How to read raw file system

To read data that was previously on a disk or memory card that is now displayed as having a RAW file system, you need to perform a data recovery procedure that includes reading and parsing the file system metadata using data recovery software.

The typical course of actions is:

  1. Search for the best data recovery software capable of extracting data from a RAW drive. Usually, you need a data recovery tool designed to recover NTFS, FAT, or exFAT filesystem. Also pay attention to the type of licensing offered by the software vendor: it can be either a subscription, or a limited time of operation, or a one-time run without technical support, or a lifetime guarantee of support and updates.
  2. Download and install the software. We recommend using ReclaiMe File Recovery because it is simple to use and degsigned to recover data from Windows filesystems, which means it can easily work with a RAW Windows disk.
  3. Launch it, select your RAW drive in the list of available disks and partitions the software displays and start the recovery.
  4. Wait till the software recovers files and folders from the RAW drive.
  5. Estimate the quality of the recovery by checking some files in preview. Select image files like tiff, png or jpeg because you can easily estimate the quality literally by eye.
  6. Purchase a license key and start copying the recovered data.

When you are done with data recovery, you can format the disk to any filesystem and start using it to store new data.

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