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ADR / Sorted by symptom / RAW instead of a file system

Cause of loss · a volume reading RAW

Corrupted or RAW drive recovery, London. RAW is not a verdict on your files. An index can be rebuilt.

Don't accept that format, and then pull the plug. Windows keeps putting that window in front of you because it has nothing else to put there. If a volume won't parse any more, the only thing Windows knows how to do to fix it is replace it. In reality, underneath the surface, the actual hardware is probably good. Your files sit there undisturbed and just aren't being referenced right now; it is all of the accounting information above your files that isn't working. Click "yes" to that prompt and you'll lose more work than the original problem ever did. Cards and sticks start at £250 + VAT, and one drive starts at £300 + VAT. We don't charge for assessing the damage prior to doing either. And on most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs A free look first, then one figure in writing Media posted in from Croydon, Ealing and Camden

Put it to an engineer — the first look costs nothing
0203 0868633

What the symptom usually means.

Different fault? Try the finder →
How it shows itselfThe usual reason for itWhere that leaves you
The drive won't open, and Windows recommends formatting itThe file system will not parse, so Windows falls back on calling it RAWShut it down first, then pull the cable
Windows: CHKDSK is not available for RAW drivesThere is no file system left to run on so CHKDSK declines to runOff the PC, and unplugged
Error 0x80070570: file or directory corrupted and unreadableMFT entries that can no longer be read backClose out of it, and open no more folders
Error 0x80070571: disk structure corrupted and unreadablePartition table damaged, or MFT damagedImage first, then mend
X:\ not accessible, the parameter is incorrectDamaged structures sitting on top of failing sectorsBe prepared for hardware failure as well
A message stating it does not contain a recognized file systemNothing identifiable as a file system remains in placeFiles are still there
macOS: not readable by this computerSame problem but worded differently by Apple. Whatever else, refuse Initialize.Remove it, and refuse Initialize
Packing it and posting it: first get a quote by phone or via the form; then carefully pack the unit so that nothing moves in transit, and post it tracked and insured to our Guildford intake laboratory. If preferred, you can drop it off there yourself, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). The return postage will be covered by ourselves. Would an engineer's assessment of the packing assist? Please ring first before sealing the unit in tape. The instructions detailing each stage involved in preparing and dispatching your unit can be viewed on the guide to packing and posting.

Which structure has failed.

When the boot sector failsThe first sectors of a volume, carrying values which Windows must see before mounting a volume. Minimal structure, bad symptoms, fixable most of the time.
The Master File Table, on NTFSThe index of every file on the volume, together with the point at which each starts. Damage a sequence of the index entries and error 0x80070570 appears, while the clusters holding the files remain completely unharmed.
When the partition table goesThe map showing where one volume ends and another begins. Without it, a disk full of work describes itself as unallocated space and nothing else. Reconstruct the entries and the volumes become visible again.
Why CHKDSK offers nothingOn a RAW volume it doesn't run. Therefore trying gives you nothing. It costs you, though: on a worn disk, its repair passes go through the same fragile areas over and over again. Try doing this to an image, and keep the original away from it.

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

As soon as your parcel arrives here, an engineer assigns a case number that same day, prior to determining what has really failed, which is the first thing done and costs you nothing. In addition to a note of what can and cannot be recovered from your drive, you will receive at the same time the fixed, written price for restoring what can be recovered. You can accept this quote, or decline it, which will result in no further obligation on your part and nothing owed to us.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNothing owed at this stage
02

The image comes before anything else

Nothing is fixed until a copy exists, made sector by sector, with the slow regions marked and held back until the end. A worn mechanism and a damaged structure typically show up together, and one image handles both.

Slow regions marked, left till lastNot one byte goes back to your drive
03

Put back on the image, not the disk

The boot sector, partition map and MFT are rebuilt one at a time on the image. No writes ever reach your own drive, and if a step goes bad, it can just be undone and tried again.

Every step can be reversedYour disk goes home unaltered
04

Where the index will not mend

A bad MFT does not mean the contents of a file are gone; they are still lying in the same cluster locations as always. Each file is recovered from the image by the signature used to begin its format, then put back into whatever tree the surviving records still support.

Recognised from their headersFolder tree kept wherever it survives
05

You see the file list before you pay

You will see what has been recovered as a list first, after which a bill exists. Accepting the list means that a bill will be issued. Rejecting the list means that a bill will not be issued, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. The recovered data travels from here back to you via new media purchased specifically for your project, with the cost of postage paid by us. Your case is not resolved (i.e., "closed") until you personally view the files on a computer of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the jobThe post home is ours

What arrives most often

  • Not readable is not the same as empty: fix the copy instead, and the volume usually opens once again with everything intact.
  • A format causes more harm than the corruption: a single click places a blank file system directly over the records a rebuild depends on.
  • Corruption rarely shows up alone: bad sectors spread until they hit the metadata, therefore none of these jobs count as purely logical until an image has said so.
  • NTFS has its own spares: every NTFS volume mirrors the MFT along with a second boot sector, and most rebuilds get built from that pair.

One habit runs through all of them: CHKDSK, First Aid in Disk Utility, whatever RAW repair tool a forum happens to recommend at the moment; every one of those tools writes onto the disk it is supposed to be fixing. With sound hardware beneath, no harm is done. With failing hardware underneath, a job that would have come home whole comes home partial. Imaging takes a day. The free assessment determines which of the two you've got, and asking costs you nothing.

One job, followed all the way through.

LDN · ADR-2026-3183JOB LOGGED ✓

Pulled out mid-write, and Windows read the volume as RAW

The cable was caught while it was writing to the disk, and by morning Windows could only suggest that the drive be reformatted. As soon as possible, an image of the entire 4TB was taken. From that point forward, every repair action was based upon that image. Repair actions included repairing the boot sector first and then fixing the damaged mirror of the MFT. No writes occurred to the original disk. Client files going back fifteen years were returned with the folder tree intact.

100% of them recovered3 days here, and back to you

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • No to Format; no to Initialize
  • Shut it off, and set it aside
  • Were there any other problems beforehand: a power cut, a cable pulled during a write?
  • Has anyone already run CHKDSK on this disk?

What sets us back

  • Clicking Format, or Initialize on your Mac.
  • Running CHKDSK (/f or /r) on a disk you already suspect may be faulty
  • Turning any of the free RAW repair tools loose on your original disk
  • Looking at what is still present inside your folders

Questions answered before you commit.

Windows keeps offering to format it. Should I?

No, formatting fixes absolutely nothing. A new file system gets written over the damaged one, in exactly the area where the folder names, the dates and the shape of the tree are recorded. Once those are all removed, a rebuild has no material to work with now.

What does RAW actually mean?

Only this: you cannot read the volume's structural descriptions any more. Perhaps it is the Master File Table (MFT), perhaps the boot sector or the partition table, or both. What those structures describe has not shifted one sector.

Should we run CHKDSK on it?

It will not even begin on a RAW volume; therefore there are no gains. However, there are losses, as every repair pass over a failing disk takes up additional portions of whatever remains. This type of work should be done from an image.

It went RAW straight after I pulled the cable. My fault?

It could be. It is among the more common paths through to this page: a write that is cut off in the middle of updating the index leaves the index incomplete, still describing files that the interruption never went near.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

The drive inside the machine → Plug-in and desk drives → Nothing detects the disk → Every device we take →

Nothing gets worse while the power is off.

It doesn't cost you anything for us to look at it. All we do is give you a breakdown of what opened and what did not, plus a single fixed price to complete, written down before you agree to let us continue. On most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data. Please don't turn on the drive until you get that breakdown.

0203 0868633

Get it assessed Sending it to Guildford