How to Convert RAW to NTFS Without Losing Data?

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What Is RAW File System?

The RAW stands for no file system, corrupted file system or unknown system in a hard drive partition or external storage device such as external hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, etc. The RAW file system is not readable or writable. If your hard drive becomes RAW, you won’t access the files stored on the hard drive. And if a hard drive is a RAW drive, it may show 0 byte in size or your computer will asks you to format it, initialize it.

Why Does My Hard Drive Become to RAW?

You may have encountered such a situation where your external device or a partition suddenly becomes RAW and you have no idea what's going on. In fact, there are several for this situation:

For mobile devices:

For disks:

Before Converting RAW to NTFS: Recover Your Data

Before converting RAW drive to NTFS drive, you’d better recover all data from the RAW drive. Normally, formatting or erasing the RAW to NTFS will erase all data stored on the RAW drive. Before starting format or erasure, just use a data recovery application to recover all data from the RAW drive to your computer.

Step 1. Download and install the reliable data recovery program - Donemax Data Recovery. It will help you recover all lost data from a RAW drive.

Step 2. Open Donemax Data Recovery and connect the RAW drive to your computer. Select the RAW drive to start data recovery.

Step 3. Click on Scan button. This data recovery software will deeply scan the RAW drive, finding every recoverable file.

Step 4. Once the scan is completed, you can select the wanted files and save them to a safe location.

Methods to Convert RAW to NTFS

💡#1 Format the RAW to NTFS

Step 1. Connect the drive to your Windows computer, then open This PC or My Computer.

Step 2. Find the RAW drive, right-click it.

Step 3. Choose Format. Select NTFS as the file system.

Step 4. Then follow the wizard to format the RAW to NTFS.

If the RAW drive is not showing up in This PC, just open Disk Management, then select the RAW drive and choose Format.

💡#2 Convert RAW to NTFS Using CMD

Professional Windows users also can try to convert RAW to NTFS with CMD, here are the steps:

Step 1. Click Windows Start menu, enter and search for Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type convert X: /fs:ntfs and hit Enter. (X is driver letter)

Step 3. Enter the name of the drive and press Enter.

Confirm if your hard drive or removable device is damaged

You can check your hard drive using the hard drive checker tool that comes with Windows. Open [Disk Management], find the hard drive you want to inspect, right-click it, and then select [Properties]. In the properties dialog box, switch to the [Tools] tab and click the [Check] button. Select [Check and Repair File System Errors] and you will be able to confirm if the disk has become RAW format.

Make a backup

Make a backup of the contents of the partition in RAW format on which you are going to perform the operation. This step is very important because performing any changes to the partition structure can be harmful to the data on the partition. You can recover data by making a backup of the RAW partition or by using hard drive recovery software hard drive.

FAQs About Converting RAW to NTFS

1.What should I do if the disk shows RAW and cannot be opened?

A disk showing RAW indicates that the disk is corrupted, in many cases the disk's file system is damaged. At this point, the operating system may indicate that it is not formatted. If the data on the disk is relatively important, then do not format it. The first thing you should do is data recovery. With the help of data recovery software, you can extract the data without any problem. After that, the disk can be formatted.

2. What if the SD card won't open prompting formatting?

SD card won't open prompting formatting may be caused by abnormal plugging and unplugging, the partition on SD card is corrupted and the data is inaccessible. In this case, do not rush to format the SD card. Because SD cards mostly use FAT32 or exFAT file system, formatting will damage the original data more. When using data recovery software to search for files, try to use deep scan to find as much data as you want.

3.How to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data in Windows 11/10/8/7?

To meet the needs of different users, we have provided you with 3 ways to convert RAW to NTFS.

Way1: Use CMD command

If you don't want to format your RAW drive, you can use the CMD command to convert RAW to NTFS directly, as follows.

Way2: Convert RAW to NTFS through formatting operation

We can convert RAW to NTFS by formatting the removable drive or partition in Disk Management as follows:

Way3: Convert RAW to NTFS with third-party Disk Format Tool

Conclusion

How to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data? I think you already have the answer after reading this article. In most cases, formatting the RAW to NTFS is the best solution for common users. However, data loss will happen. It is recommended to recover all files stored on the RAW drive before you format it to NTFS. Donemax Data Recovery is an easy-to-use disk recovery tool and it can help you recover data from a RAW drive or a formatted drive.