Mac Raw Disk Recovery: How to Retrieve Data from Raw Hard Drive/Partition

Symptoms of an Unformatted Disk/Partition on Mac

A RAW hard drive indicates that it's not readable by your Mac, usually due to damage. The RAW file system is an error resulting from virus attacks, power failures, failed formatting, or improper system shutdowns. Typically, when a hard drive appears as RAW, you might experience symptoms such as:

- The file system is displayed as "RAW" - File names contain "strange" characters - You receive an error message stating "Sector not found" when accessing files - A prompt appears saying "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

Normally, to fix RAW partition, you need to rebuild the DBR, FAT, MFT, etc., and then erase & format the disk so that the RAW partition can be accessed and used again.

However, as we all know, formatting the hard drive will lead to data loss. Therefore, you need to first recover important data from the RAW drive with a professional Mac RAW recovery tool. After that, proceed to fix the RAW disk by formatting it.

Mac RAW Data Recovery Solution

Before you perform any operation on the hard drive, if the data on it is of great importance or irreplaceable, it's better to stop using the drive immediately and use a professional RAW recovery tool to get your files back in advance.

Support for multiple file systems and different scan modes make the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac the best Mac data recovery software. With it, you can recover data from a Mac hard drive, external drives, memory cards, and even restore deleted files from the Trash.

The software is user-friendly and secure. You can trust it completely since it has many users around the world. It only takes 3 simple steps to recover all your lost files from the hard drive of Mac 10.15, 10.14, 10.13, 10.12, or earlier. Keep reading to know how to recover RAW data on Mac.

Step 1: Search for the Lost File

On macOS Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, and the latest Sonoma, select the disk location where you want to search for the lost file (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device). Then, click the "Search Lost Files" button.

Note: Before data recovery, it's recommended that you click “Disk Backup” on the left sidebar to back up your Mac to avoid further data loss. After the backup, the software can recover data from the Mac backup, and your computer will be able to write new data.

Step 2: Browse the scan results

Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will scan the disk volume you select immediately and display the scanning results.

Step 3. Select the files and recover them

Select the files you want to preview from the scan results and then click the “Recover” button to get them back.

Read Also: Mac Partition Recovery: How to Recover Deleted or Lost Partitions on macOS/Mac OS X

How to Fix Mac RAW Partition with Formatting

Now that you have successfully recovered files from RAW disk using the Mac RAW Recovery program, you can try to fix the corrupted RAW partition. To fix a RAW disk, you can format it to any file system supported by Mac, including APFS, HFS+, HFS X, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS.

In this section, we will show you two easy ways to format RAW file system to NTFS/FAT32. These solutions work for formatting a RAW drive on HDD, USB, SD card, or memory card.

1. Format RAW Partition with "Disk Utility"

Step 1: Go to "Applications" -> "Utilities" and double-click on "Disk Utility."

Step 2: In the sidebar, select your RAW-formatted disk or other USB flash drive, then choose “Erase.”

Step 3: Give the RAW partition a name, choose MS-DOS (FAT) as the “Format,” and “Scheme” as “Master Boot Record.” Click “Erase.”

When it's done, you'll have a new, blank hard drive formatted with the FAT32 file system. You can now use this partition to store your data.

2. Format RAW Drive on Mac via Terminal Command Line

There's a more complicated way to fix and format a RAW partition from the command line in Terminal, but if you're new to Macs, Disk Utility is the easier option with its simple click-to-format interface.

Step 1: Press ⌘ Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal, and press Return.

Step 2: Type in diskutil list to locate the RAW drive that needs fixing.

Step 3: Type the following command: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.

• sudo grants you user privileges
• Diskutil calls the Disk Utility program
• eraseDisk is the command for formatting
• FAT32 sets the file system
• MBRFormat tells Disk Utility to format using a Master Boot Record scheme
• /dev/disk2 is the location of the external hard drive

Step 4: Wait for the process to complete. You can then run diskutil list again to verify that the drive has been formatted.

Conclusions

If you want to recover corrupted RAW files from digital camera, SD card, or hard drive on Mac, Mac RAW Recovery is a good option. It is a professional and easy-to-use RAW file recovery tool. In addition, this software can also fix corrupted photos and repair corrupted MOV/MP4 files on Mac.

It is more useful to prevent RAW drive issues and data loss beforehand rather than recovering data after hard disk failure. Here are some precautions you can take when using your computer regularly:

• Install and update anti-virus software
• Safely eject external USB drives
• Avoid user errors, such as sudden power outages
• Utilize advanced file systems like NTFS
• Regularly back up important data

Frequently Asked Questions about Mac RAW Hard Drive Data Recovery

Below are some common issues related to Mac RAW recovery. If you are also facing these issues, you can find the solutions here.

What is Raw Disk Recovery?

Mac Raw Recovery is a type of data recovery method. It helps users restore most of their lost files from hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, or other storage media devices when the hard drive is damaged or the file system is corrupted.

How to recover original disk?

With the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac tool, you can recover RAW drive in 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Select the RAW hard drive from where you lost data and files, and then click on “Scan” button.

Step 2: The Mac RAW file recovery software will immediately scan the selected disk volume and display the scanning results in the left panel.

Step 3: Select the files you want to recover from the scan results and then click the “Recover Now” button to get them back.

Is Mac data recovery free?

The free version of Data Recovery Wizard for Mac allows you to recover up to 2 GB of data for free. It enables you to retrieve deleted or lost photos, videos, Word, Excel, PPT, and other files from all Mac devices and external storage media, such as external HDD/SSD, fusion drives, USB drives, SD cards, CF cards, digital cameras, video players, and more.

What is the best data recovery software for Mac?

One of the best software options for Mac data recovery is the Data Recovery Wizard tool. It supports file recovery from deleted files, formatted drives, RAW recovery, partition recovery, virus attack recovery, and operating system crash recovery, assisting you in retrieving your lost data.

You may also try other free Mac data recovery software:

• Disk Drill
• PhotoRec
• TestDisk
• Exif Untrasher