Question RAW to NTFS

[Jackwolf99]

My secondary SATA HDD is suddenly indicated as a “Local disc” in Windows (10) Explorer. If I open Disk Management, it has a RAW file system, but is indicated as error-free. Tried to connect it to an external docking station, but it is the same there. It spins up, but the data cannot be accessed, as NTFS seems to have disappeared.
What is the safest way to restore it to NTFS without losing data?

Edit: Checked with crystaldisc

https://imgur.com/rdoWEQk

View: https://imgur.com/rdoWEQk

 

[ex_bubblehead]

.....What is the safest way to restore it to NTFS without losing data?

You don't. Reformat and restore the data from the most current backup. No backup? Then you just learned a valuable lesson, the hard way.

 

[Grobe]

With hard drives, everything must be in physical good condition for the hard drive as a whole to function. But there is nothing to see as everything are concealed under the lid.

It's like you parking your car at the parking lot. While you're into shopping something bad happens to the car and the whole front with engine bay is gone, it's just not there. And then you cannot get it to start and asking how can get my horsepowers back again. Not quit the same, but easier to explain.

 

[SkyNetRising]

What is the safest way to restore it to NTFS without losing data?

Use data recovery software and recover your data.
You'll need another storage device with same capacity as one you're recovering.

I've had good results with getdataback for ntfs.
https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm

Free version allows checking, what can be recovered.
Full version is not free though.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You can also try with chkdsk utility. It would fix file system errors.
But results are rather unpredictable with it.
You may end up with bunch of file fragments and have hard time sticking them together after recovery.

 

[fzabkar]

You can also try with chkdsk utility. It would fix file system errors.
But results are rather unpredictable with it.
You may end up with bunch of file fragments and have hard time sticking them together after recovery.

When I drive is ill, CHKDSK is potentially data destructive. That's because Microsoft's concern is the integrity of the file system, and it will often sacrifice your files to this end. It would be better to clone the drive with HDDSuperclone or its fork, OpenSuperClone, and then run data recovery software against the clone.

 

[fzabkar]

What is the safest way to restore it to NTFS without losing data?

Clone the drive with a tool that understands how to work with bad sectors:

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/hddsuperclone_guide/

Then run data recovery software against the clone.

Software used by DR pros:
https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3208