Recover Data From RAW Disks

What does it mean when people say "My hard drive just became RAW"? A raw disk used to refer to hard disk access at a raw, binary level, beneath the file system level. When a hard drive or a partition becomes RAW, it means its filesystem cannot be recognized by the computer and therefore is unable to be mounted as a drive. Since the computer can't see any filesystem, it prompts you to format it before you can use this drive.

This often happens when the partition table or the boot sector is damaged or corrupted and the information recording the filesystem type or location on the disk cannot be read.
We rely on filesystems to read and write files. With the filesystem down, are all our data stored in the drive gone forever? 

Don’t panic and format the disk just yet. Let's first take a look at the causes of hard drives or partitions becoming RAW. 

Error Messages Related to RAW Drive Problems

When a drive or a partition become RAW, users may receive error messages like:

• "The disk in drive F: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"
• "You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?"
•  "This 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." 

Potential Reasons of Drives/Partitions Becoming RAW


1. The most common cause of external hard drives suddenly becoming RAW drives is they are disconnected from a computer without using the “Safely Remove Hardware” option. This can happen in many ways such as a power failure, repeated disconnection caused by bad quality USB cable and unstable voltages

2. Partition table/Filesystem structural damage. If the partition table of the hard drive has been damaged, the OS will not identify different partitions. Partition table stores important information like sizes, locations of every partition on the disk. 

3.Virus attack. Computer viruses are roaming the Internet. The hard drives will be turned into RAW state after viruses attacked the hard drive and changed/deleted some vital parameters and information of the hard drive, especially the boot sector viruses. 

4. Hard drive physical damage. Weak soldering points or damaged hard drive storage medium may cause the hard drive to be unrecognizable. In this case, you should bring it to professionals for examination and repair.

An Easy Way to Recover Data From RAW drives

Fixing RAW drives can be difficult. If you don't have much technological background, you might get confused by all these testings like S.M.A.R.T. and command console lines. Here we recommend an easy-to-use tool to help you recover data from lost partitions. 

• Install and run H Data Recovery 
• Choose "Hard Disk Partition Lost or Crash" from the main menu 
• Perform a full scan on the RAW drive 
• View all the recoverable files listed and recover whichever you want. 

However, although you can recover the files from RAW drives with the right tool, it is still advisable for you to back up hard drive regularly.