The Volume Does Not Contain a Recognized File System (6 Ways)

The Volume Does Not Contain a Recognized File System

Sometimes, when you insert an external disk, USB flash drive, SD card, or other devices into a Windows PC, such as Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc, you may receive an error message like “You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?”

You might click Cancel if there are important files. You will then get another error “Drive 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”.

By the way, this error also happens to internal hard drives, such as C: drive. It will prevent you from accessing data on this drive and cause data loss issues. So please get the data off before fixing this error.

Possible Causes for Not Recognized File System Error

You may be curious about the reasons of the volume doe snot recognize file system in USB, internal or external disk, or other devices. It gives you some clues to fix this unrecognized file system error.

• corrupted file system due to improper eject, sudden power failure, etc.
• RAW file system. It indicates a file system error instead of a real file system and usually occurs when file system is missing or inconsistent between several system tables.
• Incompatible file system. If you use a disk formatted on Mac in Windows, you may receive this error. Because the file system in Mac may not be supported in Windows.  
• bad sectors. A disk containing many bad sectors may become inaccessible or not recognized.
• virus or malware infection. Both of them can delete, damage or encrypt your data and this usually occurs on computer without antivirus software.
• corrupted disk or partition table. 

Recover Data from Volume Does Not Recognize File System 

You may lose access to your data because the volume does not recognize file system error. If you don’t want to lose them due to operation error or other reasons, please recover data from this volume with professional data recovery software like MyRecover.

Thanks to its two advanced scanning methods, you can easily find out and recover data from inaccessible volumes in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc, and Windows Server successfully. It can internal or external disk, flash drive, SD card, etc.

• Recover Word documents, Excel files, PPT, pictures, videos, compressed files, etc, and more than 200+ file types. 
• keep the recovered files with their original name, format, quality, and path.
• Recover specific files or folders during the scanning process. You don’t need to wait for the scanning result.

To get started, download the Windows data recovery software- MyRecover and install it on your Windows PC.

Step 1. Launch Windows data recovery software- MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. The software will automatically scan the selected volume and display all the deleted or lost files.

You can also filter specific files you want to recover. Here are two ways in the following:

• Directly type its file name in the Search for files or folders box.
• Use the Filter feature. You need to select file type (eg: Word documents), date modified or size.

Notes:

• Type: include all file types, such as images, videos, documents, mails, webpage, compressed files, etc.
• Data Modified: support today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom.
• Size: filter file size from less than 128KB to 128KB ~1MB to 1MB ~ 512MB and above, or custom.

Step 3. Select the files you want to recover and click Recover xxx files. You don’t need to wait for the final scanning result if you find the files need to recover.

Note: The restore button displays the number of files to be recovered and their full size. You can use it to determine the integrity of the recovered files.

Step 4. Select a new folder to store all the files on the inaccessible drive. Then, confirm it and click Select Folder. It will automatically recover the selected files in this folder. 

Notes:

• Saving the recovered files to the original location may cause data corruption or permanent data loss.
• You can recover files from the volume does not contain a recognized file system, up to 500MB in total. To recover unlimited files, try advanced editions.
• Except for recover files from not recognized drive, you still can use it to fix RAW SD card without formatting, recover files from formatted hard drive, and other data loss scenarios.

Fix the Volume Does Not Contain a Recognized File System - 6 Methods

After getting the possible reasons and recovering data from the volume that does not contain a recognized file system in Windows 7, 8, 10,11, etc, you can then fix this error without worrying. Here are 6 effective methods below.

Way 1: Update Disk Drivers

Step 1. Press Win + X and select Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand Disk drives, right-click the RAW disk and select Update driver.

Step 3. Click Search automatically for update driver software. It will install drivers for the selected disk automatically.

Way 2: Run System File Checker

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type sfc /scannow and press Enter. It will scan all the corrupted system files and replaces them with the cached copy in the  %WinDir%\System32\dllcache folder.

Way 3: Scan Disk for Error

Step 1. Open File Explorer. Right-click the problematic volume and select Properties.

Step 2. Go to Tools and click Check under Error checking.

Step 3. In the popup window, click Scan drive. It will check any errors on this volume and fix it.

Way 4: Execute CHKDSK Command

Step 1. Open command prompt with administrator.

Step 2. Type chkdsk G: /f /r or chkdsk G: /f /r /x and press Enter. Replace G: with your drive letter.

Notes:

• The /f & /r parameters help to scan file system and metadata for disk errors and fix them.
• The /x parameter is able to mark bad sectors and recover readable information.

You may be able to access your data on this volume. But if it is a RAW drive, you may receive error message like “The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.”, and result into data loss. It works if this drive was first in the NTFS file system and then turn to RAW.

Way 5: Rebuild MBR

Step 1. Go to Settings > Update & security > Recovery and click Restart now under Advanced startup section.

Step 2. In the Startup Settings window, click Restart.

Step 3. Press 6 or F6 to enable safe mode with command prompt.

Step 4. Then, type the following commands and press Enter after each line.

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• bootrec /rebuildbcd

Way 6: Format Volume in Disk Management

Step 1. Right-click This PC in File Explorer and select Manage > Disk Management. Then, find out the problematic volume.

Step 2. Right-click this volume and select Format Volume.

Step 3. Select a recognized file system (eg: NTFS, FAT32, etc) and click OK.

Tips to Prevent Volume from Showing Unrecognized File System

Though the volume does not contain a recognized file system can be fixed easily, there is still a chance you cannot fix it as expected and can cause data loss. To prevent this error in the future, here are some suggestions you can follow:

• Always disconnect a disk with the safely eject option.
• Turn on Windows Defender or install third-party antivirus software to scan disk for viruses or malware.
• Don’t drop your disk in extreme environments.
• Create at least 3 backup copies of your important data. It gives you the chance to restore files from backup image and minimize data loss in a disaster. Try free backup software for Windows - AOMEI Backupper Standard.

• Install one reliable data recovery software just in case of any unexpected data loss. It helps to recover data from hard drive quickly.

FAQs

✍ How do I fix a RAW drive without formatting?

First, you need to get the possible reasons for RAW drive. Then, try chkdsk, update drivers, change drive letter, set RAW drive as active, etc. For details, check fix RAW SD card without formatting.

✍ Does formatting a USB drive wipe it?

The formatting process will delete everything on the USB drive and assign a new file system for it. But in most cases it does not wipe data completely because Windows uses quick format as default method.

✍ How to convert RAW drive to NTFS without losing data

To change file system of a drive, you need to use the format method. But it will delete all of data on this RAW drive. So please use a data recovery software to get your data off.