USB drive that says needs to be formatted

[tlaudicina]

My USB drive is saying it is not recognized and needs to be formatted. If I format it will erase all of my files. What can I do to recover my files?

 

[Lilsaint24]

Hello,
my usb dirve is saying it is not recognized and needs to be formatted. If I format it will erase all of my files. What can I do to recover my files?

solution one: reboot your pc, link your usb drive to pc again, if it dose not work, try another computer. Sometimes this will work, if don't, try solution two.
solution two: download a free data recovery software, restore your files to another usb drive. Generally speaking, all your lost files will be recovered.
solution three: when the file recovery is finished, you'd better check your usb drive.
1.Link it to your pc, right-click on your usb drive letter in "my computer"
2.Select "property", find "hard drive" and select your usb drive in"name", hit "property"
3.Select "strategy" and then "optimization" in the property dialog.
4.Wait till the optimization is finished. Hit "Confirm" and reboot your pc.
5. Format your usb drive.
If solution three dose not work, perhaps your usb chip is damaged, buy a new one.

I have same problem that My USB Format disk. ICare data recovery helps me. almost 100% of my files was recovered. Thank you so much...

 

[gyantis]

I get an error (CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives). It is an ordinary thumb drive.

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

 

[waleed xam]

you just need to install power data recovery software to recover your data....

 

[dfoulk2009]

I did exactly as you said and it gave me this: The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. What do I do?

 

[Y0GI]

I did exactly as you said and it gave me this: The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. What do I do?

Try Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Yogi

 

[haynes1995]

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

Bit of a silly question but do you have to format it before doing this solution?

 

[dfoulk2009]

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

Bit of a silly question but do you have to format it before doing this solution?

 

[Y0GI]

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

Bit of a silly question but do you have to format it before doing this solution?

No. Do not format.

Yogi

 

[navyxv]

Hello all,

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM! The simple command fixes did not work for me. I downloaded a few of the recovery programs and they also did not work. What did work for me was "Icare"

After downloading Icare I first partitioned the drive, then did the recovery for my selected files. I had to go through a hundred files with no names but I eventually found the important one I needed.

A WEEKS WORTH OF WORK WAS SAVED, thank yoU!

 

[TheBadger7]

You're going to have a friend indeed if this works 😀

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.
Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.
Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.
When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.
Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.
Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

 

[TheBadger7]

Your are my newest bestest friend EVER!

 

[sherryterry]

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that your steps for recovering the files on my flash drive were accurate and extremely helpful. I recovered every single document that was originally on the drive. I was panicking and stressed, because my thesis and other important had been saved on the disk.

Anyone on this board who is trying to recover your documents, follow his/her instructions!

Thank you again for saving me!!!

 

[kikizlo]

I did exactly as you said and it gave me this: The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. What do I do?

Try Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Yogi

Hi Yogi,

I have the RAW file message mentioned above. I tried "Recuva" & "Icare"... both didnt work. Any other tips? Startinbg to get worried.....

 

[Y0GI]

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

I don't get it. It keeps on saying " The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW Drives"

Try this: http://html5.litten.com/how-to-fix-external-disk-drive-suddenly-became-raw/

More here if that did not work for you: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+type+of+the+file+system+is+RAW.+CHKDSK+is+not+available+for+RAW+Drives%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US😱fficial&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs

Yogi

I did exactly as you said and it gave me this: The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. What do I do?

Try Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Yogi

Hi Yogi,

I have the RAW file message mentioned above. I tried "Recuva" & "Icare"... both didnt work. Any other tips? Startinbg to get worried.....

I previously posted a solution for the RAW problem on 10/2/2013, above. If the quoted links above do not work, return to that 10/2 post for solutions.

Yogi

 

[kaylad]

Just found this thread... I've tried recuva with no luck, the error message says unable to determine file system type, which I assume is because of RAW data. I'm using a USB image tool to backup the files now, but I don't know if this will get my files back. It's taking quite a while to make the backup image, and it's making progress, but I'm getting worried. Any idea what the backup image will do? Will I be able to access files from that? Do I need to do something else?

Not to worry, this should be straightforward. Although feel free to ask again if the following method does not work.

Firstly, find out the drive letter that your USB stick is. Let's say for argument's sake that it is the F drive.

Go to the start menu, and search for "run". Open that and type CMD. Depending on your Windows version, you can simply type CMD into the search bar and open the Command Prompt.

When this is open, type the following, without the brackets: [Chkdsk F: /r] Also remember that I am using the letter F as a reference, yours may be another but you can find it in My Computer.

Back to the point, when you have pressed enter, it will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames (relief!) before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location. These are essentially remnants of damaged files, I tend to click "Yes" just in case.

Your USB drive should now be working, please let me know how you get on!

I don't get it. It keeps on saying " The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW Drives"

Try this: http://html5.litten.com/how-to-fix-external-disk-drive-suddenly-became-raw/

More here if that did not work for you: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+type+of+the+file+system+is+RAW.+CHKDSK+is+not+available+for+RAW+Drives%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US😱fficial&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs

Yogi

I did exactly as you said and it gave me this: The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. What do I do?

Try Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Yogi

Hi Yogi,

I have the RAW file message mentioned above. I tried "Recuva" & "Icare"... both didnt work. Any other tips? Startinbg to get worried.....

I previously posted a solution for the RAW problem on 10/2/2013, above. If the quoted links above do not work, return to that 10/2 post for solutions.

Yogi

 

[Y0GI]

Yes, you need to reconstruct the MFT (Master File Table) with a program like Test Disk.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Tutorial: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Yogi

 

[Glen Davis]

I had the same problem when I accidently forgot to safely remove hardware, and came across this post. Here's what worked for me with Windows 7:
1. Click start, go to Control Panel, then Device Manager
2. Right-click “USB Mass Storage Device”, and select “Uninstall”
3. Unplug the Flash Drive and wait a few seconds
4. Plug it back in
5. Windows will give you the same “disk not formatted” error - don't worry...
6. Do not format the drive – click cancel
7. Then safely remove hardware (like you would normally)
8. Remove the flash drive, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in.
9. Now that it has been “safely removed”, Windows should give you a message saying “do you want to Scan and Fix” – Click the “Scan and Fix” button.
10. Check “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”
11. Click “Start” to start the scan, wait for it to complete… and then pray that it works for you like it did for me
Good luck!

 

[Jerome Bettis]

Hey don’t worry!!! This type of format errors may frequently occur with USB drives. The most effective resolution for this downside is using Remo Recover software.

 

[Reimer Morishima]

Thanks broo thank u sooooo muchhh
again bro thanks

I think you can try connecting the USB to any of the linux machines. you can see your files.

save the files in the linux machine from USB and format your drive and copy data back to the USB.

Note that the USB Stick should be in FAT32. Else Linux OS cant recognize NTFS.

 

[Reimer Morishima]

Thanks broo thank u sooooo muchhh
again bro thanks

I think you can try connecting the USB to any of the linux machines. you can see your files.

save the files in the linux machine from USB and format your drive and copy data back to the USB.

Note that the USB Stick should be in FAT32. Else Linux OS cant recognize NTFS.

 

[Reimer Morishima]

Well the flashdrive says RAW on most window but when plug it on window would it read it as FAT32?

 

[britesynth]

i hope this would help you

been a victim of this so many times and only one thing saves my ass all the time

if you open your HDD and it says ...not formatted, do you want to format it now?.... DO NOT FORMAT YOUR disk

what i do to recovery my precious files:

i have a copy of Linux ubuntu 9 live cd

i set my pc/laptop to boot disk drive so it would load the live cd

(plug in your hdd using an external case via usb)

hopefully ubuntu would load up (works well in win xp - yes i still have a desktop running xp, reliable and stable)

ubuntu will now detect all the drives you have on your pc/laptop

and there you could access your files

copy it to your healthy drive, copy small portions at a time, dont get too excited, to prevent ubuntu to hang up

hope this helps

 

[Lunayleen]

QUOTED SPAM REDACTED - SS


Thank you so much!! This worked and I recovered all my files!!

 

[TOQQ]

I also have a problem with the RAW thing. I try to use many recovery tool and some of it only work particulaly they only give 1 GB to recover and some of it cant use.
Please help me