Recover Windows RAW Files In Various Ways

One of the most common difficulties encountered when using Windows 10, 8, and 7 is a hard drive or disk partition with a RAW file system. The RAW disc format is, in fact, the absence of any format, or rather the file system on the disc. In this regard, malfunctions often occur. Today there are several ways to recover Windows RAW files.

Recover Windows RAW files

One of the main elements of uninterrupted access to information, acting both as part of a full-fledged computer device and as a separate tool, can be called storage devices containing a different array of user data under the supervision of system controls. These include internal and external hard drives of various designs, USB sticks, memory cards of various formats, etc.

A large amount of important information is stored on such devices, and often very important files are presented in a single copy, especially photographs. In this regard, it is extremely important to be confident in the operation of your storage devices.

One of the most common difficulties encountered when using Windows 10, 8, and 7 is a hard drive or disk partition with a RAW file system. The RAW disc format is, in fact, the absence of any format, or rather the file system on the disc. In this regard, malfunctions often occur.

A notification that it is impossible to access the device, which entails the prospect of losing all files located there, and the lack of simple ways to return your information for further use may cause serious concern for users. However, there are a number of methods that can help you recover the files you need.

When problems arise that are associated with the impossibility of identifying a storage device, this does not mean that all data has been deleted, it means that for some specific reason the system cannot open the contents of the disk, and therefore open all files.

Today there are a number of ways to solve this problem. A number of these methods imply a complete recovery of files, but in some cases only formatting is possible, when all files on the disk will be completely lost. Due to the fact that often the reasons for the appearance of a RAW disk or RAW partition are not clarified (since it is extremely difficult to find out in principle), you should try each recovery method until it is effective.

Before examining the basic methods of recovering Windows RAW files, you need to find out what a RAW disk is and how it can be recognized.

What is a RAW disc?

In Windows operating systems, a drive with an unknown file system is marked as RAW. Thus, a RAW disk is, in fact, not a disk, but a so-called error on the hard disk.

The RAW disk format is a kind of lack of format, or rather the file system on the disk: this happens with new or faulty hard drives, and in situations where, for no apparent reason, the disk has become RAW format - more often due to system failures , improper shutdown of the computer or problems with the power supply, etc. In this case, RAW file system recovery is necessary and there are useful tips for this.

RAW mark usually appears in the following situations:

• Incorrect formatting of the hard disk.
• The Windows operating system does not support the file system on the hard disk.
• Restricting access to the hard disk due to various errors in the security settings.
• Various errors or bad sectors in the main area of ​​the hard disk.
• Damage to the very structure of the file system on the hard disk.

When trying to access the hard disk in this case, the following errors may appear:

• The disk needs to be formatted.
• The disc is not available.
• The disk image has not been initialized.

The OS, which ensures that the computer device, as well as all devices connected to it, work fully and efficiently, constantly carries out the so-called hidden diagnostics and checks of nodes, connections and response times of all elements, and organizes access to them and sharing interaction. In the event that, when connecting any external device, there are problems with identifying files on the device, the operating system marks the device as a RAW disk. Thus, we can say that RAW is the designation of any disks or partitions unrecognized by the operating system of the computer, as a result of which the files are not recognized and cannot be opened (the operating system simply cannot find a driver to recognize or open this device).

Check disk for errors and fix errors in the file system

When a RAW disc appears, the first step is to try to check the disc for errors. Of course, this does not always help, but this method is the safest and can be used in a situation where the RAW disk is a system disk with Windows and OS that does not boot.

In those situations where the OS is running, you just need to perform a number of the following actions:

1. Run command line as administrator.
2. Enter the command chkdsk d: / f and press the Enter button.

After these actions have been carried out, there can be 2 options:

1. Solution to the error.
2. The impossibility of solving the error.

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In the event that the disk becomes RAW due to the fact that there was an ordinary failure in the file system, it is highly likely that the RAW format will change to NTFS after the check. If the error is much more serious, then the computer issues the following command: CHKDSK is not valid for RAW drives. However, this method of recovering Windows RAW files is not possible.

In cases where it is impossible to start the operating system, you can use a Windows 10, 8, 7 recovery disc or a distribution kit with an OS, for example, a bootable USB flash drive. When using a distribution kit with an operating system, you must perform a number of the following actions:

1. Boot from the distribution. It should be noted that the bitness of the distribution must be the same as the bitness of the installed operating system).
2. Select System Restore either on the screen itself, or after choosing a language at the bottom left, or by pressing two keys: Shift + F10. This is necessary in order to open it.
3. On the command line, use the following commands one after the other:

• diskpart
• list volume (here you need to see under which letter the problem disk is currently located, or, more precisely, the partition, since this letter may differ from the one in the working system)
• exit
• chkdsk d: / f

There are also two options here: either fixing the error, or the impossibility of recovering files.

Normal formatting of a disk or RAW partition in the absence of important information on it

Regular disk formatting is a fairly simple way to recover Windows RAW files.

In order to format the disk you need to:

1. Start Disk Management Windows. To do this, press the Win + R buttons and enter diskmgmt.msc, then press the Enter key.
2. After launching, you need to right-click on the RAW partition or disk, and then select the Format section. In the event that this action is inactive, and we are talking about a new disk, then you need to right-click on its name (on the left) and select Initialize disk, and after initialization, also format the RAW partition.
3. In order to format the disk, you only need to set the volume label and the desired file system, usually NTFS.

If, nevertheless, there is any reason why you cannot format the disk using this method, you can try formatting by right-clicking on the RAW partition (disk), first Delete volume, and then click on the area of ​​the disk that is not allocated and Create Simple Volume. The Volume Creation Wizard will prompt you to set a drive letter and format it in the required file system.

4DDiG - Windows Data Recovery

Another reliable recovery method is 4DDiG. The advantages of this method should be noted:

1. 4DDiG can recover various types of files (NTFS, FAT, APFS, HFS +, HFS X, etc.).
2. Ensuring data integrity.
3. High performance with free preview.
4. High recovery rate.
5. High security.

Recover NTFS partition from RAW to DMDE

The most difficult situation is when there is very important information on the RAW disk that needs to be left. Here, first you need to try to use a free program in order to recover information and lost sections of DMDE, the official website of which is dmde.ru.

The process of recovering a partition from RAW in the program in the general case will consist of the following actions:

1. You must select the physical disk where the RAW partition is located.
2. If a lost partition is displayed in the list of DMDE partitions, select it and click Open volume.
3. In the event that the lost section was not displayed, it is necessary to conduct a full scan in order to find it.
4. It is necessary to check the contents of the section.
5. In the event that this is exactly the required section, you must press the Show sections button in the program menu.
6. Make sure that the required partition is selected and press the Restore button.
7. Confirmation of restoring the boot sector is required, after which you must click the Apply button below and save the data for rollback to a file in a convenient location.
8. Exit the program.

Recovering a RAW disk with TestDisk

Another equally effective method for finding and recovering a disk partition from RAW is the free version of the TestDisk program. This program will certainly be the most difficult to use than the one discussed above, but in some cases, it turns out to be the most productive.

Before using this program, in order to avoid accidental deletion of files, you must save all the required files to another physical disk.

To use this method, you need to do the following:

1. Download the TestDisk program from the official site, while downloading the archive, which contains the TestDisk itself, as well as the PhotoRec data recovery program.
2. You need to unzip this file.
3. Run the TestDisk program.
4. It is required to select Create, and on the second screen - a disk that has become RAW or has a partition in this format. On the next screen, you need to select the style of the disk partitions. Usually it is detected automatically - Intel (for MBR) or EFI GPT (for GPT disks).
5. Select the Analyze item and press the Enter button. On the next screen, you also need to press Enter again. After that, you need to wait while the disk is analyzed.
6. TestDisk finds several partitions at once, including the one that was turned into RAW. It can be determined by its size and file system (the size in megabytes is displayed at the bottom of the window when the corresponding partition is selected). You can also view the contents of a chapter by pressing the Latin P, to exit the view mode, press Q. Chapters marked with P (green) will be restored and recorded, with marked D they will not. Use the left-right keys to change the mark. If you cannot change it, then restoring this partition will break the disk structure.

In this situation, if the recovery is successful, the correct partition structure will be written, and after restarting the computer, the disk will be available, just as before.