All kinds of USB-drives, whether it be ordinary flash drives or removable memory cards, are prone to errors due to many reasons. Suppose a user needs to use a USB device to install or restore the operating system, and the flash drive's file system is RAW. How to install Windows 7 or another modification, because such a format is not recognized? First you need to fix the file system. The following are a few basic techniques that will come in handy in any other cases when for some reason such a failure occurred.
Why does the RAW format appear on the USB device?
The RAW format itself is a kind of "raw" structure, which, due to a failure or error, replaced FAT32 or NTFS.
The most common situations are associated with exposure to viruses, power surges, incorrect removal of the device, software malfunctions of the microcontroller, and physical damage to the media. As a result, the file system on the drive changes spontaneously, however, issues related to how to remove the RAW file system on a flash drive and restore the information stored on it can be solved quite simply. To begin, consider the native tools of Windows-systems.
How to fix a RAW file system on a flash drive: preliminary steps
In case of errors, it is impossible to write or read information from the drive, although the flash drive itself can be visible in the "Explorer", in the disk management section , and in the "Device Manager".
Before proceeding to resolve the issue of how to fix the RAW file system on a USB flash drive, it is recommended that you first check it with a regular system tool in the form of a CHKDSK disk checker.
To start the diagnostics, the command console is launched (cmd in the "Run" menu), after which the line chkdsk F: / f is written in it, in which the first letter ("F") is the letter of the USB drive (you can see it in the "Explorer") . This command is good because at the end of the test, if the device crashes were not critical, you can see your flash drive in the standard NTFS format.
You can also run a test when booting from a recovery disk using the same command console in which you need to register diskpart, disk volume (to find out the device’s letter) and exit before entering the above command, and then use the standard tool.
However, in the event of serious damage, the system may display a message stating that the use of this tool is not acceptable for RAW discs. How to fix the RAW file system on a flash drive in this case? The easiest way out is formatting.
The RAW file system on a flash drive: how to fix the situation using Windows?
To get started, you can try formatting by calling the right-click menu in Explorer and selecting the line for performing this operation.
When specifying additional parameters, full formatting should be used, and not fast only with clearing the table of contents, and at the same time indicate the required type parameters related to the file system. Then it remains to press the start button of the process and wait for it to finish.
In the case when formatting in this way is not possible, the problem of how to fix the RAW file system on a USB flash drive can be solved using the disk management section, which is easiest to call with the diskmgmt.msc command in the Run console. Right-clicking on the disk brings up the context menu, where the format string is selected. If the disk is currently inactive, the initialization command is used first, and then formatting is performed.
Resolving a problem with low-level formatting programs
If this also does not give effect, the restoration of the file system of the RAW flash drive can be done using special utilities.
One of the most powerful is considered a small program HDD Low Level Format, which is shareware, however, in test mode, it can perform the formatting operation without problems. When the application starts, the Continue for free button is pressed. In this mode, the only limitation will be the speed of the operation, so you have to wait.
Next, you need to select your drive, click the continue button and confirm the formatting, agreeing with the program warning. At the end of the process, a message will be displayed about the 100% completion of the operation, and after that it will remain to produce quick formatting using Windows.
Data Recovery Software
As for data recovery, it is best to use software products like R.Saver, RS FAT Recovery and others.
Depending on the size of the drive, a lot of time may be required. But recovery is guaranteed one hundred percent. Sometimes you can even see data that has been deleted from the device for a very long time.
What you need to know more?
If for some reason the above methods do not help, it is very likely that the problem is a malfunction of the microcontroller. You can try to reflash it using the VEN and DEV identifiers from the “Equipment ID” section of the “Device Manager” properties menu and downloading the appropriate firmware from the equipment manufacturer’s resource. If errors occur due to physical damage, the problem device in most cases can be thrown away.
Finally, it remains to add that here the issues of viral exposure, which also can lead to such failures, were not considered, since each user should take care of protecting his system independently and without reminders. And before restoring the USB-drive, it is advisable to conduct a virus scan without fail.