My hard drive is divided into four volumes (C, D, E, and H), and recently the E: volume suddenly became RAW. It was the NTFS file system before. I only see 0 bytes available and used. I can't access it before formatting. I don't want to format it because there are some important files in this partition unless I can get it back to NTFS without losing data. Is there any solution?
The RAW issue is one of the most annoying issues on the computer; however, it is very common. In addition to the internal disk, it can also happen on other storage devices, such as external hard drives or USB drives. Once the storage device becomes RAW, it cannot be used to store any new data, and access to the files is not allowed. Currently, there are two methods to solve the problem. One is converting RAW to NTFS without losing data, and another is changing the disk from RAW to NTFS without formatting.
In most cases, they can help us regain the files and make this drive usable again. Though the two methods are similar, they differ in steps and applicable situations. We will discuss them in detail in this article, hoping you can quickly find the right one.
The drive is displayed as RAW, meaning that the logical mapping relationship between the File System Metadata and the storage medium is broken or unreadable. According to the Microsoft NTFS Technology White Paper (MS-NTFS) definition, this type of failure can happen to the physical layer, logical layer, and hybrid damage.
Simply put, the storage device's file system is damaged or not supported by the computer. Different operating systems support various file systems. For example, Windows supports FAT12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, etc.; macOS supports APFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT (can only read NTFS); Linux supports ext3/4, BTRFS, etc.
For the computer's internal hard disk and partitions, errors during volume resizing or formatting, sudden power off, damaged sectors, virus attacks, physical damage, etc.; for external storage devices, unsafe removal, frequent use between different systems, unstable power supply, etc. are the main reasons that cause it to become RAW. You receive a message when you try to open the drive. For example:
As mentioned above, the core failure of a RAW drive is that the computer cannot read the file system metadata. Although we can change RAW to NTFS by formatting to solve this problem, this will cause the data to be erased and lost. What should I do? Please don't worry; to avoid the question satisfactorily, you only need to do the following.
To rescue important files from a storage device that denies computer access, using recovery software such as iBeesoft Data Recovery, Disk Drill, or EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the first option you can try. Because they can ignore the file system to scan the file allocation table and the data area of the drive and then rebuild these files by analyzing feature information such as file headers and tails. To quickly help you convert RAW to NTFS without losing data. Here, we will first use iBeesoft Data Recovery as an example, showing you this process and then further discussing them for your selection.
IMPORTANT: The next step will erase all the contents of the drive and reset its file system. Therefore, to avoid losing some important files, please make sure to check these recovered data.
Now, we can proceed to convert the disk from RAW to NTFS. Here, you can choose one of the three methods below.
If you prefer to use commands to change the file system from RAW to NTFS, then here are the steps.
Finally, please save the data recovered in Step 1 to this storage device again. This will allow the drive that was previously converted to RAW to continue to be used.
After searching for file recovery software for Mac or Windows, you should see many items on the result pages. You must want to know why we recommend iBeesoft Data Recovery, Disk Drill, and EaseUS Data Recovery. After testing, we have found that they are fast and effective in performing RAW drive recovery. Here, we have sorted out their features for your reference to make it easy for you to choose from.
Tip: When the drive is severely damaged, these programs cannot help you recover important files. You should contact a professional engineer if this is the case. Although it is a high-cost option, your data will be recovered with higher chances in most cases.
When you understand what a RAW drive is, you should notice that one of the reasons is the failure of its logical layer. Therefore, you can use the following ways to fix logical errors without formatting.
CMD is a command-line program for Windows that can check and repair disk errors. This is very useful when your drive becomes RAW due to file system errors.
When it is finished, please restart your computer so the repair can take effect. In addition, here a guide to recover permanently deleted files using CMD.
When the problem lies in the boot sector or partition table, you may see the prompt "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drive." by using the above method. In this case, you can use TestDisk to rebuild them. Here are the steps:
If you skipped the method in the previous part and have read this far, we must tell you that the method that most users use to change drive from RAW to NTFS without formatting will no longer apply. Please go to the previous section, "How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data," because the following method requires professional knowledge and tools.
In fact, rebuilding the hard drive's file system metadata without touching the data area may change RAW to NTFS. Although this is time-consuming and difficult, if you are a professional technician, then these methods are worth trying.
$MFT is the "core" of the NTFS file system. It records the storage location, size, permissions, and other key information of all files (folders). So, rebuilding the damaged $MFT is also a method to convert RAW to NTFS without formatting. The detailed steps are:
When we type a street name into the map app, it can quickly guide us to the destination. This is because it uses coordinates to record these locations. In the NTFS file system, $Bitmap plays the same role as the map. When the information recorded is inconsistent with the actual information, the drive will refuse access. Resynchronizing the cluster bitmap can correct these errors.
Do you encounter the error message "The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable" when opening the drive? This may be due to lost permissions, encryption information, etc. To fix the RAW issue caused by this, you can follow these steps below to restore the security subsystem. However, to ensure you do it properly during the process, please read the following Microsoft technical documents carefully before starting.
If encryption is enabled on this hard disk, the certificate trust chain of the Encrypting File System needs to be rebuilt.
Although many reasons cause a drive to become RAW and the symptoms vary, without going into details, there are only two categories of effective solutions, which are discussed in this article. Please check this comparison table if you don't know how to choose.
| Applicability | Availability | Success Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data | All | Easy | More than 90%. This mainly depends on the recovery program you use. |
| Convert Disk/Partition from RAW to NTFS without Formatting | Only applicable to logical errors in specific situations. | It depends on the method you use. | Less than 40% |
As you can see, although the methods mentioned in this article involve multiple steps, as long as you follow them carefully, you can convert RAW to NTFS without losing data or formatting. If you encounter any problems during the operation, please feel free to contact us. Our technical team is always available to help you.
First, do not force restart your computer to avoid more serious data loss or disk damage. Wait for a while to see if the computer can resume responding on its own. If it lasts for more than 1 hour, you can force restart by pressing the power button for a long time and then restarting these steps. As long as the hard drive is not physically damaged, you can convert RAW to NTFS without losing data.
Yes. When you connect the removable disk to your Mac, you may see "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." You can now fix this error using the "First Aid" option in Disk Utility. If that fails, then after recovering the data in it with iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac, format it to convert it to a file system supported by macOS, such as APFS or HFS+.
It should be noted here that it is not a RAW problem when you can open the external hard drive on your Mac and can see the data in it, but cannot edit them. By default, Mac only reads storage devices with the NTFS file system. The solution to this situation is to use free NTFS Reader for Mac.
This is because the hard drive affects the content of the data area when it is damaged. You can use online repair tools to try to repair the damaged files.
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