Member Avatar for cretaros

My Hardrive just lost the file system and now its not accessible, its Raw if i view it in Computer management , how can i correct this or restore the NTFS file system because it have a lot of data. Any help?

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 167 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by cretaros

Dani AI

Generated

Since the drive is already showing RAW and mounting it on another PC didn’t help (thanks to for that troubleshooting step), the first rule is: stop writing to the disk and do not accept any Windows prompts to initialize or format it. Further writes can overwrite metadata and make recovery harder.

Make a full sector image before attempting repairs. On Linux a safe, widely used tool is GNU ddrescue; create the image on a different physical disk and keep ddrescue’s log so you can resume or retry without re-reading intact sectors. Example:

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/backup/image.dd /path/to/backup/image.log

Consult the ddrescue manual for subsequent passes and options: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Work from the image, not the original. Use TestDisk to search for lost partitions and restore the filesystem metadata or copy files off the image. Typical TestDisk flow: create a log, select the disk/image, choose the partition table type (usually Intel/PC), run Analyze → Quick Search, press P to list files and use TestDisk’s copy function to save recoverable files to another drive. If TestDisk can rebuild the partition table/boot sector, writing it back may make the volume accessible again. Step-by-step guidance is at: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

If TestDisk can’t recover file names, PhotoRec (bundled with TestDisk) can carve files by signature. Before doing anything else, check SMART for physical failure (CrystalDiskInfo or smartctl). If the drive clicks, shows severe SMART errors, or imaging repeatedly fails, stop and consult a professional recovery service — further DIY attempts can worsen physical failures. Avoid running chkdsk on a RAW volume; it won’t run and may cause harm once you start forcing repairs.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for lolafuertes

Did you already tryed to mount it as secondary hdd in another computer and read the disk content?

Member Avatar for cretaros

I tried my friend bt the problem still persists, also i cannot run command chkdsk x; as it is unreadable.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.