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Free Image Format Conversion"Help! My external hard drive suddenly turned into RAW format, and I can't access it to recover my files. I searched for how to fix a RAW drive issue, but I'm completely overwhelmed by the abundance of results. It's challenging to find the right solution. Does anyone know how to resolve this problem without losing data?"
What is RAW?
The RAW file system indicates that your hard drive is in a no or unknown file system state. A disk or drive with a RAW file system is also referred to as a RAW disk or RAW drive. When a hard drive or external storage device shows up as RAW, it could be due to: The drive's file system being lost or corrupted. A quick fix for the RAW file system is to format the drive with a file system that Windows can recognize, such as FAT or NTFS.
Here's the catch – formatting the disk will help convert the RAW file system to NTFS, but this process will also delete data from the drive.
Here's how to correctly handle a RAW-formatted HDD, USB flash drive, or SD card:
- No data on RAW drive
If there's not much data on the RAW drive, it will be much easier to deal with. The only solution here is to choose a reliable specialized program to format the drive.
-> The RAW drive contains important data
In fact, data is involved in over 90% of the cases. If you want to retrieve inaccessible data from a RAW drive with the highest success rate, you should perform data recovery before formatting the device (even if Windows prompts you to format the disk before using Drive X), because formatting will overwrite lost data and make some of it irrecoverable by any third-party Data Recovery Wizard program.
Also, you didn't perform 'chkdsk' or 'clean' command in Diskpart on the RAW disk before data recovery. These Diskpart commands can fix most hard drive corruption issues, but they can also destroy files on the drive and decrease the chances of data retrieval.
If you need a reliable RAW data recovery service, this video will be very helpful.
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How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data in Windows 10/8/7
Download Tool: Use the easy and powerful professional Data Recovery Wizard Pro (Data Recovery Wizard) that specializes in retrieving data from inaccessible or unreadable hard drives, external USB flash drives, memory cards, and many other storage devices. It's a do-it-yourself utility that even an average computer user can operate with ease, without any learning curve. It can recover up to 1000 types of files under various data loss scenarios, including when your hard drive fails or turns RAW.
One notable feature of Data Recovery Wizard is its ability to automatically fix corrupted video, audio files, and documents after recovery. This makes it less likely that you'll encounter issues with files being unopenable after using the tool for data recovery.
How to Repair Corrupted MP4/MOV Files on Windows and Mac
What if your MP4 or MOV file is corrupted? You can use the best MP4 video repair tool - MP4 File Repair Software, along with other three methods...
To recover data from the original drive, follow these three steps.
Step 1: Select and scan the RAW partition
If the RAW partition has a partition label, you can directly select it from the drive list and click "Scan" to search for lost files. If the RAW partition is missing its label, it will be recognized as "Lost Partition". Just select "Lost Partition" and hit "Scan" to perform a full scan of the RAW drive.
Step 2: Preview the data found from the scanning result
When the scan is finished, all recoverable files on the RAW hard drive will be displayed. Look through these files and find the one(s) you want to recover. You can sort the scan results by file type, or search for a specific file or folder in the “Search File or Folder” box.
Step 3. Recover data from the RAW partition
Select all files and then click on “Recover” to restore all data. Select another internal or external hard drive to save the recovered data and then hit “OK” to start RAW drive recovery.
Or, if you are having trouble running software to search for lost data from a RAW drive, for example, the recovery process is taking too long on an incredibly large RAW disk, or you have tried data recovery but couldn't find the files you need, don't worry – you can turn to manual data recovery services.
Consult with our Data Recovery Specialists for personalized manual recovery services. After a free diagnosis, we offer the following services:
- Repair damaged RAW drives without formatting
- Data recovery from RAW drives, including those encrypted with BitLocker
- Recover RAW partitions, RAW USB, RAW flash drives, RAW external hard drives, and more
Best Free RAW to NTFS Converter Download for Windows 10/8/7
Though there are simple and direct ways to fix RAW drive and various methods can accomplish the task, we still recommend a third-party RAW to NTFS converter – tools Partition Master Free. Here are the reasons:
① It's free and works on all versions of Windows, including Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Windows Server.
② It will not result in other errors, such as "Windows was unable to complete the format" in Windows Explorer [1], "Format did not succeed" in Disk Management [2], or "The RAW drive is not accessible for running chkdsk" in the Windows Command Prompt [3].
③The way Disk Management deals with RAW drive is to delete the RAW drive first and then create a new partition on the previous RAW partition. While AOMEI Partition Assistant allows you to format RAW drive directly to FAT or EXT, etc, without being limited to NTFS.
④ It is a versatile disk management tool with many practical features, including resizing partitions, moving partitions, copying partitions, system migration, and merging partitions. We recommend that individual and home users install Partition Master to have a reliable long-term assistant.
Check how to use RAW to NTFS Converter to convert RAW to NTFS.
Step 1: Start Partition Master.
Right click on the RAW partition or RAW external hard drive/USB/SD card that needs to be formatted and select “Format”.
< b > Step 2: Format the RAW partition and reset the file system.
Assign a label to the new partition, choose a file system (like NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size, then click “OK”.
Step 3: Click “Yes” on the warning window to proceed.
Click “Yes” to allow the program to format the target RAW partition to the file system format you have chosen for the drive.
Step 4: Perform the Action
Hit the “Execute 1 Task(s)” button at the bottom-right to review all the changes, and then click “Apply” to start formatting the RAW partition/USB/SD/external hard drive.
RAW drive can be fixed and data can be recovered!
We've written an article on the topic of "Free RAW to NTFS Converter Download," focusing on how to convert a RAW drive to a recognizable one without losing data. For this task, we'll need two helpers:
1. Tool to recover data using Recovery Wizard, which helps retrieve data from inaccessible drives such as RAW drive.
2. Use a partition master tool to reformat the RAW drive using the NTFS file system to resolve the RAW drive issue and make it usable again.