Updated 30/09/2026 · Data Clinic data recovery engineers
A drive that shows as RAW has almost always kept its files — Windows just can’t read the file system that lists them. Don’t click Format when Windows asks, and don’t try to ‘fix’ the drive in place. If it’s healthy — quiet, detected at the right size, not disconnecting — scan it with read-only recovery software, copy the files to a different drive, and only then format it. If it clicks, beeps, is very slow or keeps dropping out, the RAW message is a symptom of failing hardware: switch it off and use a lab.
What a RAW drive looks like
You’ll usually meet a RAW drive through one of these messages or signs in Windows 10 or 11:
- “You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it.” — the moment you plug the drive in or open it.
- “E:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect.” or “The volume does not contain a recognized file system.”
- In Disk Management, the partition is listed at the right size but its file system says
RAW. - In File Explorer’s Properties, the drive shows 0 bytes used and 0 bytes free.
- Running CHKDSK gives “The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.”
All of these say the same thing: Windows found the drive, but not a file system it understands. Very often nothing is wrong with the files themselves — only with the small structures that tell Windows where they are. (If Windows can open the drive but a particular folder says “the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”, that’s a closely related, smaller version of the same problem.)
Why drives go RAW
- Unplugged or powered off mid-write. Pulling out an external drive without ejecting it, a power cut, or a PC crash while files were being saved can leave the boot sector or file table half-updated. This is the most common cause we see on external drives.
- A file system Windows can’t read. A drive formatted on a Mac (APFS or HFS+) or on Linux, or by some TVs, recorders and set-top boxes, can look RAW or ‘needs formatting’ to Windows even though it’s perfectly fine. Nothing is lost — Windows just doesn’t speak that language. If it’s a Mac drive, see how to read a Mac drive on Windows.
- A damaged or overwritten partition table or boot sector, for example after a failed partitioning tool, a cloning mistake, or malware.
- Encryption. A BitLocker volume whose encryption details are damaged can appear unreadable; see BitLocker encrypted drive recovery. Some WD My Passport and My Book drives encrypt data on the USB circuit board inside the case, so if that board fails, or the bare drive is connected without it, the drive looks RAW or unformatted. That’s a lab job, not a software one.
- Failing hardware. A drive with bad sectors or weak heads can go RAW simply because it can no longer read the area at the start of the volume where the file system begins. Software can’t fix that — and scanning can make it worse.
Two-minute check: software job or lab job?
Before you run anything, open Disk Management (right-click the Start button → Disk Management) and listen to the drive. Then match what you see:
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Partition at the correct size, file system RAW; drive quiet and stays connected | File-system damage — a logical fault | Software job. Scan read-only and recover to another drive. |
| Drive was used on a Mac, Linux PC, TV or recorder | Probably a file system Windows can’t read | Try it on the device that made it first. If that fails too, it’s a software job. |
| Disk shows the correct size but is all Unallocated | The partition table has been lost or deleted | Software job if the drive is healthy — don’t create a new partition. |
| Disk shows ‘Not Initialized’, ‘Unknown’, 0 MB, the wrong capacity or ‘No Media’ | The drive can’t report itself properly — electronics, firmware or the USB board | Lab job. Don’t initialise it. |
| Any clicking, beeping, grinding, very slow response, or the drive appears and disappears | Physical failure | Lab job. Switch it off now. |
Don’t run recovery software if the drive clicks, beeps or grinds (see hard drive clicking and hard drive beeping), isn’t detected or shows the wrong size, keeps disconnecting or freezing the computer, or has been dropped or got wet. A long scan of a failing drive is the quickest way to turn a recoverable problem into an unrecoverable one. Get a free diagnosis instead.
How to recover files from a RAW drive, step by step
These steps are for a RAW hard drive, SSD or USB stick that passed the check above. We’ve used our own tool, Data Clinic Recovery for Hard Drives, as the example, but the order of work is right whichever software you choose.
- Cancel every ‘format’ prompt and stop copying anything to or from the drive.
- Connect it to a working Windows PC as a second drive. An external drive or stick just plugs in. An internal drive can go in a USB enclosure or adapter, or stay in a desktop PC that runs Windows from a different drive. If the RAW drive is the one Windows ran from, take it out and scan it from another PC.
- Let the software read the drive’s health report (SMART) first. Ours does this before every scan and refuses to scan a drive that reports it is failing. If the drive is showing signs of trouble, image it first: the tool reads every sector once into a file on another drive, and every scan then works from that copy.
- Run a quick scan. A RAW volume has often lost only its boot sector, with much of the file table still in place. A quick scan reads whatever file tables survive — NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and Mac APFS, HFS+ and HFS — and files found that way come back with their original names and folders. On a Mac-formatted drive that Windows can’t read at all, that includes every file still on it.
- If the quick scan doesn’t find what you need, run a deep scan. It reads the whole drive and recognises files by their content — photos, video, music, Office documents, PDFs, Outlook files, archives and more. Anything the drive’s file tables still list keeps its name and folder; files found only by their content come back with numbered names such as Rescued_0001.jpg, in a separate [Found by content] folder, so expect some sorting there.
- Preview, then recover to a different drive. Open some of the files in the preview first. Never save recovered files back onto the RAW drive — our tool won’t let you.
- Check the recovered files open, back them up, and only then format the RAW drive (see below).
If the scan slows right down, stalls or reports read errors, stop. That means the RAW message had a physical cause after all. Imaging the drive once, gently, is the most software can safely do — if the drive gets worse, it’s a lab job.
Data Clinic Recovery for Hard Drives
Recovery software written by a data recovery lab, for exactly this kind of problem: deleted, formatted and lost files on hard drives, SSDs and USB memory sticks — including drives Windows now says are RAW.
- Free scan and preview — you only pay if you want to recover
- Quick scan reads surviving file tables and keeps names and folders; deep scan finds files by content
- Reads Mac-formatted drives (APFS, HFS+) that Windows can’t open
- Strictly read-only, with a drive health check before every scan
- If the drive turns out to need our lab within 90 days, a Personal licence fee comes off the lab’s price
Available now for Windows 10/11 — download it free, scan and preview before you buy. Licences from £39.99 inc VAT for 28 days.
‘RAW to NTFS without losing data’ — the honest answer
This is the most searched question about RAW drives, and most of the answers online skip the risk. There are only two ways to turn a RAW volume back into a working NTFS one:
- Format it. Quick, safe for the drive, and it writes a new, empty file system over the old one. Your files’ data isn’t erased by a quick format, but the names, folders and table that pointed to them are gone for good — so format after you’ve recovered, never before. (If it’s already happened, see recovering files from a formatted hard drive.)
- Repair it in place with a partition or boot-sector repair utility. When the damage is small and the tool guesses right, the drive reappears with everything on it. When it guesses wrong, it has written over the only copy of your file system.
So the order that never loses anything is: recover the files read-only to another drive → check them → then format or repair the RAW drive. If the files are already safe, it no longer matters whether the repair works. And if the drive went RAW for no obvious reason, check its health before trusting it with data again.
What not to do with a RAW drive
- Don’t click Format when Windows asks, and don’t ‘Initialize’ the disk if Disk Management offers to.
- Don’t create a new partition or volume over unallocated space on the drive.
- Don’t run CHKDSK or other repair tools first. They change the file system to make it consistent, not to save your files. See why not to run CHKDSK.
- Don’t save recovered files back onto the RAW drive.
- Don’t keep unplugging and replugging a drive that drops out, or leave a struggling drive scanning overnight.
- Don’t open the case of an external drive to ‘try it directly’ — on some models that makes the data unreadable without the original USB board.
When software won’t help — use the lab
Stop and send it to a lab if any of these apply
- The drive has any physical symptom: clicking, beeping, grinding, not spinning, not detected, the wrong size, disconnecting, or it was dropped or got wet.
- Disk Management shows it as Not Initialized, Unknown or 0 MB.
- The drive’s health report says it’s failing, or a scan hits read errors.
- It’s an encrypted WD external drive whose USB board has failed or been removed — see Western Digital data recovery.
- It’s a RAID array or NAS volume that has gone RAW or unreadable — see RAID data recovery and NAS data recovery.
- The files are irreplaceable and you’d rather not experiment.
Our hard drive recovery service images failing drives with hardware built for the job. For single hard drives, diagnosis is free and there’s no charge if we can’t recover your data.
RAW USB stick? The same steps apply — Data Clinic Recovery for Hard Drives covers USB memory sticks too, and our guide to a USB stick not showing files covers the other causes. RAW camera or phone memory card? Use our free Memory Card Recovery software instead. External drive won’t mount on a Mac? See external hard drive not mounting on Mac.
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Frequently asked questions
What does it mean when a drive shows as RAW?
RAW means Windows can see the drive or partition but can’t recognise any file system on it — so it can’t list the files. Usually the small area that describes the volume (the boot sector) or the file table has been damaged, or the drive uses a file system Windows can’t read, such as a Mac or Linux one. The files themselves are normally still on the drive.
Can you recover data from a RAW drive?
Usually, yes, as long as the drive is physically healthy. Don’t format it. Scan it with read-only recovery software, which reads whatever file tables survive and, where they don’t, finds files by their content. Recover the files to a different drive, and only then format the RAW drive to reuse it.
How do I convert RAW to NTFS without losing data?
Recover the files first, then format. There is no safe one-click conversion: formatting to NTFS writes a new, empty file system, and tools that ‘repair’ a RAW volume in place write to the only copy of your data — if they guess wrong, the damage is permanent. Copy everything off with read-only software, check it opens, then format the drive to NTFS (or exFAT) and copy back what you need.
Why does CHKDSK say it is not available for RAW drives?
CHKDSK repairs a file system it can recognise. On a RAW volume it can’t find one, so it stops with ‘The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.’ That’s no loss: on a drive holding files you need, CHKDSK is the wrong first step anyway, because it changes the file system to make it consistent rather than to get your files back.
Windows says ‘You need to format the disk before you can use it’. Should I click Format?
No — click Cancel. The message appears whenever Windows can’t read a volume’s file system. Formatting would replace the damaged file system with a new, empty one and make recovery harder. Cancel, stop writing to the drive, and follow the checks on this page.
My external drive went RAW after I unplugged it without ejecting. Is it broken?
Probably not. Unplugging a drive, or losing power, while Windows is writing can leave the file system half-updated, which is one of the most common causes of a RAW drive. If the drive is otherwise healthy — quiet, detected at the right size, not disconnecting — this is a logical problem that recovery software is designed for.
My USB stick or memory card says RAW. Is it the same thing?
Yes, the same file-system damage happens on USB sticks and memory cards. For a USB memory stick, Data Clinic Recovery for Hard Drives covers USB sticks as well as hard drives. For an SD, microSD or other camera memory card, use Data Clinic’s free Memory Card Recovery software. If the stick or card shows 0 MB or keeps disconnecting, it needs a lab instead.
The drive is RAW and it is also clicking, very slow or keeps disconnecting. What now?
Switch it off and don’t run software on it. Those are physical symptoms; a failing drive can go RAW because it can no longer read the area where the file system starts. Every scan makes a failing drive work harder. Book a free assessment with our lab — for a single hard drive, diagnosis is free.
Related guides: Mac drive on a Windows PC · recover deleted files from an external hard drive · recover files from a formatted hard drive · the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable · NTFS file system overview · free data recovery software compared · hard drive clicking noise