Sometimes a damaged volume may look like it lost its filesystem type. Various error messages may appear, most common being The volume X: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now? The disk in drive X: is not formatted. There was an error accessing drive X:. The disk is not formatted. Also a CHKDSK tool will complain that it is unable to perform a RAW filesystem recovery. The type of the filesystem is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives. What does RAW partition mean A RAW filesystem simply means that it is a filesystem that is not recognized by Windows. Therefore all the available filesystem drivers are unable to mount the filesystem as a drive. This often happens when the records determining the filesystem type or location on the disk are damaged or corrupted, usually the partition table or the boot sector. Since Windows sees no filesystem in the partition, it prompts you to format it in order to create a filesystem on it. DO NOT FORMAT IT. Why does it happen and how to avoid it The most common cause of external hard drives suddenly becoming RAW drives is if they are disconnected from a computer without using the “Safely Remove Hardware” option. This can happen in many ways such as a power failure, unplugging the drive from the USB port or from its AC adapter, a problem with the computer that causes it to temporarily disconnect the USB hubs and many more circumstances can lead to this occurring. Always use “Safely remove hardware” to disconnect the drive. Left click the icon on the taskbar, select the device from the menu, and wait for the confirmation message. How do you fix it For this example, I chose the most heavily damaged disk with this issue that I could find in my collection of damaged disks. It has both of the most common problems. The partition table is corrupted and the boot sector of the main partition is also scrambled. The pictures of error messages above all came from this drive. The pictures of the repair process below are from the actual repair of this drive. Some images are from a virtual machine (simply to make it easier to get the screenshots) and some are from an actual desktop. This is a real repair not a manufactured example. Repair partition table and boot sector In order to repair the most common problems that cause an external disk to suddenly become RAW we will use a PartedMagic Linux boot CD and one of the tools included on it called TestDisk. Both of these items are free and I urge you to donate to them if you are helped by their use and have the ability to make a donation. This method allows us to work on the drive without attempting to mount it and gives us more direct access to it than trying to fix it in Windows.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:22:19 +0000
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