Member Avatar for Foad.adnani

i have maxtor 500 GG someday i figured the disk turn to raw and get panic and sad

i had a boot tools in USB drive and he have paret magic linux os when i boot it to os and comes linux and reset the pc my hard disk turn to normal and ok but after a time again turn to raw

whats a problem i confused ??!

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Short summary and practical plan for : intermittent “RAW” usually means either the partition table/filesystem is corrupt or the drive (or its cable/power) is failing. What suggested — the partition table being lost — fits the symptom, but the fact it comes back after you boot a Linux rescue environment suggests either the live tool is mounting/repairing something temporarily or the problem is intermittent hardware. ’s request for clarity is valid; start with data-safety steps.

Immediate do-not-dos and first actions:

  • Do not initialize, format, or run Windows tools that write to the disk (format/chkdsk) if you want to recover files.
  • If the data matters, make a full sector image first (don’t work on the original). On Linux a safe workflow looks like:
    smartctl -a /dev/sdX
sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/image.log
testdisk /path/to/image.img

    If you’re on Windows, use the manufacturer’s diagnostic and consider imaging with a GUI tool that supports read-errors.

Quick hardware checks (cheap and fast):

  • Try a different SATA cable, different SATA port, and a different power connector or PC/enclosure to rule out motherboard/cable/power issues.
  • Listen for unusual clicking or long pauses when the drive spins up — those are red flags.
  • Check SMART for growing counts of reallocated or pending sectors — that indicates physical degradation.

If the image completes, use TestDisk (on the image) to restore partitions or PhotoRec to recover files. If imaging fails or SMART shows clear physical failure, stop and consult a professional data‑recovery service. If you only need a reliable system, replace the drive and restore from backups.

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Member Avatar for happygeek

You're confused? I just read your question and now I am confused. Want to take another stab at it, this time so it makes some sense? :)

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

I'm guessing his 500 gig hard drive was flagged by Windows as unpartitioned so he boot into a linux recovery system from USB and reset the partition table. Then it was OK for a while but got reset back to unpartitioned.

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