Hardrive in IDE changed itself to RAW

Lady_K

This hardrive is from a previous desktop pc when that pc broke I put the hardrive into an IDE case so I could keep the contents. I cant remember what the system was originally but I would think it most likely NFTS.

At the moment I cannot see any of the contents of the drive.

I have just plugged it into my laptop and in properties it just says

Local disc
File system RAW

0 used space
0 free space
capacity 0 bytes

I have tried checkdisk and nothing happens, I downloaded Recuva and it says it cannot scan it as it cannot see what the file system is.

Is there any way I can just convert the hardrive itself back to NFTS and then be able to see the contents of the drive as it was originally or would I have to transfer any recovered files back to another place until I could reformat the drive?

I just want to see the hardive as it was

espresso

Raw means that all information referring to the partition and the file system have been lost.

You could try using Easeus Partition Manager here to try to recover your deleted or lost partition.

danthemoneysavingman

I suspect you've lost everything, sadly. I recently tried to recover from such and only got a load of corrupt files.

espresso

danthemoneysavingman wrote: »

I suspect you've lost everything, sadly. I recently tried to recover from such and only got a load of corrupt files.

Did you use a tool like Easeus Partition Manager though?

Lady_K

espresso wrote: »

Did you use a tool like Easeus Partition Manager though?

No not yet I will try it but I want to do it when I'm a bit more prepared as I am worried about making a mess of it. I'm in the process of checking a couple of other old hardrive ides first to see if they are ok too. I'm not very good at this sort of thing so I'm hoping there is some chance of getting the stuff back off the RAW one somehow

S0litaire

OK first things first:

!!!DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE!!!!

It's just the index (Partition information) to your files is damaged /corrupted

The index is backed up automatically on the drive every so often. you can't see this backup or get access to it but Recovery software Like the ones above will be able to see it and recover the index so you can get access to your files.

you'll need partition recovery software like "Easeus Partition Manager"

Or try "GetDataBack for NTFS" to testthe drive and see what can be recovered
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

*NOTE* The demo of GetDataBack will scan the drive and let you know what can be recovered i just won't recover it unless you buy it. But it is a good program none the less to see what's recoverable on a drive.


if you're feeling confident their is a VERY powerful program called "TestDisk" http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
I use it a lot but it's very intimidating but can recover almost any damaged partition i've thrown at it over the past few years!

Here's a step by step on how to recover a "RAW" drive using testdisk : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

espresso

Lady_K wrote: »

No not yet I will try it but I want to do it when I'm a bit more prepared as I am worried about making a mess of it. I'm in the process of checking a couple of other old hardrive ides first to see if they are ok too. I'm not very good at this sort of thing so I'm hoping there is some chance of getting the stuff back off the RAW one somehow

I was replying to danthemoneysaving man.

You will find lots of help on the Easeus website e.g. here

I can recommend the Easeus Partition Manager.

Lady_K

I'm just running the data recovery wizard but on an old win xp pro laptop as I was a bit nervous about running it off of my newer laptop.

It is still saying RAW in my computer but when I started the easeus wizard it says NFTS and gives a size so there is a little hope.

I did not tick the box at the bottom of the scan page which says manually select historical partitions for those who know partition structure and data recovery mechanism as I don't have a clue about partitions so I hope this is ok.

I have plugged in another old hardrive that I have completely wiped with ccleaner that is also in an ide case to transfer any recovered files to because the xp laptop that I'm doing it on hasn't got enough room spare.

I didn't click disc image beforehand or import as I didn't notice them so hope it will be ok

Will this automatically revert back to NTFS after this or will I have to do anything?
I will want to completely wipe that drive too with ccleaner to start from scratch providing the disc is ok

Lady_K

I didn't realise that I would have to pay after restoring 2gb, its quite a lot as well its £59.36 plus would it have to be delivered from the us? and can you use the programme once purchased on other laptops as I have 2, one old for emergencies and a newer one.

Would it do any damage to just have the 2gb from the free one then get other free ones to get more off until I have it all? Will it cause any damage to keep scanning to restore each time?

S0litaire

The software should just be reading the drive not writing things to it so you should be ok using it more than once.

Now I'm a bit confused >_< (but that might be due to the amount of coffee I've had toady!) did the partition recovery fail?

"EaseUS Partition Master" should not need an extra drive since it's repairing the partition information on the RAW drive to make it accessible again.

You should NOT need the "EaseUS Data Recovery" program unless the first one can't fix things

OK

Run EaseUS Partition Master again and can you let us know what partition information it finds?

We should be able to walk you through step by step to get the drive back in working order...

Lady_K

I didn't actually run the partition master because I read on the easeus website that if a drive is reading as RAW I would need the easeus data recovery wizard I was going to put a link to where it said it but I cant find it at the moment.

All I know is when I ran the data recovery wizard it highlights some files that are either

unknown lost folders quite a lot seem to be eula rtf and hotfixinstallers but others aswell

deleted file folders

lost or raw files 23 that I can see

Thing is though it reads as a ntfn drive in easeus

edit to add link
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/recover-raw-drive.htm

I remember I clicked complete recovery because if you hover over that it says about the raw state.
I didn't run the partition recovery because it didn't say anything about raw systems

from what I remember there didn't seem to be any problem with the boot part of it when it scanned on the complete recovery