Solution 3+: Fix RAW Drive Error Cannot Format in 2024

"My Seagate external hard drive suddenly showed up as RAW and prompted me to format the disk before use. Every attempt to access it ended up with the format request. So, despite having some important data, I formatted it. But annoyingly, the RAW drive won't fix after formatting! Now, what should I do to fix RAW drive without losing data?"

Normally, formatting is the first choice to fix a hard drive, USB flash drive, or memory card with RAW file system, and it works most of the time. But sometimes you may not be so lucky, and in some cases, the RAW disk cannot be formatted as expected, like getting the "Windows was unable to complete the format" issue.

RAW Drive Data Recovery Software

Regardless of how you came across the RAW file system, do not attempt to format the drive before applying a professional data recovery software to retrieve essential files. When you see a RAW drive, it implies that the drive has an unknown Windows file system. Since there is no file system present on the disk, it can no longer be used for data storage and you cannot access existing data.

We recommend using the Data Recovery Wizard tool for RAW hard drive data recovery. Simply download it to your computer and follow the easy data recovery steps. After that, you can safely fix your RAW drive that won't format.

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 then click "Scan" to search for lost files. If the RAW partition loses its label, the system will identify it as "Lost Partition". Just select "Lost Partition" and click "Scan" to perform a full scan of the RAW drive.

Step 2. Preview the data found in the scan 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 you want to recover. You can sort the scan results by file type, or use the "Search for files or folders" box to look for it.

Step 3. Recover data from RAW partition

Select all the files and click “Recover” to retrieve all the data. Choose another internal or external hard drive to save the recovered data and click “OK” to start RAW drive recovery.

Original Drive Data Recovery Service

You may also use our Manual Data Recovery Services to fix the RAW drive and effectively retrieve the lost data.

RAW Recovery Services Tool

Contact our experts for a free evaluation.

Get one-on-one consultation with our Data Recovery Experts and manual recovery services. After a free diagnosis, we offer the following:

• Repair corrupted RAW drives without formatting
• Data recovery from RAW drives, including BitLocker encrypted drives
• Recover RAW partitions, RAW USB, RAW flash drives, RAW external hard drives, and more

How to Fix RAW Hard Drive Not Formatting

The process of fixing a RAW hard drive involves converting it to a recognizable file system like NTFS, FAT32, or others. When quick formatting through File Explorer or disk formatting via Windows Disk Management fails, you can attempt to format the RAW hard drive using the Diskpart command-line utility.

Fix 1: Convert RAW to NTFS/FAT32 with Diskpart

Step 1: Click "Start," type "cmd" into the search field, and press "Enter."

Step 2. Right-click on "cmd" and select "Run as administrator."

Step 3. Type Diskpart, and press Enter.

Step 4: Type convert X: /fs:ntfs (where X is the drive you want to convert) and press Enter.

It's worth noting that X should be the drive letter of your RAW disk storage device. Additionally, you can replace ntfs with other file systems of your choice, such as exfat, fat32, and so on.

Fix 2: Convert RAW to NTFS/FAT32 with a free partition manager

Is there a way to format RAW disk via command prompt to a usable file system? Considering the complexity of the command line method, which is not user-friendly for regular users without technical knowledge, it's necessary to find an easier alternative to replace the Diskpart command line. Here we recommend using a partition tool – free partition manager, which is very convenient.

It empowers you to deal with RAW hard drive that cannot be repaired by regular disk formatting methods via Windows Explorer and Windows Disk Management, or even the last resort – Diskpart command prompt.

Option 1: Format RAW Drive

This RAW drive currently has a drive letter assigned to it.

Step 1: Launch Partition Master.

Right click on the RAW partition or RAW external hard drive/USB/SD card that needs formatting and select “Format”.

Step 2: Format the RAW partition and reset the file system.

Assign a volume label to the new partition, select the file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and choose a cluster size, then click “OK”.

Step 3: Click “Yes” on the warning window to proceed.

Clicking Yes allows the program to format the target RAW partition with the file system you have chosen for the drive.

Step 4: Perform the Action

Click on the “Execute 1 Task” 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.

Option 2: Recover RAW Hard Drive

Original drive for which the letter has been lost

Sometimes, you may find a hard drive partition showing up as “RAW” without a drive letter assigned to it. In such cases, the Partition Master tool comes in handy to resolve this kind of RAW drive issue without formatting but instead by performing a partition recovery from scratch. Upon completion of the scan, if you select the RAW drive partition to recover, you will get a functional drive with its original drive letter and file system back.

Guide: How to perform Partition Recovery

Conclusions

If all these 3 attempts fail to fix the original drive and bring it back to normal, then there might be severe damage to the hard disk. The last thing you can try is to perform a low-level format, which will wipe out all data from the drive, making it unrecoverable. So remember to perform data recovery from the original hard drive before formatting it.