Convert RAW to NTFS Using Command Prompt Without Data Loss!

I upgraded my computer from Win7 to Win 10 and I have 2 hard drives: one is "C" that has OS and one is "G" that has many pictures and videos, etc. Both drives had an NTFS file system. But after the upgrade, my "G" drive becomes RAW while the "C" drive appears okay. I've heard that I can format this HDD from cmd to fix this RAW issue, but I just don't know how. Please help me is there any Command Prompt to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data?

When googling things about the RAW file system, you may notice that some results said that Command Prompt can convert RAW back to NTFS. However, a few mentioned that you will lose important data if you fix RAW drives by directly converting RAW to NTFS. Therefore, to be supplementary, this article will go into detail about how to convert RAW to NTFS without data loss when you use the Command Prompt.

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What does RAW drive mean and what are the common causes?

When a storage device appears as RAW, it indicates the storage device has no recognized file system, or its file system has become corrupted or uninitiated. As a result, users can not read and access the data as the Windows OS cannot identify and mount it.

Common causes of the RAW drive

Use Command Prompt to fix the RAW drive without losing data

The Command Prompt is a command-line interpreter application built into Windows OS. Users can rely on its text-based interface to execute commands directly for advanced system management, automation, troubleshooting, and more.

Solution 1: Repair the RAW drive with the CHKDSK command

Before you look for any RAW to NTFS converter software, why not first have a check what's wrong with your drive? CHKDSK is a Windows utility that is used to check and repair common drive file system errors. And if your NTFS drive suddenly becomes RAW, you can repair it with the CHKDSK command to convert RAW back to NTFS. But usually, it will fail and you will get the message "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives."

Solution 2: Change the drive letter with CMD

If your drive was formatted NTFS, you can recover RAW partitions and send them back to NTFS by assigning a new drive letter. This process will try to load and repair the file system of your drive, and you can change RAW to NTFS without formatting. Just try the following steps out.

Solution 3: Convert RAW to NTFS with the DiskPart command

Sometimes changing the drive letter will fail if the key sectors are irreparable, so you can convert RAW to NTFS by using the DiskPart command. Nevertheless, just as the article said above, a direct Command Prompt conversion will wipe your hard drive and erase all your data on this drive. Thus, to fix the RAW drive to NTFS without losing the existing data, you can recover lost data from this RAW drive with data recovery software first and iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows is highly recommended.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows is a professional and easy-to-operate data recovery tool that can help recover lost data from the RAW USB drive, RAW SD card, RAW memory card, etc. In addition to RAW HDD data recovery, it can recover documents, emails, videos, and other files from formatted, inaccessible, or corrupted drives. This software is compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server.

Step 1: Recover lost data from the RAW drive via iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows

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Step 2: Reformat the RAW drive from CMD

After recovering data from this drive, you can format your hard drives with CMD. By using the DiskPart command, you can easily fix this RAW drive on your Windows 10/8/7, as well as convert RAW to NTFS/FAT32 without losing data.

Solution 4: Convert RAW to NTFS by reformatting

If you are not confident in using Command Prompt or think it is too complex, you can convert RAW to NTFS by reformatting. It's an easier RAW to NTFS converter utility on your PC. But to make it clear, reformatting will wipe your data like the DiskPart command and you'd better recover lost data from this RAW drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows first.

Solution 5: Ask for help from the data recovery service

If your NTFS drive is corrupted into RAW after a recent Windows update, you need some other solutions to repair corrupted NTFS external hard drives. Or it is possible that the listed solutions didn't make any difference and your drive is physically damaged. Under this circumstance, you need to send it to a data recovery lab if you want to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data.