Top 5 RAW disk recovery tools [2023]
The so-called RAW filesystem disk problem occurs only on computers running the Windows operating system.
The essence of the problem is that the operating system does not find any metadata about the file system on the disk,
because they are either missing in the disk areas where the driver expects to find them,
or corrupted to such an extent that the driver no longer recognizes them as correct metadata.
Since the metadata about the file system is not found on the disk,
it is recognized by the operating system as a disk without a file system, that is, a RAW disk,
which is written in the disk properties in Disk Management.
If this is just an empty disk or a disk from which previous data is not needed, then you can simply format it,
for example, to NTFS and start using it for data storage,
please refer here for the instructions on how to format a raw drive to NTFS.
If you need to access the data on the disk,
then the safest way is to try data recovery software that can read and parse metadata from Windows file systems,
and based on this, recover files and folders from a RAW disk.
We decided to test the 5 most famous data recovery programs and compare the recovery features of each of the utilities.
- ReclaiMe File Recovery from www.ReclaiMe.com
- UFS Explorer from www.ufsexplorer.com
- iBeesoft from www.ibeesoft.com
- R-Studio from www.r-studio.com
- EaseUS from www.easeus.com
As a sample, we used an 32 GB flash drive with 20995 files and 191 folders on which 26 files and 1 folder were deleted,
and then the signatures in both MFT records - the main and the mirror copy were reset to zero.
| Tool |
Scan time |
Folders |
Files |
Files by headers |
Interface |
Price |
Support |
Refund policy |
| ReclaiMe |
Most of files within a minute |
195 |
21039 |
923 |
Simple and user-friendly |
From 59 USD, life-time |
Chat and ticket system, within 24 hours1 |
30 days conditional |
| Ufs Explorer |
Most of files within a minute |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Confusing and not very user-friendly |
From 59 EUR |
No ticket system, email only within 48 hours2 |
14 days conditional |
| iBeesoft |
Most of files within a minute |
N/A |
428753 |
57 |
Simple and user-friendly |
From 50 USD, subscription |
No ticket system, email only4 |
60 days conditional |
| R-Studio |
Most of files within a minute |
194 |
20997 |
4828 |
Looks outdated and not user-friendly |
From 50 USD (FAT), 60 USD (NTFS), life-time |
No ticket syste, email only 24/75 |
No, more information |
| EaseUS |
Most of files within a minute |
N/A |
21786 |
217866 |
Generally pleasant, but sometimes confusing. There are pop-ups. Doesn't show full preview in trial |
From 70 USD, subscription |
Chat and email, within 24 hours7 |
Almost NO 8 |
1 - answered within and hour
2 - answered within and hour
3 - too many duplicates
4 - answered after 2 hours
5 - answered after 4 hours
6 - most likely total files rather than files found by headers
7 - answered after 20 hours
8 - stated "30 days" but with a bunch of conditions
A ticket system is the most convenient way to support data recovery, since all information about a specific case of data recovery
is in one place and you can see all the details at a glance, while old-fashion email communication might even lose emails due to spam filters.
Only the ReclaiMe team uses the support ticket system.
Still have questions?