How to recover files from RAW (external) hard drive?

Updated by Tim to Data Recovery Tips on November 5th, 2020

I removed my 1TB external hard drive from my Windows 10 computer without safely ejecting it. On reconnection, the system did a hard disk scan to fix problems with the hard drive and since then the hard drive is not accessible and shows RAW. There is important data on external hard drive and I am not able to access them.

About RAW drive

It is very common that an external hard drive becomes RAW in today's digital world. RAW is not a file system type like NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, it is just an error which indicates that there is no file system in external hard drive.

If there is no file system, you cannot access the data stored on that external hard drive. In this situation, you would receive an error message that prompts "Drive not formatted, do you want to format it now?" If you click Yes button, you will lose the data. If you click No button, you won't access the data. How to recover files from RAW hard drive without formatting it?

RAW drive data recovery software

iBoysoft Data Recovery is a free RAW drive data recovery software which provides two recovery modules to solve RAW hard drive partition problem.

Data Recovery module is used to recover data from RAW hard drive partition and RAW Drive Recovery module is used to fix RAW hard drive, RAW external hard drive without losing any data.

How to recover files from RAW (external) hard drive partition?

There are two different cases for RAW drive data recovery:

Case 1: One partition became RAW

In this case, the partition I is RAW, the other partitions are ok.

RAW hard drive in disk management

Tutorial to recover files from RAW partition

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery software on your Windows computer.

Step 2: Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery software and choose "Data Recovery" module.

Free data recovery software

Step 3: Select the RAW partition and click Next to scan the lost files.

Scan data from RAW partition

Step 4: Check the found files in RAW partition.

Recover files from RAW partition

Step 5: Choose the files you expect and then recover files from RAW partition.

Step 7: After data recovery from RAW partition is successfully done, try to reformat it, the RAW partition will be working again after the format completes.

Case 2: Hard drive became RAW

In the following case, this external hard drive has one RAW partition and one unallocated space after the RAW partition.

RAW hard drive in disk management

In this case, the partition table of this external hard drive has been corrupted so that the partition structures have been changed. So this case is different from case 1 and the data recovery method will be different.

Tutorial to recover files from RAW external hard drive

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery software on your Windows computer.

Step 2: Connect your external hard drive to your computer and then launch iBoysoft Data Recovery.

Free data recovery software

Step 3: Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery and choose "Data Recovery" module.

Step 4: If you see the capacity of RAW partition is not same as before, click "Find More Partitions" at left corner.

Scan data from RAW partition

If the capacity of RAW partition is same as before, choose it and click Next to scan lost files.

Step 5: Choose the hard drive and click Next to scan the previously existing partitions.

Find more partitions

Step 6: Once the previously existing partitions are found, please choose the partition whose status is Good and click Next to extract data.

Choose good partition

Step 7: Check the found files in RAW partition.

Recover files from RAW partition

Step 8: Choose the files you expect and then recover files from RAW partition.

Step 9: After data recovery from RAW partition is successfully done, try to reformat it, the RAW partition will be working again after the format completes.

Recover files from RAW drive by a local data recovery specialist

When encountering the following RAW drive symptoms, please send RAW hard drive to a local data recovery specialist for data recovery help.

1. The capacity of RAW hard drive partition is 0 bytes (Used space and free space are also 0 bytes).

RAW hard drive partition 0 bytes

2. The original capacity of RAW hard drive partition is not recognized by Windows OS:

RAW SD card

For example: Windows disk management shows 1TB RAW hard drive partition as 31MB.

3. We receive: X:\ drive is not accessible. Data error (Cyclic redundancy check) when accessing RAW hard drive partition in My Computer or Windows explorer:

Data error (Cyclic redundancy check)

4. Data is not found by iBoysoft Data Recovery software:

Data not found by iBoysoft Data Recovery

5. WinHex cannot read RAW hard drive partition due to unreadable sectors.

WinHex is a universal hex editor, particularly helpful in the realm of computer forensics, data recovery, low-level data editing.

After installing WinHex, run it as administrator, select Tools, select Open Disk, select RAW hard drive partition and see whether there are unreadable sectors or data error (cyclic redundancy check) or not. Unreadable sectors and data error (Cyclic redundancy check) mean RAW hard drive partition has a hardware issue.

How to format RAW hard drive to NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT?

After data recovery from RAW hard drive partition, it is time to reformat RAW hard drive partition to NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT file system so that it will be working again.

1. Windows OS has built-in format tool, right click RAW hard drive partition in My Computer (This PC) or Disk Management, select "Format..." to reformat RAW hard drive partition to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT file system.

2. Diskpart has format command which can convert RAW hard drive partition to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT file system, refer to diskpart convert RAW to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT.

3. Use partition management software, such as Aomei Partition Assistant, Minitool Partition Wizard.

4. Use the 3rd-party professional format tool, such as low-level format tool.

How to avoid RAW hard drive partition again?

Everyone should keep a good and correct habit of using external hard drive.

1. Safely remove external hard drive

The most common cause of external hard drive suddenly becoming RAW is disconnecting external hard drive from a computer without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option. This can happen in many ways such as a power failure, unplugging external hard drive from the USB port or from its AC adapter.

Always use "Safely remove hardware" to safely eject external hard drive. Right click the icon on the taskbar, select Eject device from the menu, and then wait for the confirmation message of "Safe to Remove Hardware".

2. Back up important data.

Data loss can happen to anyone, data backup is the best way to prevent data loss. Once the important data is lost, we can restore them from the backup.

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