How to fix a RAW file system on a USB flash drive: several standard ways

All kinds of USB-drives, whether they are ordinary flash drives or removable memory cards, are prone to errors due to a variety of reasons. Suppose a user needs to use a USB device to install or restore an operating system, and the file system of the flash drive is RAW. How to install Windows 7 or another modification, because such a format is not recognized? To begin with, the file system needs to be fixed. Here are a few basic techniques that will be useful in any other cases, when for some reason such a failure has occurred.

Why does RAW appear on the USB device?

The RAW format itself is a kind of "raw" structure, which, due to a failed or error, replaced FAT32 or NTFS.

The most common situations are related to the effects of viruses, power surges, incorrect device removal, software malfunctions of the microcontroller, and physical damage to the media. As a result, the file system on the drive changes spontaneously, however, the issues related to how to remove the RAW file system on the flash drive and restore the information stored on it can be solved quite simply. First, let's look at the Windows tools themselves.

How to fix a RAW file system on a USB flash drive: preliminary actions

In case of errors, you can not write or read information from the drive, although the flash drive itself can be seen in the "Explorer" and in the disk management section , and in the "Device Manager".

Before deciding how to fix a 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 (cmd in the Run menu) is started, after which the chkdsk F: / f string is written in it, in which the first letter ("F") is the USB drive letter (it can be seen in the "Explorer"). . This command is good because at the end of the test, if the crashes on the device were not critical, you can see your USB flash drive in standard NTFS format.

You can also run the test when booting from the recovery disk using the same command console in which before entering the above command, you need to write the lines diskpart, disk volume (to find the device letter) and exit, and then use the standard tool.

However, in the event of serious damage, the system may issue a message stating that the use of this tool is unacceptable for RAW discs. How can I fix a RAW file system on a flash drive in this case? The simplest way out is formatting.

File system RAW on a flash drive: how to fix the situation by means of Windows?

For starters, you can try formatting by calling the right-click menu in the Explorer and selecting the line for the operation.

When specifying additional parameters, you should use the full formatting, not the fast one, only with clearing the table of contents, and at the same time specify the required file type parameters related to the file system. Then it will remain to press the start button of the process and wait for it to finish.

In the event that formatting is impossible in this way, the problem of how to fix the RAW file system on the USB flash drive can be solved using the disk management section, which is most easily called by the diskmgmt.msc command in the "Run" console. The right click on the disk calls the context menu, where the format string is selected. If the disk is currently inactive, the initialization command is first used, and then the formatting is performed.

Troubleshoot problems with low-level formatting programs

If this does not work, the RAW file system can be restored using special utilities.

One of the most powerful is a small program HDD Low Level Format, which is conditionally free, but in the test mode it will be able to perform a formatting operation without problems. When the application starts, the Continue for free button is pressed. In this mode, the only restriction is the speed of the operation, so you will have to suffer.

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 100 percent of the operation, and after that, it will remain to perform fast formatting with Windows tools.

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 amount of time, you may need a lot. But the restoration is guaranteed for one hundred percent. Sometimes it will be possible to see even the data that has been removed from the device for a very long time.

What else do you need to know?

If, for some reason, the above described 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 "Hardware ID" section in the "Device Manager" properties menu and download the corresponding firmware from the manufacturer's equipment resource. If errors occur due to physical damage, the problematic device in most cases can be discarded.

Finally, it remains to add that there were not considered issues of viral impact, which can also lead to such failures, since each user should take care of protecting his system independently and without any reminders. And before restoring the USB-drive, it is desirable to check the viruses without fail.