My drive died, but was able to recover tons of raw data, never dealt with this before. Are there any programs out there that will convert the raw data back to its original state?
With respect, I don’t think anybody knows what you are talking about.
You need to provide a lot more details.
I have a similar problem with my 1 TB drive, and it cannot read anymore… the light was on and the disk was spinning, but nothing! I am trying to run Stellar Phoenix to recover data, but only able to see Raw Data… any help?
I’m assuming that your drive is still inside its original enclosure. Otherwise, if you have removed the drive from an Essentials model, for example, and attached it to a SATA port on your computer’s motherboard, then the data will be encrypted, in which case this would explain why it is “raw”.
Otherwise, if the drive’s file system has been damaged in such a way that its folder structure is no longer recoverable, then your data recovery software scans the user area looking for file segments that have recognisable characteristics. These segments will be assembled into “raw” files, perhaps with nondescript sequential numeric filenames.
You could use a hex editor to view the headers of each file. Sometimes this will give you a clue as to the file type.
HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor:
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd
For example, a JPEG file might look like this:
00000000 FF D8 FF E0 00 10 4A 46 49 46 00 01 02 00 00 01 ÿØÿà…JFIF…
… and a PDF might look like this:
00000000 25 50 44 46 2D 31 2E 35 0D 25 E2 E3 CF D3 0D 0A %PDF-1.5.%âãÏÓ…
You might even try using Windows’ search function to search for files containing text strings such as “JFIF” or “PDF”.
If your files include photos taken with a digital camera, then the JPEGs will often include text strings that identify the brand and model of camera, and the date and time the photo was taken.
I believe there is a utility that can automate this process for you, but its name escapes me.
Funny how people did! I just wanted to knkw it it was lost as raw dta or if it was some that was able to be convertedback to its original format
