What to do right now
- Click Cancel on the format prompt and do not run CHKDSK yet.
- Check whether the drive is stable: no clicking, no repeated disconnects.
- Scan the drive read-only and copy your files off before any repair.
Step by step
Cancel the format prompt
Close the dialog. Windows will ask again each time you plug the drive in; keep cancelling. Formatting writes a new file system over the area that still describes your files.
Confirm the drive shows as RAW
Open Disk Management (Win+X). A RAW partition shows a size but no file system. If the whole disk shows as Not initialised, do not initialise it; see the lost partition guide.
Check that the hardware is stable
If the drive clicks, disconnects or is extremely slow, the RAW state may be a symptom of failure. Create a disk image first, or go to a lab for valuable data.
Scan the RAW drive
In Deleted file recovery, select the drive. For FAT32 and exFAT USB drives, FileFix Ultimate tries to reconstruct the damaged boot sector in memory and read the file system as it was. Otherwise, run the Deep signature scan.
Copy your files off, then fix the drive
Save everything to another disk. Only when you have your files should you format the drive, run CHKDSK or decide to replace it.
What RAW means
RAW is not a file system. It is what Windows reports when the first sectors of a partition do not describe a file system it understands. Common causes are a damaged boot sector after pulling a drive out during a write, a power cut, a failing drive, a virus, or a fake-capacity stick that overwrote its own start.
In many of these cases only a few sectors are damaged. FAT32 and exFAT keep a second copy of important values, and NTFS keeps a backup boot sector at the end of the partition. A recovery tool can use these to read the rest of the drive.
Why CHKDSK is not the first step
CHKDSK cannot run on a RAW volume, and when it can run on a damaged file system it repairs by changing and sometimes deleting entries. That is useful once your data is safe, but it can remove the very records a recovery scan needs.
When it won't work
- If the drive is physically failing, scanning can accelerate the failure; image it first or use a lab.
- A drive that was already formatted after the RAW message has lost its original structures; only signature search remains.
- Encrypted volumes such as BitLocker appear unreadable without their key; recovery needs the recovery key.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Reconstructs a damaged FAT32 or exFAT boot sector in memory for RAW USB drives and cards; nothing is written to the drive.
- Uses the NTFS backup boot sector to locate partitions whose start is damaged.
- Falls back to a Deep signature scan when no file system can be rebuilt.
- Detects read errors and instability so you know when to image instead of scanning.
FileFix Ultimate is free, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I fix a RAW drive without losing data?
Copy your data off first, then repair or format. Tools that rewrite the boot sector directly can work, but if they guess wrong they make recovery harder.
Why does my USB stick show 0 bytes or RAW?
The file system's first sectors are unreadable or damaged. It can also be a sign of a failing or counterfeit stick. Scan it, then run a fake capacity check.
Does FileFix Ultimate repair the RAW drive itself?
No. It reads the drive and rebuilds the file system view in memory so you can copy files off. It never writes to the source drive.