Convert RAW to NTFS File System without Data Loss

Sometimes, users are not able to open a drive and they are asked to format it so as to access the volume. This inaccessible drive is RAW partition & cannot be accessed until RAW to NTFS conversion is performed. In this article, I will be explaining steps on how to convert RAW filesystem to NTFS.

 Symptoms of RAW file system

RAW file system means the Operating system cannot read any information in the partition table to recognize the data indicating your data might be erased or corrupted and the hard drive may become inaccessible due to RAW file system. This can be caused due to the virus infection, power outage, accidentally shut down, format failure, etc. Following error message may appear on your screen while accessing the RAW drive.

In this situation, you cannot access the drive if you click on Cancel. On the contrary, you will lose all of your data stored in this drive if you click on Format.

You can check the properties of your drive to check the type of file system and to make sure that the disk, volume and partitions are in usable state.

No file type system is showing on the above image and both used and unused space is 0 byte in size indicating the file system is of RAW type.

Additional Symptoms

When running CHKDSK to fix this issue following message may appear on your screen.

Depending on the version of Windows the Disk Management will indicate the partition as without a file system type or RAW type.

Convert/change RAW file system to NTFS

If you are facing any of the above mentioned issues and your disk is inaccessible due to any corruption, hardware failure, IO errors, etc. It indicates disk configuration database got corrupted and disk might show the unreadable status while rescanning all disks of the system. In some cases unreadable disk has completely failed and cannot be recovered by manual methods. However, in dynamic disk the corruption, hardware failure or IO errors affects only on a part of disk and not the entire disk. In this case, you can change the disk status by following below mentioned steps.

Method1:

• Press Windows and R simultaneously, type compmgmt.msc and then hit on Enter.
• Computer Management Window will appear on your screen. In Computer Management console, click on Computer Management (Local) and then Click on Storage.
• Click on Disk management.

·         Select the Drive, Click on Actions and then Rescan Disk from dropdown menu.

  

Now restart your computer and check whether the issue has been resolved or not. If not, then follow the below mentioned steps.

Method 2:

To convert RAW file system to NTFS using command prompt, go through with the below steps:

• Click on Start and then type cmd.
• Right click on cmd and then click on Run As Administrator.
•  Type Diskpart and then hit on enter
• Type  Rescan and then hit enter

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Now restart your computer and check whether the issue has been resolved or not. If not, then try the next method.

Method 3:

To convert RAW file system to NTFS using System Recovery Options, follow the below steps:

Run check disk using system recovery with F and R parameters.

•    If you are able to access the D drive using the command prompt then backup the files on the drive by following below mentioned steps.
• Open the System Recovery Options; it will contain several tools to recover your Windows such as Startup repair.
•  Select Startup Repair  

•  After navigating to the Recovery Options, follow the below mentioned steps.
• Connect any external Drive to the system such as USB.
• Open Command Prompt, type Notepad and then hit on Enter.
•  Locate D Drive,
•  If you are able to access the drive then Copy the files you want to back up and paste those file to external Drive.
•  Close the cmd 
• Open the command prompt, type chkdsk /f/r and then hit on Enter.

Conclusion: The above blog elaborated manual methods on how to convert RAW filesystem to NTFS. Besides, you can resolve most of your Windows issues by following above mentioned steps.