While I was transferring files using my WD Elements 2TB external hard drive, my computer suddenly lost power, interrupting the transfer.
After reconnecting the drive, Windows identified it as having a RAW file system. The partition is inaccessible, and the system is prompting me to format the drive.
Does this situation indicate file system corruption? Is there a good chance the data can be recovered?
See if these definitions help.
I recommend DMDE:
Software used by DR pros:
Does this software require payment?
Thanks for the reply. What I meant to say is that my disk partition has switched to the RAW format (RAW file system), rather than being a RAW-format image file.
Format Definition - What are the meanings of “format?”
Are you able to provide an image of what you see when you connect your device?
All those tools require payment. DMDE costs US$20, but its free version if often sufficient.
“RAW” means that Windows found a problem with the file system and is treating the partition as just a bunch of bits. Sometimes Linux can mount a RAW file system and access your data, but that depends on the damage.
Yes this is very likely file system corruption caused by the interrupted write rather than a sign that the drive itself has failed. Before doing anything else check the drive’s SMART health with a tool like CrystalDiskInfo. If the health looks good do not run CHKDSK on a RAW drive because it can make recovery harder. Make a sector by sector image of the drive first if the data is important then work from the copy. If Windows still cannot read the partition after that a recovery tool like Stellar Data Recovery can usually scan the drive and recover files without requiring you to format it.
The RAW partition after a power cut mid-transfer points to typical file-system corruption. Your data stands a good chance of being recovered — do NOT format the drive. Avoid writing new data to this disk. You can reference guides for recovering lost Partitions to scan this RAW volume and rescue your files. Hold off on running chkdsk for now; it may harm recoverable data. Only fix the partition after you safely extract your important content.
