A RAW file system is a state of hard drive or any other storage media, which is not recognized by the operating system. A RAW hard drive does not contain any file system. It cannot either be formatted or nor be used for any storage purpose.
This often happens when the volume information that determines the file system type or location on the disk are damaged or corrupted, usually they are the partition table or the boot sector. There could be multiple causes of a RAW hard drive, such as virus infection, abrupt shut down operating system, format failure, power outages, power failure, etc. Since the operating system does not identify any file system in the partition, and it declare the drive as RAW.
At times, a normal hard drive become corrupt and looks like it has lost file system. A RAW hard drive shows various error messages, after connecting with the system. In Windows, when you try to recover data from your RAW hard drive by CHKDSK tool, but it also not repair the problem, then an error occurs and says that it is unable to perform CHKDSK operation on RAW drives. The error message looks like:
CHKDSK cannot be run on this drive
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.
Basically, CHKDSK (Checkdisk) is a Windows command and is used to display the file system integrity status of hard disks and is capable to fix logical file system errors. It verifies the logical integrity of a file system and in case of any logical inconsistencies in file system data, it automatically performs repair actions on the file system data.
In Windows Disk Management, the RAW partition hard drive or without a file system type hard disk looks like:
When you check the properties of the hard drive or volume, it will show both used and free spaces as 0 byte in size for the raw drive.
In order to repair your RAW hard drive without losing your files, the most prominent and recommended option is to use best data recovery software. These tools are designed to help you to restore your lost files from the RAW file system.
These data recovery tools recognize the internal structure of the data on the file system and recover these lost files by using powerful algorithms. As there are many data recovery tools available, but all of them do not provide RAW recovery feature. A wrong recovery method may remove your data permanently from the RAW hard drive.
This tool can recover missing files from FAT, NTFS, and ExFAT file system based hard drive, volumes and supported external media. Its 'Raw Recovery' feature promises to recover missing data from your severely corrupt media flawlessly and support a wide range of file types including photos, documents, and multimedia files. Additionally, this data recovery utility supports recovery of deleted email data with MS Outlook and Outlook Express based file formats.
• Before selecting any powerful data recovery software, you must check whether your hard drive is physically damaged or not. If there will be any kind of physical damage, then always take the help of a professional expert or consider to sending the drive to experienced data recovery service provider.
• In case you are using a solid-state drive (SSD) then do not continue to connect them with your system after corruption. As these drives are very different than normal hard drives and can remove important data on a RAW partition just by connecting them with power. Connect them with your system when you are all set to do RAW recovery.
Amanda
About the Author:
Amanda is a passionate blogger. She loves to write various technology related articles that can help the readers in their day to day life. Her main focus is to research about various data recovery methods, tips & tricks.
This often happens when the volume information that determines the file system type or location on the disk are damaged or corrupted, usually they are the partition table or the boot sector. There could be multiple causes of a RAW hard drive, such as virus infection, abrupt shut down operating system, format failure, power outages, power failure, etc. Since the operating system does not identify any file system in the partition, and it declare the drive as RAW.
At times, a normal hard drive become corrupt and looks like it has lost file system. A RAW hard drive shows various error messages, after connecting with the system. In Windows, when you try to recover data from your RAW hard drive by CHKDSK tool, but it also not repair the problem, then an error occurs and says that it is unable to perform CHKDSK operation on RAW drives. The error message looks like:
CHKDSK cannot be run on this drive
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.
Basically, CHKDSK (Checkdisk) is a Windows command and is used to display the file system integrity status of hard disks and is capable to fix logical file system errors. It verifies the logical integrity of a file system and in case of any logical inconsistencies in file system data, it automatically performs repair actions on the file system data.
In Windows Disk Management, the RAW partition hard drive or without a file system type hard disk looks like:
When you check the properties of the hard drive or volume, it will show both used and free spaces as 0 byte in size for the raw drive.
How to troubleshoot a RAW hard drive
Whenever Windows do not recognize the file system of the hard drive partition, it asks you to format it to create a new file system. This process surely makes your hard drive usable, but you will lose the data stored on the RAW hard drive. Therefore, to recover the data from a RAW hard drive do not format it.In order to repair your RAW hard drive without losing your files, the most prominent and recommended option is to use best data recovery software. These tools are designed to help you to restore your lost files from the RAW file system.
These data recovery tools recognize the internal structure of the data on the file system and recover these lost files by using powerful algorithms. As there are many data recovery tools available, but all of them do not provide RAW recovery feature. A wrong recovery method may remove your data permanently from the RAW hard drive.
Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery – Professional
This is a recommended tool that you can use to recover your RAW or inaccessible hard drive. This tool can understand the internals of the RAW file system and recovers data from RAW, lost, deleted, or inaccessible partitions from Windows based hard drives and removable storage media.This tool can recover missing files from FAT, NTFS, and ExFAT file system based hard drive, volumes and supported external media. Its 'Raw Recovery' feature promises to recover missing data from your severely corrupt media flawlessly and support a wide range of file types including photos, documents, and multimedia files. Additionally, this data recovery utility supports recovery of deleted email data with MS Outlook and Outlook Express based file formats.
Tips to minimize the risks
• Before selecting any powerful data recovery software, you must check whether your hard drive is physically damaged or not. If there will be any kind of physical damage, then always take the help of a professional expert or consider to sending the drive to experienced data recovery service provider.
• In case you are using a solid-state drive (SSD) then do not continue to connect them with your system after corruption. As these drives are very different than normal hard drives and can remove important data on a RAW partition just by connecting them with power. Connect them with your system when you are all set to do RAW recovery.
AmandaAbout the Author:
Amanda is a passionate blogger. She loves to write various technology related articles that can help the readers in their day to day life. Her main focus is to research about various data recovery methods, tips & tricks.
