Verdict: MiniTool Power Data Recovery Tool is easy to use because of an intuitive and clear user interface. It is 100% safe to use this tool as it can recover the lost data without damaging the original data. Stellar Data Recovery Premium recovers lost data files from all media, and it lets you know in advance which files are recoverable. However, this utility is too often unable to deliver on its. The data recovery software is used to recover deleted documents or any other files from your hard drives. It comes in four powerful recovery modules. One thing you will love about this tool is its ability to recover raw data that had been previously corrupted due to implications like viruses. Stellar Data Recovery is one of the most popular data recovery services for businesses and for good reason. The platform comes with several scan options, meaning you can tailor the scan for the.
Summary :
Whether you want to recover data from RAW or fix the RAW drive without losing data, you will need the help of MiniTool Software. In this article, I’ll analyze the RAW drive format and the related problems; then, provide corresponding solutions and fixes. Hope you can solve any problems regarding RAW drives smoothly.
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What Is RAW
What’s RAW? To be specific, RAW is the default file system of CD-ROM recognized by Windows. In DVD burning methods, there is a RAW mode that refers to burning after reading the complete sector data. It can extract not only users’ data but also data of sub-channels. However, not all burners give support for RAW mode.
What is RAW partition?
Literally, the hard drive which has not been formatted by NT file system, such as FAT and NTFS, is called RAW hard drive or RAW partition. However, from this perspective, nothing should be included in a RAW hard drive/RAW partition; no drive can be put into use for saving data before it is actually formatted.
Why there are so many people want to recover data from RAW? In fact, that is because a hard drive/partition can turn into RAW after encountering problems like virus attack and improper operation.
This post tells you exactly how to recover files from RAW drive after virus attack.
In fact, the RAW hard drive problem includes two situations.
- One is that the whole hard drive has become RAW.
- The other is just one partition of a hard drive that has turned into RAW.
Next, let’s dive into them one by one.
RAW Hard Drive – the Whole Disk Is RAW
If the operating system you are running now can’t recognize the file system of your hard drive at a certain moment, the state of the hard drive becomes RAW. At this time, the hard drive will not allow any access to its storage. Meanwhile, its capacity, used space, and unused space will all be shown as “zero”. That is to say, all data originally saved in that “RAW” disk are lost. You can neither see them nor transfer them to a safe place for further use. What a tragedy it will be if it includes files of great importance.
It is worth noting that both internal hard drive and external hard drive can become RAW due to inappropriate operation or virus invasion.
RAW Hard Drive Partition – Only One Partition Is Inaccessible
When damage is only brought to one partition on a hard drive, you’ll find find that other partitions are still in normal state except for this partition, whose file system is RAW now. If you click on the drive, an error message will pop up to show that this drive is not accessible.
- The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
- You need to format the disk
- …
In this case, choosing to format the drive will help you enter it successfully. However, the formatting will be harmful to the data inside and possibly cause it all to be gone. Therefore, do not consider the idea of formatting the RAW partition to make it work properly - this will be done at the cost of losing useful data.
How to fix RAW hard drive to NTFS? You’ll need to recover all data successfully before changing the drive to NTFS.
How to Recover Data from RAW
In this part, I’ll talk about how to recover data from RAW in the above two situations respectively.
- How to recover files from RAW internal/external hard drive
- How to recover files from RAW partition
3 Ways to Recover Data from a RAW Hard Drive
Let's start with a true example on how to recover files from RAW drive:
Hi, I had extra space on a hard drive so I extended it in disk management but I did not format it as I had data on it. And now it is showing as a RAW HD and I cannot open it without formatting the drive. Is there any way to recover the date that I know is still on it?- from Tomshardware
Before the recovery:
You must stay calm even if the whole hard drive becomes RAW. You need to keep 3 things in mind:
- It’s no use wasting time on regret.
- A worried mood can’t help you make the right decision on what to do next.
- You must stop writing any data to the RAW drive before you get all important data restored.
Then, you should choose one of the following ways to complete RAW drive data recovery step by step.
The first way: use data recovery software.
How to recover files from RAW external hard drive?
- Install and run MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
- Choose Hard Disk Drive from the main window.
- Select the RAW hard drive and press Scan to detect files in it.
- Browse the scan result during or at the end of the scan.
- Check the files you need and click on the Save button to choose a partition for storing them.
- Click on the OK button to confirm your selection.
The second way: rebuild disk partition table.
- Call the system built-in fix program after discovering the RAW problem.
- Download practical tool to repair the hard disk boot record.
- Rebuild hard disk partition table with a special tool.
If you’d like to fix RAW partition without losing data, the last step is to recover data from RAW (MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good choice for even green hands to recover lost files).
The third way: make use of the powerful tool – WINHEX.
- Choose the RAW hard drive.
- Scan for lost partitions.
- Open found partitions.
- Select the files that can be and need to be recovered.
- Set a location to store files.
3 Ways to Fix RAW Partition without Losing Data
There are also 3 ways that can be adopted to recover data from RAW partition.
The first way: use MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
- Install and run the data powerful data recovery software.
- Choose This PC from the main window.
- Select the RAW partition and double-click on it to scan. (To recover only certain types of files, you may click on the Settings button and choose to do an extra search for known file types.)
- Browse all the items found by the software carefully.
- Check needed files and press the Save button to recover them (the appointed storage location for recovered data can’t be the original RAW partition).
The second way: add local user.
- Right click on the RAW partition and choose property.
- Select security settings.
- Delete useless users and messy codes.
- Add a local user.
The third way: change sharing and security model.
- Click Management Tool from Action Panel.
- Find Security Settings in Local Security Policy window.
- Find the sharing and security model for local accounts.
- Change guest only to classic.
How to fix RAW hard drive to NTFS?
- Get, install, and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
- Select the RAW drive from the right pane (if the RAW drive is an external one, please connect it to your computer now).
- Click Format Partition feature from the left pane.
- Select NTFS as the file system and click OK to confirm.
- Click Apply in the main interface to execute changes.
Possible Causes of RAW Drive
6 Causes for a Hard Drive to Become RAW
In general, there can be various causes that a drive could become RAW. It is hard to pinpoint which exactly is the cause.
For instance, suppose you are late for work today. The result is that you are late, but the reason is not clear - traffic jam, illness, emergency and a lot of other things could be the reason why you didn’t arrive to the workplace on time.
Likewise, the state of a hard drive could turn into RAW due to different factors. Now, I’m on my way, to sum up the common reasons and display them.
One: partition table damage.
No matter what the reason is, once the partition table of the hard drive has been damaged, the whole hard drive will become RAW. The OS can only identify different partitions with the help of partition table, which records the size, location, type and other information of every partition in the disk.
Read this page if you are interested in partition table recovery:
Xbox live app android. Indeed, partition table recovery can be quite an easy job as long as you have an easy-to-use third-party tool to help you.
Two: reinstallation or restoration of the operating system.
You may choose to reinstall the OS you are running now or restore it to the initial state for different reasons.
Three: virus attack.
Computer viruses and ransomware are widespread throughout the world. They should be responsible for many undesired problems, such as documents loss, photo missing, partition loss, system crash, and file system crash. The hard drive will be turned into the RAW state after viruses have attacked the hard drive and changed/deleted some vital parameters and information.
Four: file system structural damage.
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If the RAW problems occur without an obvious sign or reason, you need to analyze the causes manually. If you are not proficient in such work, you can resort to professional tools like WINHEX.
Five: bad sectors.
If you click on the letter of the hard drive only to find the responding speed to be very slow, it means that there are bad sectors in the key area of the hard drive. Under this circumstance, a professional tool is required to mirror the hard drive and find the location of the bad sectors. You are supposed to carry out data recovery only when this step has been done for the sake of security consideration.
Six: hard disk drive cable problem.
In rare cases, a hard drive may be shown as RAW in the computer due to cable issues. For instance, when the cable is broken, the hard drive can’t be listed in a computer with a normal state. In addition, if the interface of an external hard drive has a bad contact, you won't get a chance to see it listed in the computer.
3 Possible Causes for a Partition to Become RAW
You may see the following errors when you are trying to getting access to a hard drive partition so as to make use of data in it.
- The disk in drive F: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?
- You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?
- The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.
Please don’t format the partition as the prompt suggested you to do; there’s also no need to freak out when the above errors show up. You need to calm down and do the best you can to recover data from the RAW hard drive.
However, you should know the probable reasons leading to RAW trouble.
One: virus invasion.
If part of the hard drive partition table with partition information like partition starting position and ending position has been damaged or corrupted because of being infected by computer viruses, the corresponding partition will be given a RAW file system.
Two: system reinstallation.
If the current system partition is formatted with FAT, but it is changed to NTFS when you replace the old operating system with a new one, you may find that the file system of the system partition can’t be recognized by OS anymore.
Three: too many hard drives and partitions.
Having too many hard drives and partitions being used in one computer simultaneously will probably bring RAW partition issue as well.
To sum up, the reasons for a partition to become RAW differ and you can hardly know the accurate cause of it. All you need to and can do is sparing no effort to try to figure out the real reason.
Closing Words
This is the end of how to recover data from RAW and why RAW drive appears. After reading the above content, you must have noticed that lots of factors can lead to the hard drive RAW problem. However, although RAW drive data recovery can be finished completely sometimes, it is still advisable for you to backup hard drive regularly. In this way, you can fix RAW partition without losing data.
In a word, data backup is a very important way to protect significant data. Free mac cleaner apps. But if no backup is available, ask MiniTool Power Data Recovery for help. It won't disappoint you.
How many times have you searched for a file only to find that it’s gone from your computer? Your fault, my fault, nobody’s fault… it doesn’t matter. When a file you need is gone, all you really want to do is get it back: as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Deleted by accident? Formatted by mistake? Drive corrupted by the latest attempt at quadruple-booting? Plugged in the power to a non-hot swappable drive? Dragged a DVD across the gravel parking lot? Ran the USB key through the wash?
Really doesn’t matter since all that you want is your data. Well, that’s where data recovery tools can help. Let’s take a look at what these data recovery tools are and what they can do for you?
What is data recovery?
Data recovery is the process of recovering data that has been accidentally or willfully lost. In a corporate environment, it could also include data that has been made inaccessible. While in some cases it may be possible to search for the document you want through multiple locations including the recycle bin, in most cases, you need a tool that can do this job for you.
The obvious advantage of using a tool for data recovery is that it is fast, searches thoroughly, and can recover data from inaccessible or sometimes even deleted places. The only catch is that the drive should be physically working. That’s it! These tools will handle the rest for you.
Now that you have an idea of what data recovery tools can do for you, the next big question is how can you choose the right tool given the many options (both free and paid) that are available today.
How to choose the best data recovery tool?
The choice is not easy considering the many options you have. Here are some aspects to consider while choosing a data recovery tool.
Features
One of the most important considerations is the feature set. What does a tool offer and will this fix your problem? If the answer is yes, go for it. Else, look for other options.
Before deciding the features, make a list of the capabilities you’d like to see in a data recovery tool. This should be a good starting point as all that you’ll have to do is compare your list with what each tool offers. When there is a good match, it means that the tool is the most ideal one for you.
The company behind the tool
There is a company behind every tool and it is important to ensure that this company is reliable and experienced. Make sure to read the online reviews of the tools.
The credibility of the company is essential because fraudulent companies tend to use their tools as a way to steal valuable information from your computer. In other words, some tools are malicious and you should stay away from them. Checking the background of the software vendor is essential.
Preview and format options
The recovery tool you choose should allow you to preview your corrupted files, so you know you’re recovering the right one. This saves a ton of time and effort for you. Likewise, the tool should support different file formats, so you can recover not just your documents, but also your audio, video, and even image files.
Also, the tool should be able to retrieve documents from any media, storage, or electronic device to give you the utmost flexibility.
System requirements
Check the system requirements of the software and see if your system meets these requirements. This match will ensure that the tool can perform at its maximum potential, otherwise you may have a substandard user experience or worse, the tool may not work at all.
Cost
Cost is another consideration. There are many free tools available today and in fact, this post will have a long list of free tools when you scroll down. While these tools are good, you can also go for paid alternatives, especially if you’re looking for a very specific capability. In addition, paid tools come from reputed companies, so you can rest assured about their safety.
Top 23 free data recovery tools
Tools To Recover Data From Damaged Hard Drive
As mentioned earlier, here are 23 data recovery tools that come loaded with features and are free to use. Though you may have heard or tried a few tools, we’re sure this list will give you fresh options geared to address your specific problem.
1. Recuva
With both free and pay editions, Recuva is an incredibly powerful tool for recovering data from Linux and Window partitions. With support for all Windows versions from XP through Windows 8.1, this is a great tool to bring dead data back to life. It is one tool that has saved me multiple times over the years.
Features
- Optimizes secure overwrite on Windows 10
- Detects drives and partitions
- Recovers commonly-used file types
- Comes with an advanced deep scan mode to look for any traces.
2. Pandora Recovery
With a free version for recovering data from secondary drives, and a pay version you can put on a USB key to recover an operating system drive, Pandora Recovery has a versatile offering that can bring back most data without issue.
Features
- Scans and recovers all known file formats through a native scan.
- Comes with many advanced algorithms for quick scanning, deep scanning, and reconstructing lost partitions.
- Supports all major file systems.
3. PC INSPECTOR File Recovery
Completely free, PC INSPECTOR File Recovery is a great recovery tool for Windows systems. It can recognize data types even when the header is missing, so you can recover from deletions, formatting, or even total volume loss.
Features
- Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector is erased or damaged.
- Saves recovered files on network drives.
- Recovers files with the original time and date stamp.
4. PC INSPECTOR Smart Recovery
Also free, Smart Recovery is a tool focused on recovery files from external media, like flash drives and SD cards. It’s a bit older than File Recovery, but still works great and can handle proprietary file formats.
Features
- Works on many devices such as IBM microdrive, SONY memory stick, secure digital card, and more.
- Quickly and reliably reconstructs the lost data
- Comes with many digital cameras as well.
5. FreeUndelete
The name of this tool from OfficeRecovery says it all. It’s free for personal use, and it undeletes files that you have deleted, even if you SHIFT-DEL or empty the Recycle Bin. What it lacks in fancy features it more than makes up for in efficiency and simplicity.
Features
- Restores deleted files, even those removed from Windows recycle bin
- Saves the recovered files in a new user-defined location to avoid overwrites.
- Supports most commonly-used filesystems.
6. ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools
This suite of tools includes undelete, copy, raw copy, imaging, and boot sector repair.
Features
- Supports many drives and file formats.
- Uses a simple GUI, thereby making it ideal for novices as well.
- Gives you complete control over all actions related to recovery.
NTFS.com Data Recovery Software Tools include several standalone products that can handle almost any data recovery scenario. In addition to the free versions, there are pay versions with even more features. You can download a free trial of a bootable ISO with all of the tools on one image from http://www.boot-disk.com. Make sure you look closely at each tool’s free version, as they include a lot when you get into the details. The set includes…
7. Active File Recovery
This is probably the first tool to try, as it can handle undeletes, deletes that bypass the Recycle Bin, formatted or corrupted files, lost partitions, and more.
Features
- Efficient and easy-to-use, even if your PC doesn’t boot
- Recovers NTFS, ReFS, FAT, HFS+, XFS, JFS, UFS, and BtrFS file systems
- Reconstructs deleted and damaged partitions.
8. Active Partition Recovery
This tool can help you to recover a formatted or repartitioned drive in its entirety. It can also fix lost MBR and GPTs and can read from VMware virtual disk images.
Features
- Restores lost partitions and disks.
- Its low-level scan detects reformatted and damaged partitions.
- Creates a sector-by-sector disk image for data backup and recovery.
9. Active UNDELETE
This tool can run on Windows and recover data from non-Windows file systems including Linux Ext#, UFS, EFS, and HFS+.
Features
- Supports all types of storage media.
- Recovers many file formats such as docs, videos, audios, ebooks, databases, emails, and more.
- Restores deleted partitions.
10. NTFS Data Recovery Toolkit
Built specifically for NTFS volumes, this toolkit includes a disk editor, partition manager, and recovery tools. It also has great instructions on how to use each tool.
Features
- Comes in manual and automatic modes for added flexibility.
- Works well in both 64-bit and 32-bit computers
- Recovers most file-formats including ONE, PUB, IBD, FRM, MYI, VDI, and BCB.
11. Unformat
For all your external drive needs, Unformat can recover entire disks including external USB, thumb drives, and SD cards that you’ve accidentally deleted.
Features
- Restores formatted HDD, SSD, memory cards, and USB flash drives.
- Supports all prominent file systems
- Recovers data from memory cards that were accidentally formatted.
12. Active UNERASER
This tool can be used to recover data lost due to damaged, formatted, or deleted partitions and includes several other tools including a partition manager, a disk monitor, and more.
Features
- Recovers both 32-bit and 64-bit systems
- Restores most file extensions
- Supports all types of storage media.
13. Active Boot Disk Lite
Sometimes the data is not lost; it is just inaccessible because the operating system won’t boot. This tool is a bootable operating system image that can be used to gain access to the hard disk when the installed operating system won’t boot, so you can copy off data to external media before reinstalling.
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Features
- Starts even non-bootable PCs.
- Comes with a friendly Windows-like user interface
- Resets your Windows local user password and user’s account attributes.
14. WinHex
A multitasker that includes a disk editor, imaging software, encryption and checksumming, format converter, and more. It is more targeted towards investigation and forensics than simple data recover, and has several different levels of licensing, depending upon required features. It has an evaluation version that is free to try for as long as you need.
Features
- Provides native support for many file systems
- Imports all clipboard formats including ASCII hex values
- Edits data structures using templates to repair tables or boot sector.
15. TestDisk
Software designed to recover lost partitions or repair drives that are no longer bootable. It can repair most file systems (NTFS, FAT, EXT) and also recover data from deleted partitions. OpenSource, it can run under most versions of Windows, Linux, BSD, and Mac operating systems. It also can be deployed as a bootable image to recover from unbootable systems.
Features
- Fixes partition tables and recovers deleted partitions.
- Rebuilds NTFS boot sector
- Copies files from deleted FAT, exFAT, and NTFS partitions.
16. Wise Data Recovery
A freeware application to recover data from hard drives and removable media. It is simple to use and fast to find data, making it an excellent choice when you need your files back quickly.
Features
- Comes with advanced algorithms to finish scanning within the shortest time.
- Shows the possibility of recovering a file.
- Compatible with all Windows versions.
Best Tool To Recover Data Reddit
17. Data Recovery Wizard
This tool can recover data that has been deleted, formatted, or from drives that have been corrupted. The free version has a 2GB cap, but often the data you are trying to save is much smaller than that, so most users can do a lot with a 2GB trial. It has both Windows and Mac versions.
Features
Data Recovery Tool
- Recovers more than a 1000 file types
- Exports or imports scanning results
- Boots with a downloadable WinPE when your system fails to start
18. EaseUS MobiSaver Free
This tool offers hope for mobile devices too, with a free data recovery tool for both iOS and Android platforms. This app can recover specific data types from iOS devices and most files from Android devices.
Features
- Supports recovery from many storage devices
- Recovers deleted, formatted, or inaccessible data.
- Supports compressed and encrypted volumes
19. SoftPerfect File Recovery
Also from EaseUS, this tool can restore deleted files from FAT and NTFS partitions on fixed and removable media. It is a self-contained executable and runs on everything from XP through Windows 8.
Features
- Restores deleted files from NTFS and FAT drives
- Works well on both Windows and Linux platforms
- Recognizes most storage media
20. Puran Data Recovery
This tool can read files from damaged physical media, like corrupted flash or scratched optical drives. If your operating system can show the files, then this tool will read them off, ignoring any bad sectors to recover as much usable data as possible.
Features
- Copies entire drives when needed
- Supports drag and drop functionality
- Comes with different speed levels.
21. Puran File Recovery
Another tool that goes after deleted files and brings them back from the dead. There is a portable version that can be put on a flashdrive or bootable disk like BartPE, and it supports both FAT and NTFS partitions.
Features
- Comes with a powerful recovery engine
- The user interface is simple and intuitive
- Supports quick scan, full scan, and deep scan.
Free Tool To Recover Data After Format
22. CD Recovery Toolbox
Designed to recover data from damaged CDs and DVDs. If they are scratched or smudged or faded, but there is still some readable data on the disk, this is a tool that can bring back as much salvageable data as possible.
Features
- Recovers information from any CD/DVD disks
- Capable of recovering files that are larger than 4GB.
- Detects a lack of free space on the drive.
23. UndeleteMyFiles Pro
It may sound like a pay-for edition, but it is absolutely free and comes with a collection of tools for data recovery, including File Rescue, Media Recover, Deleted File Search, Emergency Disk Image, and Mail Rescue. It also has a secure file wipe utility, showing it plays both sides.
Features
- Comes with a file rescue wizard for easy and quick recovery of deleted files.
- Mail recovery wizard helps to retrieve mail contents
- Media recover makes it easy to recover media files in just a couple of easy steps.
While all of these are great and free tools for recovering data, there are many more out there. Do you have a favorite we missed? Leave a comment and let us know which tools you like the best. Or if one of these has saved the day for you, let us know too.