How to Recover Data from RAW USB Drive (4 Steps)

With the help of reliable data recovery software - MyRecover, you can recover data from RAW USB drive in 4 simple steps and thus fix RAW drive without losing data. Scroll down to learn more.

By @Lora Last Updated February 26, 2025

USB flash drives are effortless to carry and use. With its tiny size and large volume, users can store and keep their important files and take & access them everywhere by connecting to a PC.

As a plug-and-play device, USB is widely used in people’s life. The abuse is not rare to see. Many users plug and eject the USB flash drives directly without selecting “Safe to Remove Hardware”, and maybe, unluckily, they will find the USB showing as RAW and lose access to their data.

I have a problem with my USB flash drive. My file system shows it is RAW, and I can’t access Flash (unformat). But it is my backup drive. I have saved a lot of essential data on it. Could you tell me how to access the flash drive or convert the RAW files to NFTS or FAT32 or even if there is software that can get back my data? ” – Question from Tech Republic

⚠️ Yeah, you can recover data from RAW USB drive with reliable data recovery software that can access and scan hard drive for deleted files effortlessly.  To get a quick guide, go to Part 3.

Why does a USB drive become RAW?

The possible reasons are also worth taking a look at.

  • Physical damage. Physical damage to the sectors on the USB drive might make them unreadable, showing as RAW drive.
  • Virus infection. Viruses can attack the file system/master boot record, etc., corrupting the USB drive and your files.
  • File system corruption. A non-supported/unreadable/corrupted file system leads to an inaccessible USB flash drive.
  • Improper USB usage. Improper USB ejection can harm the port or interrupt the data read and write process, leading to a RAW flash drive.

Symptoms of RAW USB drive

The RAW drives don’t come into being without any clues. Here are some common symptoms in the following:

  • When you check the USB drive's Properties, the file system shows up as RAW.
  • When you run chkdsk on the USB drive, it says, “The type of the file system is RAW. chkdsk is not available for RAW drives”.
  • When you try to access it, you get the error, “E:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”.
  • When you plug it into a computer, it asks, "You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?”

How to recover data from RAW USB drives in 4 steps

Using professional data recovery software for Windows - AOMEI FastRecovery will be a simple & cost-effective solution as long as there is no severe physical damage. You can recover data from a RAW USB drive in 4 easy steps. 

Step 1. FREE download RAW USB drive recovery software 

Download this reliable tool to start RAW USB data recovery.

AOMEI FastRecovery features an easy-to-use interface, powerful data recovery capabilities, more flexible data recovery options, comprehensive scenarios, and compatibility.

❤❤❤ Why Choose AOMEI FastRecovery?

  • Offer user-friendly GUI, allowing all users to operate it without any difficulties.
  • Combine Quick Scan Deep Scan technologies to detect all recoverable data, with a high success rate and fast speed
  • Recover Word documents, Excel files, PPT, pictures, videos, compressed files, etc, and more than 1000+ file types.
  • Support file sort, filter, preview, and data recovery while scanning. 
  • Recover specific files or folders instead of all.
  • Recover data from healthy/formatted/corrupted/RAW USB drive, HDD, SSD, SD card, etc. support NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/RefS.
  • Assist with data recovery in a variety of situations, i.e. accidental deletions, lost partition, RAW drive, disk formatting, virus attacks, system crashes, and so on.
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Step 2. Start scanning RAW USB drive

Carefully connect the USB drive to your computer. Hover the mouse over the RAW USB drive and click Scan.

⚠️Note: If the software fails to locate your drive, please check the data recovery FAQ to fix it.

Step 3. Sort/filter/preview files

AOMEI FastRecovery will automatically scan your USB drive to find deleted or lost data using Quick Scan & Deep Scan. It will analyze and category them into deleted files, files in the Recycle Bin, and other missing files, or according  to its file type.

So you can find files from the sidebar directories, or sort files in order, use the filter by Type (e.g., Images, Documents, Webpages, Compressed files, etc.), Size, and Date modified, to narrow the scanned result and find the desired files quickly. Also, you can switch how files or folders are displayed (large or small) as you like.

Once found, you can double-click on the files to preview them to confirm that they are what you want.

Step 4. Start RAW USB drive data recovery

Here you just need to select the data you need and click the Recover x files button to start  RAW USB drive recovery. Please select a new location to save them, reducing the risk of data overwriting. 

⚠️The Trial version of AOMEI FastRecovery can only be demonstrated. To recover data from RAW USB drive, please upgrade AOMEI FastRecovery to the Professional or Technician version. Currently, it provides Monthly/Yearly/Lifetime subscriptions. Choose the version that suits your preferences and budget.

How to fix RAW USB drive without losing data

With the files recovered, it is time to fix RAW USB disk with losing data in 3 practicable methods.

Solution 1. Check disk 

Firstly, we can try the Check Disk tool pre-installed in Properties. It scans the file system and the metadata to see if there are logical or physical errors.

⚠️ Warning: If the RAW USB drive is not shown in File Explorer, please move on to Solution 2.

Step 1. Start File Explorer. Right-click the affected USB drive and select Properties.

Step 2. Under the Tools tab, go to the Error checking section and click Check

Step 3. Come to the Repair this drive window, click Repair drive. Then, follow the instructions to start the repair process. 

Solution 2. Run the CHKDSK command

The Disk Check tool in File Explorer is helpful since it has a GUI. But since RAW drives are often unreadable and will not show in File Explorer, users may need other ways.

For instance, users could try the CHKDSK command in Command Prompt. Using this tool, you could try more parameters.

⚠️Note: If you find CHKDSK not working, view the tutorial to fix it.

Step 1. Connect the RAW USB drive to the Windows computer correctly. Enter “cmd” in the Windows search box and click Run as administrator.

Step 2. Input chkdsk F:/f. Replace the with the real drive letter of the disk.

Wait until you see the following message, “Windows has made corrections to the file system.” It means that the file system error is fixed.

If you receive the “The type of the file system is RAW. chkdsk is not available for RAW drives”  error, please  check the following method. 

Solution 3. Format RAW USB drive to NTFS/FAT32

Another solution to fix RAW USB drives is disk formatting. It wipes the data on the hard drive and creates a new file system. Thus, files can be stored on the drive again.

⚠️Since disk formatting wipes all data on the hard drive, please back up drive before formatting if the condition allows.

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows Start menu and click Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the RAW USB drive > select Format.

Step 3. Specify the file system (e.g., NTFS/FAT32) and whether to perform a quick format. Click Next to continue. 

Conclusion

Users who need to recover data from RAW USB drives can check the methods in this article. For efficiency and safety, it is recommended to use professional Windows data recovery tools like AOMEI FastRecovery to scan hard drives for deleted files

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In addition, the methods to fix the USB hard drive are elaborated. Disk Check tool, CHKDSK command, and disk formatting can be of some help. Don't forget to backup files on USB drive to create copies of files on it so you don't need to worry about data loss. 

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