Raw Data Recovery: Recover Data from RAW Drives

What is RAW data on hard drives?

In computing, RAW data refers to the inaccessible files saved on your hard drives. Users only can check RAW disks using Disk Management because Windows OS cannot detect RAW partitions. So it’s unsurprising that why you cannot access data from RAW hard drives using File Explorer.

It could be problematic for users if their RAW drives save their needed files, folders, or other important data.

Symptoms of RAW drive issues

Before beginning RAW data recovery, let’s get an overview of the following symptoms because these error messages are the signs of RAW or damaged drives.

◢ The disk in drive G is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?

◢ You need to format the disk in drive H: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?

◢ H:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect.

◢ Location is not available. H:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

◢ Location is not available. G:\ is not accessible. The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

◢ The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives or Convert is not available for RAW drives, chkdsk reports RAW file system.

Please don’t format your RAW drive even if you’ve received the above error messages because disk formatting can cause further damage to your RAW partitions and decrease your RAW data recovery rate.

Phase 1. How do I recover files from a RAW partition in Windows 10/11?

Please refer to the following way to recover data from RAW drives as much as possible. After the RAW data recovery process, you’re ready to set out to fix RAW partitions via the next part.

Recover data from RAW drives via data recovery software

If you’ve deleted files from your RAW drives, utilizing powerful data recovery software like MyRecover could be your top choice to recover files from RAW partitions. Please avoid writing new data to the RAW drive to ensure a higher RAW data recovery rate.

• After recovery, please choose a new location to save your retrieved files.
• To recover a large number of deleted or missing files from your hard drives with no effort, consider upgrading MyRecover to the Professional or Technician edition.

Step 1. After running MyRecover on your Windows PC, hover the mouse over the hard drive that saves your desired files and click Scan.

Step 2. Filter your needed data according to Name, Date, Document Type, or Path.

• Name: Type the filenames of your desired files to narrow the search area.
• Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, and so on) according to your situation.
• Size: Filter the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~ 512MB, etc) based on your needs.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder and select the data you want. Then click “Recover x files” to begin the RAW data recovery process.

Phase 2. Other ways to perform RAW data recovery

Is there another way to perform RAW data recovery? It turns out there is. You can refer to a suitable solution according to the corresponding situations.

Fix 1. Convert RAW to NTFS without losing data via Disk Management

Without a doubt, a recognized file system is responsible for RAW disks. Specifically, if your hard drive becomes RAW, which suggests it has not been formatted with a suitable file system such as NTFS or FAT32.

In this case, you’re supposed to format your RAW partition first because this action can prepare this drive for further use by erasing all the existing data on your RAW partition. Then you can select a new file system that works well with your current Windows OS.

Step 1. Press “Win + X” and select “Disk Management” to open this utility.

Step 2. Right-click on your RAW hard drive and select the “Format” option.

Step 3. Choose the NTFS file system and click “OK” to save these changes.

After this process, try to open this hard drive.

Fix 2. Run CHKDSK to check & fix errors and bad sectors

Bad sectors or errors also are blamed for RAW hard drives. When it comes to problems regarding how to fix a RAW drive, the CHKDSK command seems like an efficient fix.

This way also can help you recover RAW data from external hard drives. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Enter “cmd” in the search bar and select “Run as administrator” to open the command prompt window.

Step 2. Type “chkdsk F:/f” in the window. You can replace F with your hard drive letter. Then wait to see this notice: Windows has made corrections to the file system.

Fix 3. Rebuild partition table via AOMEI Partition Assistant

In many cases, partition table damage also can lead to corrupted partitions. To address this issue, why not rebuild the partition table using this free partition manager software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard?   

★Other highlights of AOMEI Partition Assistant:

Recover deleted & missing NTFS, FAT, EX2, EX3, or Ex4 partitions.

Deal with fixing errors using CHKDSK.exe, disk formatting, improper partition size, partition creation, partition resize, etc.

Perform disk conversion between MBR and GPT, OS migration, etc.   

Support Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP (32/64-bit) computers.

Step 1. After running AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard on your Windows PC, right-click on the selected hard drive and click the “Rebuild MBR” button.

Step 2. Choose your current operating system and click the “OK” button.

Step 3. On the main interface, click Apply > Proceed.

Relevant Q&A about hard drive data recovery

Are you wondering how to recover data from RAW drives? Please get several methods from the above part. Apart from that, there’re related hard drive data recovery tips.