Forum Discussion
The main hard drive (the one C:\ is on) is showing as raw
OS: Windows 10 Enterprise
The main hard drive (the one C:\ is on) is showing as raw. I got a bluescreen (wish I had recorded what it said on it before I restarted, but it's probably a moot point now) and tried to restart, but the laptop froze before Windows loaded. I did some diagnostic stuff using a recovery drive and it became apparent that something had happened to C (it was showing as a Raw drive named D).
I reassigned the drive letters back to the correct ones but I can't find any way of indicating that the drive is not raw. The partitions are all there according to DISKPART (Recovery 300mb, System 100mb, Reserved 128mb, Primary 237gb, Recovery 663mb), and the System partition is still formatted, as when I list the volumes, I get a FAT32 with 100MB, but everything else is raw. Much of the drive is Bitlocker encrypted. I know there are 3rd party tools that claim to be able to recover things, but I am wary that it will render the drive inoperable, even if it will get my data back. I have most of my data backed up, I just want a functioning OS that has all of my applications.
- Did you download or install any program before this problem started?
Do you have access to the Windows installer media?
If yes, you may boot with it and perform a repair install.- No, I wasn't doing anything in particular before I got the blue screen. I think the screen was some system32 error, but I could be wrong. It had 32 in the name.
Is a repair install different from the system repair that is presented as a troubleshooting option?
The recovery drive I was referring to was a windows installer media on a USB drive.- So I think I am going to use system restore, but I only want to restore the disk that C:\ is on (my SSD), not my other HDD (E:\) that the majority of my data is on because that is fine. On the last screen in the "Re-Image your computer", window, under:
EFI System Partition, E:,C:, \\?\\Volume{2ddab17-.....d9b}can I just get rid of the "E:\" reference? I already checked "exclude disks..." under the "Format and partition disks" setting, but I have a suspicion that that just excludes those disks from being formatted, but the data on them will still be copied (or more likely, the recover process will fail because there are things on these drives already). If that won't work, I there a way I can use wbadmin to achieve what I am trying to do? Thanks.
It sounds like your main hard drive has become corrupted, possibly due to a hardware failure or software issue. Here are some steps you can take to try and recover your drive:
Check the drive's health: Use a diagnostic tool like CrystalDiskInfo to check the health of your hard drive. If the tool reports any errors, you may need to replace the drive.
Recover your data: Use a data recovery tool like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard which is the best best data recovery software to recover your data from the raw drive. Make sure to save the recovered data to a separate drive to avoid overwriting any existing data.
Repair the file system: Use the command prompt to run a chkdsk /r command to repair the file system on the drive. This may take some time to complete.
Reformat the drive: If the above steps don't work, you may need to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. This will erase all data on the drive, so make sure to back up any important data first.
Restore from backup: If you have a recent backup of your system, you can restore it to the newly formatted drive to get a functioning OS with all of your applications.
Note: It's always a good idea to consult a professional if you're unsure about any of these steps or if you have valuable data on your drive that you can't afford to lose.
