RAW Partition-Reasons and Solutions

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By now, you already know that new devices must be formatted before they can be accessed and used. This is because the storage space is RAW and hence, cannot be accessed or used. However, sometimes a drive or partition contains some data that have already been written, these data may be unformatted by the computer’s operating system thereby making it unreadable while the same RAW storage space may come up when there is an attempt to recover the files with recovery software. This article aims to explain what all these means, it also aims to shed light on how to recover RAW partition as well as damage partition recovery .

What is a RAW Storage?

RAW is a state of data partition which lacks a valid file system or which is unrecognized by a computer’s operating system. It doesn’t matter if the data is lost, deleted, corrupted, or had a defect; the computer’s OS simple cannot read the data placed on the storage device you wish to access. When this happens, the computer’s OS blocks all attempt to access the data until the issue has been fixed. There are other forms in which the term RAW can be used, some of which are:

  • Raw Data: this refers to information or dataset which didn’t undergo any processing after being gotten from its source
  • Raw File: It refers to the digital form of pictures which is obtained from a digital camera or scanner. It contains pixel information precisely the way it was gotten from the camera sensor, without editing, adjustment or compression

Why Do Partitions Appear As RAW?

A drive becomes RAW when the computer’s operating system is unable to detect the files in the drive and so cannot mount on it. There are two case scenarios:

  • A partition is referred to as RAW
  • There is an initialized status, or the whole drive gets RAW

In cases when just one of the files shows as RAW while the others are in good condition, then it could be as a result of one of the following:

  • The operating system does not support the file system
  • There is a defect in the structure of the file system
  • The spanned volume has a partition
  • There is a restriction to the partition in the security settings

On the other hand, when the whole hard drive shows as RAW, thereby becoming inaccessible, then it could be as a result of one of the following:

  • The partition table has bee damaged
  • There is a problem with the hard drive connection
  • The partition is a component of a much complex storage system
  • There are bad sectors found on the disk
  • BIOS has not been configured to detect the hard drive
  • There may be too many devices connected to the computer or PC

Symptoms of a RAW partition

To recognize a defective partition, it will exhibit one of the following symptoms:

  1. You will get an error message in either of the following ways:
  • You will get a message saying the disk is not formatted and if you wish to format it
  • A message will pop up saying file M (the name of the file, it could be any other name of your choice) cannot be accessed and that the data is unreadable you will be asked to format the disk the drive
  • You will see a message saying the file system is unrecognized in the volume list.
  • Furthermore, you will be asked to ensure that all the needed files are loaded and that the volume list is not corrupted
  • You will see a message pop on your screen saying “invalid media types reading drive ‘M’;”
  • You will be informed that the image cant be initialized as the files in the drive isn’t recognized
  • You will see a message saying “sector not found.”
  1. If you try running ‘chkdsk’ on your computer, it will show either of the following words:
  • You will get a message informing you that the type of message in the file system is RAW and that chkdsk is not available for RAW data
  • You will be able to convert
  1. The properties of the RAW files will show 0 bytes both for used and free space
  2. The partition status in the Disk Management is RAW

How Can The Problem Be resolved?

First things first, you must avoid formatting as much as possible at least you have recovered your files and stored them in a safe place. If this is not done, you will lose all your data, and this, unfortunately, cannot be recovered.

If the hard drive is still functional, recoverit can gain access to the files, scan and recover the data. After that, you can format and fix the hard drive.

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