How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data or Formatting

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?

by Ferdi Businger

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.

Table of contents
About RAW Disk, Partition, or External Hard Drive
How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Data Loss
How to Change Disk/Partition from RAW to NTFS without Formatting
2 Methods Comparison
Conclusion
FAQs

About RAW Disk, Partition, or External Hard Drive

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:

How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data

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.

Step 1. Retrieve Data from RAW Drive

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.

  1. Download and install this RAW drive data recovery software.
  2. In the first interface, select the hard drive or partition that has become RAW and click "Scan." It may also be marked as a "Lost Partition." iBeesoft Data Recovery will scan each sector to find any available files and try to repair the damaged ones.
  3. When the scan is done, you will see all the found data in the RAW drive. Preview these files and select the desired ones. Sometimes, they may be placed in the "Other Lost Files" folder. This is because these files are missing some attributes that iBeesoft Data Recovery cannot get the correct name.
  4. Click "Recover" at the bottom right of the page and choose a location to save them.

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.

Step 2. Format RAW to NTFS

Now, we can proceed to convert the disk from RAW to NTFS. Here, you can choose one of the three methods below.

#2-1. Use File Explorer

  1. Click the Folder icon in the taskbar to open File Explorer. Usually, it is located at the bottom of your screen.
  2. On the left side of the window, select the drive you want to convert RAW to NTFS.
  3. Right-click it and select "Format."
  4. In the pop-up dialog box, select NTFS as the file system and click "Start." If you want to initialize the drive completely, please uncheck the "Quick Format" option.
  5. When a warning window appears, click "OK" to confirm.

#2-2. With Disk Management

  1. Press "Win + R" at the same time to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type "diskmgmt.msc" in the input box, then click "OK."
  3. Find the disk or partition displayed as RAW in the Disk Management window, right-click, and select "Format."
  4. Set the file system as "NTFS" and click "OK."

#2-3. Use PowerShell/Terminal

If you prefer to use commands to change the file system from RAW to NTFS, then here are the steps.

  1. Right-click the Start icon at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Select Terminal (Admin). If you are using Windows 10 or earlier, then this should be "PowerShell (Admin)".
  3. Type "Get-Partition | Format-Table" and press Enter. You will see all the drive letters; please remember the one for the RAW drive.
  4. Type "Format-Volume -DriveLetter [disk letter] -FileSystem NTFS -Confirm:$false" and press Enter.

Step 3. Transfer Recovered Files

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.

Tools for Step 1: iBeesoft Data Recovery VS. Disk Drill VS. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

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.

How to Change Disk/Partition from RAW to NTFS without Formatting

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.

Way 1. Use CMD

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.

Here is how to convert RAW to NTFS via CMD without formatting:

  1. Press the "Win + X" keys and select "Terminal (Admin)/PowerShell (Admin)" from the menu.
  2. Type the command "chkdsk *: /f /r /spotfix /x" (If the RAW drive letter is D, you need to replace * with D) and press Enter.

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.

Way 2. Use TestDisk

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:

  1. After downloading TestDisk, extract the entire zip file content.
  2. Click "testdisk_win.exe" to launch it, then click "[Create] Create a new log file" and press Enter.
  3. Using the up or down arrow keys on the keyboard, select the hard disk containing the RAW volume in turn > Partition Type > Analyze > Quick Search > Select the volume again (If not, select Deeper Search) > Write.
  4. Finally, enter "Y" to confirm the operation.

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 Data Loss," because the following method requires professional knowledge and tools.

Way 3. Rebuilding the NTFS File System Metadata

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.

#3-1. Master File Table Reconstruction

$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:

  1. First, scan the entire disk through a specific disk tool, like WinHex, to identify potential $MFT sector data.
  2. Reassemble the file records according to the $MFT data structure, which is generally a fixed structure (usually 1024 bytes). For example, sort the scanned MFT fragments by log sequence number.
  3. Restore the original $MFT information based on the $MFTMirr information. $MFTMirr is generally located in the logical middle of the volume. Copy its information to replace the $MFT sector data recorded in the boot sector.
  4. Finally, use the "chkdsk /f" command to check whether there are errors in the rebuilt $MFT and let it repair them.

#3-2. Resynchronize Cluster Bitmap

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.

  1. Use a two-way verification protocol to detect conflicting cluster allocations.
    🔹 Forward verification: traverse the cluster chains of all files and mark the corresponding bits of $Bitmap.
    🔹 Reverse verification: scan the free area of $Bitmap to detect invalid files (clusters without MFT records but marked as occupied)
  2. When a cluster allocation conflict is detected (multiple files claim to occupy the same cluster), the file with the newer last modification time is kept first, and then the other files are truncated or marked as damaged chains.
  3. Finally, dynamically update the $BadClus metadata file to achieve physical bad track isolation and remap clusters.

#3-3. Security Subsystem Recovery

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.

  1. Extract the security descriptor from the existing file's SID (Security ID) and rebuild the hash index (SHA-1 + offset mapping).
  2. Rebuild the child's permissions based on the parent directory's inheritance flag (SE_DACL_AUTO_INHERITED).

If encryption is enabled on this hard disk, the certificate trust chain of the Encrypting File System needs to be rebuilt.

2 Methods Comparison

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%

Conclusion

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.

FAQs

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