Position: How Tos - Disk Utilities - How To Fix RAW Partition Without Losing Data in Windows 11/10/8/7?
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What is RAW partition? RAW is a kind of file system error, and it cannot be recognized by system, and thus a RAW partition is no longer accessible. It is common that a partition of any storage device, such as HDD, USB flash drive or memory card may become RAW after improper ejection, file system corruption, virus attack, bad sector, etc. Once a partition turns RAW, it cannot be opened as usual, which means you are losing files.
Is it possible to get RAW partition fixed without losing data? Yes. The easiest method is recovering data from RAW drive first and then convert RAW to NTFS or other file system. Since RAW drive is the result of a corrupted partition, thus there are solutions to repair it without any data loss. The rest content mainly includes two parts: explain how to recover RAW partition and provide 4 methods to repair RAW partition. You can follow these guides to get the issue fixed safely and quickly.
Before the recovery
RAW partition recovery software free download
DiskGenius is powerful data recovery software for file recovery and partition recovery in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Servers. It provides efficient functions to deal with RAW drive data recovery, which enables you to easily and quickly recover lost photos, documents, videos, music and other files from RAW partitions on hard drive, external HDD, USB flash drive, SD card, virtual disk, etc. Main features of DiskGenius:
The step-by-step guide of recovering files from RAW drive
Step 1. Free download, install and launch DiskGenius on your computer.
If the RAW partition is on an external disk, please connect the disk to this computer and make sure it can be detected by DiskGenius.
Step 2. Right-click the RAW drive and click Load Current Partition Intelligently, as follows:
The function Load Current Partition Intelligently works on corrupted NTFS partition and it is able to list all files and folders quickly without any scanning. If this function does not work on your drive, that means the partition has been damaged to a bad extent or it was not in NTFS file system. In that case, move to Step 3.
Step 3. Scan the RAW partition using File Recovery function.
Select the RAW partition again and click File Recovery button on the toolbar, which opens following window.
Click Start button to enter scanning process.
If you check the option "Search For Known Types", DiskGenius will scan the entire drive by analyzing file signatures of known file types, i.e. identifiable data patterns that are present in all files belonging to a certain type. Hence, it is can be regarded as the deep scanning method, for it can find out as many recoverable files as possible when the RAW partition was destroyed severely. What's more, you can click Select File Types button to specify file types for deep scanning process.
Now DiskGenius is scanning the selected partition.
Step 4. Preview files and check recovery quality.
You can preview all files listed in scanning result: select a file and you can see a thumbnail preview on the lower part and double-click a file to view original file content from a pop-up window. File preview is the only way to accurately check recovery quality before final recovery.
Step 5. Copy your data.
Choose files and folders you expect to recover and copy them to a different partition.
The following part includes 4 methods to fix RAW partition with free tools, but all of them will cause further damage to lost files in RAW drive. Thus, please make sure you've backed up or recovered files from RAW partition in advance.
Method #1: Format RAW drive in Disk Management
The easiest way to fix RAW partition or convert RAW to NTFS is formatting it through Disk Management. But sometimes, you may receive errors such as The format did not complete successfully or Windows was unable to complete the format. In that cause, please move to other three methods.
Step 1. Right-click Start menu and choose Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the RAW drive and choose Format.
Step 3. Select NTFS file system and click Start button.
Method #2: Format RAW drive to NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4
DiskGenius Free edition is free disk partition software and it provides completes functions to help you manage disks and partition. Here is the guide to format RAW to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 file system.
Step 1. Launch DiskGenius Free edition, right-click on the RAW partition and select Format Current Partition.
Step 2. Choose file system you want and click Format button.
Step 3. Click Yes button to format the partition.
Formatting will remove all files stored on the partition, and you should make sure all important files have been backed up or recovered to a secure location.
Method #3: DiskPart converts RAW to NTFS/FAT32
DiskPart is a useful command that can convert RAW to NTFS/FAT32, but this command requires you should be familiar with the usage of commands. If you are a computer novice, then follow these steps with care.
Step 1. Run Command Prompt as administrator.
Type cmd in searching box > Command Prompt > Run as administrator, as below:
Step 2. Type diskpart and press Enter key.
Step 3. Type following commands and press Enter after every command.
list disk
select disk # (replace # with disk correct disk where RAW drive is located)
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick (if you want to format partition to FAT32, then type format fs=fat32 qucik)
Method #4: Check and repair bad sectors
Note:
Step 1. Select the disk that causing the issue and click Disk > Verify Or Repair Bad Sectors, as follows:
Step 2. Click Start Verify button to scan the disk.
What are signs of a RAW partition?
When a partition becomes RAW, you may receive a variety of error message, for example, if you attempt to open a RAW drive in Windows File Explorer, you may get one of the messages:
If you try commands on the drive, you are likely to receive following errors:
The partition is marked as RAW in Disk Management:
Why does a partition become RAW?
A partition may become RAW due to following causes:
In this article, we discuss symptoms of a RAW drive, causes behind the issue, ways to recover data from RAW drive as well as 4 methods to convert RAW partition to NTFS/FAT easily. Once again, we'd like to mention that RAW partition recovery should be performed prior to trying any methods to fix RAW partition so that you won't lose important files. Moreover, data backup is an effective way to safeguard files, and you can use DiskGenius Free edition to create backups if no backup is available now.
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