RAW hard drive

[t-sharman]

I have replaced my friends hard drive for a new one due to his old HD being corrupted.

I've tried to transfer the files on the old HD to the new one however no laptop will open the folders. Just shows the old HD in the driver E: etc.

It's now in a RAW file format and no recovery programs seem to work!

I've seen some videos saying to format the HD and then use the recovery programs to get the files back however I'm not sure if I want to go ahead and format it! If it doesn't work before hand, I don't want to format it and loose all the files which haven't been backed up.

What's peoples experiences with formatting a RAW HD and getting the files back?

Chdsk does not work.

Cheers

 

[Chicano]

The only beneffit from formatting a raw hard drive is adding a drive letter... but formatting it will make the recovery harder... and you can add a drive letter from the Disk Manager without formatting it. If the Windows disk manager fails to add a drive letter, use a Partition* Manager program such as Minitool partition wizard, or AESEUS Partition Manager... if that still doesn't help, use Partition Find and mount, run the scan, use the app to add a drive letter and if all goes well, you should be able to access the HDD from Windows File Explorer.

http://findandmount.com/
https://www.partitionwizard.com/
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

*Just in case the word "partition" confuses you; Even if the HDD is not partitioned, the only drive on the HDD is treatedas a partition.

 

[t-sharman]

Cheers for the info! I've tried to scan the partitions however nothing has come up.

I'm wondering as it's in RAW format it won't show any partitions? Really struggling to get it out of RAW format...

 

[Paperdoc]

I agree, do NOT Format the drive!! With current versions of Windows, a Full Format actually overwrites EVERYTHING with zeros, destroying all old data!

When Windows says a HDD is RAW, what that very often means is that there is an error in a little bit of the data in its administrative files (like the Partition Table or the Root Directory) so that Windows cannot understand it. Most often the actual data all over the disk is OK, but Windows does not know how to get at it.

This is a job for a data recovery tool. There are freebees on the market, and pay-for-me types. Virtually ALL of the good ones require that you have a spare HDD connected with enough space to hold copies of ALL of the data from the troubled drive. To avoid possibly corrupting files on the old drive, these tools will NOT write to that drive - they only will READ, and then place the recovered data on a different good drive. AFTER that is all done, you work to wipe off the old drive and make sure it is still good, then you copy all that recovered data back onto it. That releases the second drive unit for re-use.

Some data recovery tools I have seen

https://www.easeus.com/ad/data-recovery-wizard.htm?gclid=CjwKCAjwp7baBRBIEiwAPtjwxOCjIWemenaRnimuL80JYRlOwUEj5CufautsTiYOQrzwRA16B9bLYBoC60wQAvD_BwE

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

https://downloads.tomsguide.com/GetDataBack-for-NTFS,0301-33764.html

and a recent multi-product review summary

https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/353756/the-best-data-recovery-software

Some of these offer free versions that often are limited to recovering only a limited amount of data, OR you can buy the full versions. Some have an interesting trial feature. You can download and run a "full version" that will NOT let you save the stuff. Instead, it will do all the recovery it can, then let you examine all the directories and even the contents of files so that you can decide if it really has found EVERYTHING you need to recover. If it has, you can then PAY for it to get the license, and it WILL copy all the recoverable stuff to that spare HDD. BUT if you don't think it is able to do the full job, you do NOT pay anything and back out. The software has NOT written anything to the troubled HDD, so it is untouched and free to try another recovery tool on it.

 

[t-sharman]

Thanks Paperdoc,
Would easeus be able to read the HDD and recover the files even in RAW format?

 

[Chicano]

Cheers for the info! I've tried to scan the partitions however nothing has come up.

I'm wondering as it's in RAW format it won't show any partitions? Really struggling to get it out of RAW format...[/quotems]

Raw format usually means the data on the disk, partition or partitions can't be read. So if or not the HDD was partitioned, the issue has little to do with that... it is data on the HD that is not being detected. And being so, a data recovery application should offer the solution if the HDD is not damaged beyond recovery. If a partition manager did not find partitions, was the HDD partitioned to begin with?. I'm guessing not because your post tittle is "RAW Hard Drive", that should be detected as a single partition.

The partition managers I initially sugested have data recovery capabilities... so use the Data Recovery feature on Minitool Partition Wizard and next if necessary, run the Disk Check. And next fix MBR/GPT

If the Windows Disk Manager can detect the HDD, and if it is not to badly damaged, all you have to do is add a drive letter from the Windows Disk Manager so the disk/partition can be accessed and data becomes readable.. try that and if it doesn't help, run a chkdsk /r either from the Partition Manager or from the Windows File Manager.
See other possible solutions in the datanumen.com page.


Raw Disk Definition: "The term raw disk refers to the accessing of the data on a hard disk drive (HDD) or other disk storage device or media directly at the individual byte level instead of through its filesystem as is usually done".

6 Reasons & Solutions when Disk Partition Becomes RAW
https://www.datanumen.com/blogs/6-reasons-solutions-disk-partition-becomes-raw/

 

[Paperdoc]

I went to the EaseUS website here

https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizardpro/

and searched for "RAW format". The first item in the results was this

https://www.easeus.com/resource/raw-file-system-to-ntfs.htm

which outlines use of their software to recover from a RAW drive. You will note it does both important processes. First three steps outline how to find and recover all the data you can't "see" and save that to a second drive. After that data is safe, the fourth step will attempt to correct the corrupted few bits of data on the troubled drive and make it work as a normal NTFS-formatted drive WITHOUT losing all the old data. This step is NOT guaranteed to work flawlessly, and that is why it is so important to do the first steps of copying all data to another drive for safe backup. BUT if this last step does work, all your old data will be directly accessible on the "fixed" old drive and you won't have to copy it all back from the second drive.

The outline does not mention this, but I'll suggest it. Very commonly with a RAW drive, the only problem is a small corruption of data in the unit's "housekeeping" area and that is what the last step of that outline repairs. But is i still possible that the drive has other problems, even if the repair appears to work. So, IF the repair appears to have worked and all your stuff it there, I suggest you do a couple more things before relying on it. Get some HDD diagnostic tools and test the drive. For starters, what company made the troubled HDD? Go to their website and download for free their diagnostic suite. For example, for WD drives get their Data Lifeguard. For Seagate drives, get their SeaTools. Assuming you can do this on a machine that is running Windows and has the troubled drive attached (although not necessarily used as the boot drive), download the For Windows version and run that. Each suite will have many tools available. Be SURE you tell it to work only on the "troubled" drive that has been "repaired". The first few tools (especially the Short and Long tests) will test the drive without doing any damage to data, so they are safe to use. Note what they report, and IF they report a problem, write it down and call the maker's Tech Support people for advice. There also are other "servicing" types of tools that WILL destroy data, but these always will warn you about that before you use them. So WATCH FOR WARNINGS and don't use these destructive tools.

If those diagnostic tools show you there are no problems, then your "repaired" HDD truly is reliable and you can use it with no fears.

 

[t-sharman]

I can't seem to add a new partition/letter to the hard drive as there isn't space too. Trying again with easeus but I think I'm going to have to give it back to my mate with no luck!!

Nothing is working to recover the files...

 

[t-sharman]

Last question! Sorry for being pain!

On doing a deep scan on easeus it comes up with my hard drive as a lost partition. Scanning it and nothing comes up... What does this mean?

 

[rgd1101]

since the drive is failing, everything you do it making it worst

 

[t-sharman]

Gutted..... Truely a knackered drive! Cheers for everyone's help in this!

 

[Paperdoc]

Sorry to hear it's hopeless, but at least you can stop working on it now.