USB drive that says needs to be formatted

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tlaudicina

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Jun 18, 2012
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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?
 
Solution
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...

tprezzle

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Jun 15, 2012
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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!

 
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riemomof2

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Nov 23, 2012
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Hi! I tried this and I'm getting a "The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives. HELP!!!
 

TomphotoCA

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QUOTED SPAM REDACTED - SS
I have the same problem on my Adata 16GB 3.0. - RAW and it needs to be formatted. The wired thing: I just bought it a months ago from newegg and I did format it before saving photos to the ADATA USB. I did not know why a month later, it asked me to format it AGAIN?

I was pretty upset since the photos saved on the new usb was for a new married couple. You know I work for a photographic workshop.

I looked around the web and come to this forum and to my surprise, 95% of lost photos are restored sound, only 3 photos were corrupted. Anyway, I am pretty satisfied with the software and BIG THANK YOU - tomshardware and YOU!
 

Nandylove27

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Feb 13, 2013
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i followed the steps and it said the type of the file system is raw? what does that mean?
 

ClayBot

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Apr 15, 2013
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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!
 

idontknowanything2

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Apr 23, 2013
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"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."

>>did this and it said not available for raw drives?

 

Gourav Singh

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Apr 25, 2013
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Have done this 4-5 times but still it says format disk.Now what should i do?????
 

nufib

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Jul 1, 2013
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Umar Farouq

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Jul 3, 2013
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Umar Farouq

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innamurip

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Aug 2, 2013
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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.
 

emmadisrinivas

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Aug 22, 2013
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tessadennis

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Aug 25, 2013
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Hi i tried this and nothing, still wants me to format dick
 

tessadennis

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Aug 25, 2013
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Hi i tried this and nothing, still wants me to format dick
 

plain_ol_dude

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Sep 11, 2013
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just_how

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Oct 2, 2013
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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:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs

Yogi

 

shadilol

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Oct 26, 2013
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I Am getting the something "The type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives.".

Any one please help!!!!
 
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