush to press the "Format Disk" button - all data written to the USB flash drive will be deleted. First, try to restore the drive to working order using the built-in utility. If this method does not help, format the drive after saving the necessary files.

Drive test

Before trying to fix the error, you need to make sure that the file system of the flash drive is really corrupted, that is, it is displayed as RAW. V this case RAW is not a photo format, but a raw file system that has replaced NTFS or FAT32 as a result of an error.

To make sure the drive is now RAW, look at how the drive appears in Computer and the Disk Management tool. In the explorer window of the flash drive, the amount of data will not be displayed; in Disk Management, the removable device will be marked as having file format RAW.

Eliminating the crash

Do not format the drive right away to avoid losing important data. First, use a utility that detects and fixes disk errors. It is usually used to troubleshoot file system failures. hard drives, but the recovery of the flash drive with its help is also possible.

The first "f" in the command syntax is the letter of the flash drive, the file format of which needs to be restored without data loss. The second letter is the parameter for correcting errors detected during the scan. If the CHKDSK utility fails, a message will appear in the interpreter window that the tool is not available for RAW disks.

Data recovery

In the event of a file system failure, you can use the DMDE program to extract data from a flash drive, which detects and saves all the information recorded on the media, but the most effective recovery tool is, however, it costs 999 rubles and not everyone can afford it. If you decide to use the first, then the instruction below is for you, if the second, then follow the link to the program, we have prepared a special instruction for you.

A detailed scan will start, as a result of which all files and folders written to the USB flash drive will appear in the program window. The data names will be different, so necessary information have to search using the preview function. To save files elsewhere, mark them and click right click in the DMDE window. Select "Recover files" and specify the folder where you want to move the data from the flash drive.

If DMDE does not help, try other utilities - MiniTool Power Data Recovery,.

File system recovery

When the data extraction is complete, you can think about fixing the error in the file system. The format is restored by formatting, therefore:

If quick format did not solve the problem, and the drive still remains RAW, then perform deep (low-level) formatting of the flash drive. Built-in Windows tools it cannot be carried out, so you will have to use special software - for example, the shareware utility HDD Low Level Format.

Raw filesystem and how to get ntfs back

Today we will look at how the raw format of hdd disks appears, what is the RAW file system, why is it needed and what to do if one of your disks is determined as invalid, not partitioned, not formatted, damaged. We will also consider what to do if it says that "chkdsk is not valid for RAW disks" when trying to fix the situation using the operating system.

The RAW file system is implicit in NT operating systems from Windows Corporation. It was created with a single purpose - to provide applications and operating systems with data on the size of the current volume and the name of the file system (FS) used on it. If you received a RAW partition on a hard or solid state drive(flash drive, SSD), this means that the file system of this volume or drive was not recognized by any file system driver installed in the environment used by Windows. That is, the file allocation structure is clearly different from NTFS and FAT / FAT32. This results in errors such as:

message that the drive / partition is not formatted in a known file system;
there is no possibility to carry out normal access to the device / section;
the disk file system has been damaged.

If one of the above-described notifications appears, further work with the volume is impossible neither in read mode, nor, moreover, in write mode.

Sources of the problem

Most often, such an error appears on a USB flash drive due to improper handling or wear and tear of the device, but for hard drives, especially removable ones, the problem is very relevant. Its sources in most cases are:

malicious applications that interfere with the file table or volume structure;
partial damage to the boot sector or volume file table;
damage to the file table, which contains information about all stored data;
physical damage to the sectors of the volume contributes to the appearance of a type of file system called RAW;
incorrect removal of the flash drive or abnormal operating modes of the device (power surges, power outages or improper shutdown of the PC).

Disk or partition treatment options

Depending on the reasons why the RAW format appeared instead of FAT / NTFS, there are many methods to access the information stored on the device.

Checking a volume for bad sectors and errors

The first step that should be taken if the file system of a disk or flash drive is defined as RAW is to check for damage on the drive or its logical partition. For the case when it is not determined system volume, this recommendation will not work, but in other situations you should start with it.
We call the command line on behalf of account that has system administrator privileges via WinX or the search bar.

In a black window, execute a command of the form: "chkdsk x: / f / r".
In this case:
x: - target volume;
/ f - flag responsible for error correction;
/ r - the argument will allow you to find and fix dead sectors.

We are waiting for the completion of the operation and trying to open the problematic volume.
If the error "chkdsk is invalid for RAW disks" appears as in the screenshot, then the target volume is the system volume, and to check it, do the following.
Launching PCs from Windows installation media of the same edition and bitness.
On the language selection screen, click "Next".

Go to the diagnostics section and open the list of advanced parameters.

We start the command line.

We eject "diskpart".
With the command "listvolume" we find out the letter of the problem volume.
We exit from diskpart by entering "exit" and confirming its execution with the "Enter" button.
We execute a command of the form "chkdsk x: / f / r".

This way, you can regain control of the disk without losing any data.

In this case, the inscription "chkdsk is not valid for RAW disks" should not appear, if this happens again, go to the next subsection of the article.

Checking the integrity of the files of the OS itself

Often, in order to convert RAW to NTFS, you just need to reanimate the system files. This is no more difficult than finding damaged drive partitions.
We call the "Run" window with the Win + R combination.
We execute "cmd" to start the command line.
We execute "sfc / scannow" to run a utility that will find and fix errors in the operating system.

We format the section if there is no important information on it

A RAW disk or flash drive that does not have any files (for example, you just purchased the device), important data is missing or is duplicated, can be easily converted from RAW to NTFS using Windows tools.
We call the "Run" window using the keyboard shortcut Win + R.
We execute the line "diskmgmt.msc" to call the utility for disk management.
Across context menu of the problematic section, we call the "Format" command.

We set the desired label and determine the file system (it is better to choose NTFS), then click "OK".
If the removable hard drive (its partition or flash drive) is not formatted, try disconnecting the removable device, if it is, and then connect and try again. In the case of the HDD, reboot the PC, and be sure to terminate any programs that might be using the problematic volume.
Now you know how to fix RAW format of HDD and flash drives, but the formatted storage medium will not contain the original data. If the option to format the drive or disk does not work, go ahead.

HDD RAW Copy Tool

The HDD RAW Copy Tool is designed for sector-by-sector copying of media and allows you to extract all data from a problem device without losing data.
Download the utility from the official application support resource.
Install and run the HDD RAW Copy Tool and wait until the partitions detected on the PC appear in the main frame.
We select the problematic device, from which we will subsequently recover information (a file system, defined as RAW, appeared on it).

Click "Continue".
We specify the file type as * .img to make an image of the recovered disk.
Here it should be borne in mind that when specifying the image storage path where all files from the RAW disk will be placed, there must be more free space than the volume / drive itself that we will copy.

We return to the HDD RAW Copy Tool interface, where we press “Continue” again.

After that, you can safely open the generated image through a data resuscitation program that supports working with images, for example, R-Studio, and start restoring the necessary data, and format the newly copied media to NTFS.
We will not describe how to recover data from an image in view of the large amount of information that will be enough for another similar article.
On this HDD RAW Copy Tool can be closed.

DMDE

Although the previous method is highly reliable, it is still much safer and more reliable to work with the original source. Let's consider how to reanimate important files if RAW format appeared for one of the HDD disks. We will do without formatting here, so if some disc has become RAW, using the method described below, you can easily access all its files.
Go to dmde.ru and load the DMDE utility, which allows you to read a disk in a RAW format and restore it.
Working with the program consists of the following sequence of steps.
We choose physical disk, where the partition with the raw file system is located, by marking the checkbox “Phys. devices ".

When the desired partition is found, select it and click "Open Volume".
If this does not happen, we scan the media, the file system of one of the partitions of which began to be identified as RAW.

We open the volume and look at its contents to see if the files are on it.

If everything is correct, click "Restore" and confirm the recovery of the boot sector.

If everything goes well, after a short time, DMDE will restore the lost partition without introducing a change and return it to its original file system.

Attention! If the system volume was problematic and the recovery was performed by booting from another disk or after installing the media on another computer, you will additionally have to reanimate the bootloader.

TestDisk

The TestDisk program is the most difficult to use, but it also conducts best recovery volumes with FS RAW. By running installed application, we perform the following actions:

Click "Create", then select the target partition.

Determine the type of partitions, if this did not happen automatically (MBR or progressive GPT).
Click on "Analyze" and press "Enter".
On the next screen, press "Enter" again, selecting "Quick Search".
Find a partition for recovering data from a disk with a RAW file system.
To view the files stored on it, press the Latin "P", exit the preview mode - press the "Q" button. If a partition is marked with P, it can be reanimated; volumes marked with D will not be restored.

Make sure that the table shown on the screen, which it will be after resuscitation, is correct.
Here you should be sure of the correctness of the choice, but also become a coward and do nothing either.
Select "Write" and confirm the action by clicking "Y" in order to perform RAW recovery.

The change will take effect after you restart Windows.

On this topic, "how to change the file system if the disk is in RAW format" can be considered fully illuminated. As you can see, there are absolutely no difficulties in solving the problem.

Many users have encountered a problem when, without any prerequisites, the hard drive ceased to be displayed as local and gave a message stating that it was not formatted and was working as a RAW file system. In panic, people formatted the media, losing important data. If you encounter the same error, you do not need to agree with Windows' suggestion and format the drive. It can be restored.

Why does the RAW file system appear?

In theory, the RAW file system is initially installed on the hard disk and indicates that it is not partitioned, that is, clean. After installing it in the system unit and formatting it, it is suitable for installing an operating system or storing data. However, even formatted discs can be detected as RAW. This may be due to the following factors:

Abrupt power off (power surges, emergency shutdown from the socket).
If while copying data was disabled USB cable or the SATA connector has come off.
If this external drive, then such an error can occur when the device is removed unsafely, that is, without using the system tray options.
TV connection that formats the device to fit its format.
Defeat by viruses.
Physical damage to the hard drive.

In the event that the reason for converting the disk to the RAW file system is a power outage, improper removal of the device, or an emergency shutdown, the data can be successfully restored. Otherwise, it is possible to repair the disc only without saving the information.

Method number 1. Recovering a disk without saving data. Windows boots

Most quick way to return the system to work, this is to agree with the Windows proposal and format the disk.

It is safer to format a disk through the Disk Control Panel. To do this, do the following:

Click "Start", "Control Panel", "System and Security", "Administrative Tools" and select "Create and format hard disk partitions".

A new window will open. Select the drive that displays the RAW file system. Click on it with the right mouse button and select "Format".

Choose a format and click "OK". After formatting, the drive will be ready for use.

Method number 2. If the RAW system did not appear on the C drive

If the D drive begins to appear as a RAW file system and you need to recover lost data, it is worth checking it for errors. To do this, do the following:

We go into disk management and look at the drive letter, which is displayed as RAW.
Open the command line with Administrator rights and enter "chkdsk D: / f", where "D" is a disk with the RAW file system.

Often, after fixing the errors, the drive returns to its old NTFS file system.

Method number 3. Windows won't boot. Local C drive has become RAW

If operating system does not boot, you need to remove the hard disk from system unit or laptop, connect it to a work computer and check for errors via the command line. If this helps, the disk will be rebuilt.

If you have installation disk with the version and bitness of your OS, it is worth running System Restore.

We enter the command "chkdsk D: / f", where we indicate the drive letter.

You can view the drive letter through notepad. In the command line, enter "notepad". Next, "File", "Open". Explorer will appear, in which you can see the drive letter.

After checking and correcting errors, old format disk can be recovered.

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