[SOLVED] How do you format RAW without losing data

[Zane Stewart]

My hard drive is dying/dead(?). The file system changed to RAW and I cannot open the drive anymore. Is there any way I can get my data back or format without erasing?

The drive is called: Seagate ST31000340AS

(I tried CHKDSK but it said "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.")

(I bough a new HDD today and its on the way)

(I'm not interested in shipping it to a data recovery company)

 

[sonofjesse]

If you don't want to ship it, I wouldn't hang a lot of hope on your options. You can go to google/youtube and try the standard stuff. But RAW is not a good way to start.

I have shipped some drives and have had good luck with that recovery process.

 

[fzabkar]

Formatting is data destructive. DON'T do it!

The file system is RAW because Windows cannot understand the metadata.

First check the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. Look for reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors.

Clone your drive with HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. These tools understand how to deal with bad heads or bad media. Then run data recovery software against the clone. Two good, inexpensive tools are DMDE (US$20) and RAISE (US$25).

 

[Zane Stewart]

Formatting is data destructive. DON'T do it!

The file system is RAW because Windows cannot understand the metadata.

First check the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. Look for reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors.

Clone your drive with HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. These tools understand how to deal with bad heads or bad media. Then run data recovery software against the clone. Two good, inexpensive tools are DMDE (US$20) and RAISE (US$25).

I shall try that! thank you for the help!

 

[TerryLaze]

You can run the free testdisk and see if it can see the missing partition, if so you can save the result and it will show up in windows again, it's the basic unformat of long ago.
It even has a file manager that lets you copy individual files to other disks.

TestDisk Step By Step

www.cgsecurity.org

If you look up smart and the disk actually has problems then do what was suggested before.

 

[Zane Stewart]

Formatting is data destructive. DON'T do it!

The file system is RAW because Windows cannot understand the metadata.

First check the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. Look for reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors.

Clone your drive with HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. These tools understand how to deal with bad heads or bad media. Then run data recovery software against the clone. Two good, inexpensive tools are DMDE (US$20) and RAISE (US$25).

So, I think CrystalDiskInfo just refusing to detect the drive at all? I can see it in partition manager and file explorer. I've never used CrystalDiskInfo before.

until that new HDD comes, I do not have enough space to clone all that stuff over, and I don't know if it'll even work?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Your drive is basically dead go get yourself an SSD they’re pretty cheap

 

[fzabkar]

The SMART data are stored in the reserved System Area (SA) on the platters. Your results would suggest that the drive cannot reach the SA, which would imply a head or media fault, assuming that the drive still spins up.

That said, it's odd that Windows reports the drive as RAW rather than uninitialised.

 

[Zane Stewart]

UPDATE: drive is so dead it won't even let me format it. So mission failed. Thank you, everyone for your helpful comments unlike Mandark.