Good day.
You work with a flash drive, work, and then bam .. and when it is connected to a computer, an error is displayed: “The disk in the device is not formatted ...” (example in Fig. 1). Although you are sure that the flash drive was previously formatted and had data on it ( backup files, documents, archives, etc.). So what's now?..
This can happen for many reasons: for example, when copying a file, you removed the USB flash drive from USB, or turned off the electricity while working with the USB flash drive, etc. In half of the cases, nothing happened to the data on the flash drive, and most of them can be recovered. In this article I want to consider what can be done to save data from a flash drive (and restore the performance of the flash drive itself).
1) Check Disk (Chkdsk)
If your flash drive started asking for formatting and you saw a message, as in fig. 1 - then in 7 out of 10 cases the standard check of the disk (flash drive) for errors helps. The program for checking the disk is already built into Windows - called Chkdsk (when checking the disk, if errors are found, they will be automatically corrected).
To check the disk for errors, launch the command line: either through the Start menu, or press the Win + R buttons, enter cmd command and press ENTER (see fig. 2).
Next enter the command: chkdsk i: /f and press ENTER (i: is your drive letter, note the error message in Figure 1). Then the disk check for errors should start (an example of work in Fig. 3).
After checking the disk - in most cases, all files will be available and you can continue working with them. I recommend making a copy of them right away.
Rice. 3. Checking the disk for errors.
By the way, sometimes administrator rights are required to run such a check. To run the command line as an administrator (for example, in Windows 8.1, 10) - just right-click on the START menu - and in the pop-up context menu select " Command Prompt (Admin)«.
2) Recovering files from a flash drive (if the check did not help ...)
If the previous step did not help restore the flash drive (for example, sometimes errors appear, like " type of file system: RAW. chkdsk is not valid for RAW drives“), it is recommended (first of all) to restore all important files and data from it (if you don’t have them on it, you can proceed to the next step of the article).
In general, there are a lot of programs for recovering information from flash drives and disks, here is one of my articles on this topic:
After installing and launching the program, you will be prompted to select a disk (flash drive) and start scanning it (we will do this, see Fig. 4).
Next, a window with scan settings will open. In most cases, you can not change anything else, the program automatically selects the optimal parameters that will suit the majority. Then press the button to start scanning and wait for the process to complete.
The duration of the scan depends on the size of the flash drive (for example, a 16 GB flash drive is scanned on average in 15-20 minutes).
Important! You need to restore files not to the same flash drive that you scanned, but to another physical medium (for example, to HDD computer). If you restore files to the same media that you scanned, then the recovered information will overwrite sections of files that have not yet been recovered ...
Rice. 6. File recovery (R-STUDIO).
There, the points that were omitted in this section of the article are touched upon in more detail.
3) Low-level formatting to recover a flash drive
I want to warn you that you can’t download the first utility that comes across and format a flash drive with it! The fact is that each flash drive (even one manufacturer) can have its own controller, and if you format the flash drive with the wrong utility, you can simply disable it.
For unambiguous identification, there is special options: VID, PID. You can find them out with special utilities and then search suitable program for low-level formatting. This topic is quite extensive, so I will provide links to my previous articles here:
- - instructions for restoring the performance of a flash drive:
- - flash drive treatment:
That's all for me, good luck and fewer mistakes. Good luck!
For the addition on the topic of the article - thank you in advance.
What is raw markup on hdd, memory card and usb flash drive. How to fix "chkdsk is not valid for raw drives" error and return ntfs.
A fairly common problem: the contents of a memory card or hard drive is not available, Windows (7 - 10) displays the message "chkdsk is not valid for the disk". The file system format is RAW.
What is raw, is it scary and how to fix the error (by returning the NTFS file system) - read here.
What is a "RAW file system"?
When you connect the device to the usb connector, you see in the properties of the file volume information that the flash card has the raw file system type and is not formatted in the standard NTFS or FAT file system.
Windows assigns a RAW label to a volume with an undefined file system. This happens if none of the system drivers could recognize the file system. In the case of Windows, we are talking about FAT (32) and NTFS.
Thus, RAW is not a file system, but a sure sign of a hard drive error.
RAW disk: causes of the error
Most often, RAW markup appears if:
- Not formatted disk, file volume,
- Access to the file system/disk/memory card is denied or restricted,
- There were reading errors, damage to the structure of the file system, bad blocks.
A raw disc has some symptoms that are definitely indicative of problems with the disc. Among these symptoms:
- Wrong media type when reading disc
- Windows gives Cancel, Retry, Error window
- The file system in applications is displayed as RAW
- I get the error "chkdsk is not valid for raw disks"
- Windows asks to format the drive
- Filenames contain non-standard characters
- "Sector not found" message appears
When does the error chkdsk is not valid for raw disks occur?
Information about the file system is stored in two places:
- MBR partition table
- volumes boot sector
If one of these sectors is damaged or not found, chkdsk gives information that this utility invalid for raw discs.
Why raw markup is bad
If your device has a raw layout, you cannot view its contents, perform file operations. Also, the disk cannot be checked for errors or defragmented.
As a result, the files stored on the disk become inaccessible, although they are still physically there and available for recovery by any recovery program.
Important! If your disk or partition is of the raw file system type, the operating system Windows system prompts for formatting, giving the warning "The drive is not formatted. Do you want to format it?" (Disk not formatted do you want to format it now?).
Don't settle for this: if you format your HDD, you will lose all the data on the raw disk!
How to fix raw without data loss in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
You can access the files by fixing the MBR partition Table or converting raw to ntfs format. You can do this without actually losing data and formatting.
Since the raw disk still contains data, let's try to return it (if not completely, then at least the most valuable files).
We need the EaseUS program Data Recovery wizard. How to use it when recovering data from raw - read below.
Step 1: Recover data on a RAW disk or partition
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a very suitable program:
- To recover data from raw disks,
- If the sd card or flash drive in raw format is not formatted
- To search for deleted hard disk partitions.
The Data Recovery Wizard program is paid when it comes to full-featured use.
Advice. Alternatively, you can try these free apps like Recuva or the ones we offer in [this review].
1. First, download the program from the developer's website:
The program is compatible with Windows 7/8/10, although you can install it on earlier OS versions.
2. Run the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and select the file types to recover in the window that appears (or activate the “All file types” option). Confirm the operation by pressing .
3. If the disk partition is deleted or is defined as RAW in Explorer, use the Lost Disk Drives option.
Select the problem disk with deleted data (Section “ Lost drives”) and click the Scan button.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will search for recoverable files on the specified drive or sd card.
4. When the scan is completed, a list of found files will be displayed. Mark the necessary ones and click the Recover button to restore.
Important! Always save files to another drive to avoid overwriting.
Step 2. Convert RAW to NTFS file system without data loss
After restoring the files, the raw disk needs to be formatted in order to be used further for storing files. How to do it right, read.
By the way. Windows OS allows you to format a drive to NTFS using the built-in Diskpart format utility through the command line.
Thus, if you restore data from a raw disk in advance, you can safely return the NTFS partition and format it. If you first format the drive and then try to recover the data, the chances of recovery will be greatly reduced.
If you are unlucky and you accidentally formatted a raw partition, losing data on it, use the Auslogics File Recovery program (it is useful to read the article at the link).
Other useful programs for raw disk recovery
In addition to the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, you may need other tools for recovering raw partitions.
Test Disk
The free console utility TestDisk allows you to find lost file volumes. This way you can get files back from the raw partition.
You can return ntfs with the TestDisk program as follows:
- Run the TestDisk utility
- Select Create → recovery disk → file system type
- To start the search, select Analyze → Quick Search from the menu
- Press P to search for files and Write to write the results to a table on disk
Minitool Power Data Recovery
Power Data Recovery has a toolkit for finding deleted/lost partitions: Lost Partition Recovery. With this feature, you can quickly restore a raw partition.
Unlike the console utility TestDisk, Power Data Recovery is very clear interface. Thanks to this, you can recover files, and then format the problem area of the disk in FAT or NTFS.
HDD Raw Copy
The Hdd Raw Copy program (developer - Toshiba) is designed for low-level and sector-by-sector creation of a disk image. It will be useful when creating a complete copy of a hard drive or SSD. After creating a duplicate disk, you can easily experiment with the RAW partition: restore files on it, format and convert to other file systems.
In addition, the HDD Raw Copy utility will be useful for Reserve copy, duplication, data recovery and data migration.
Question answer
The next time you turn on the external HDD on USB, the OS "advised" to format the disk. I checked the controller itself by installing another HDD into it - it works. The problem is in the HDD itself. Please advise what to do.
Answer. If the OS advises you to format the hard drive, there may be a partition table violation. Try to restore the raw disk system using the TestDisk console utility.
Sometimes PC or laptop users may experience an annoying problem. The computer stopped seeing the flash drive or hard drive. Often, errors may appear: "the disk is not formatted", "the disk is not found", "insert the disk", "the disk in the device is not formatted, format it", "it must be formatted before using the disk in the drive", etc. etc. And it's not even scary that the system asks to format the HDD or Flash-card.
The trouble is that a serious threat looms over the important and much-needed data contained on the device. Is it possible and how to recover data on a hard drive or flash drive if the computer does not see them? Will the disk work again or is it broken and can we say goodbye to it? These questions concern users in the first place.
We will not make hasty conclusions and make drastic decisions, we will try to recover all the information and return the disks to a healthy state. For this you need:
- Check the media for viruses.
- Check for logical errors and bad sectors.
- Try to recover data.
- If it was not possible to do the above, try to restore the operation of the flash drive or hard drive by formatting.
How to check a flash or hard drive for errors and viruses?
To check for viruses and malware(trojans) you can use any popular antivirus programs. I recommend Eset, Kaspersky, DrWeb, Avast and MalwareBytes Antimalware. After checking the device for viruses, you can proceed to check the logical integrity of the file system.
To check and fix the existing logical errors on the disk, you must use the chkdsk program. This is a standard program in Windows (7, 8, 10) to check drives for file system errors. To run it, you need to open the command line, through the "Start" menu bar, enter cmd.exe in the search bar and run it as Administrator ( right button mice).
Chkdsk X:
Press Enter and wait for the process to complete. Reboot PC or laptop. After that, we try to open the USB flash drive or hard drive again. If it doesn't help, it says "Unable to open volume for direct access" or "invalid for RAW disks", look further.
You can use third party programs to check disks, such as MiniTool Power Data Recovery. But the functionality of chkdsk is enough to fix most disk access problems.
How do I know if a disk needs to be formatted?
If you encounter the error "you must format the disk before using it" this is not a sentence yet. But in some, especially difficult cases, when it is impossible to recover data from a flash drive or hard drive. And if none of the proposed methods brought the desired result. You can try to repair, fix and make the hard drive itself work (after such problems it is better not to store important information on it).
How to recover a hard drive or flash drive after errors if data recovery did not help? It needs to be formatted and then scanned for errors and bad sectors.
How to format a hard drive?
Formatting a local hard drive (it can be under the letter C, D or others), is not so difficult task. Despite the obscure name, formatting a C:/ hard drive is very simple. You can format the hard drive through BIOS or use special programs. I offer several convenient ways.
The simplest, if the hard drive is not bootable, is to format it in Windows environment. You need to go to My Computer, right-click on desired disk and select "Format". Next, select the NTFS file system, the cluster size is 4096 bytes, check the "Quick (clearing the table of contents)" checkbox and click "OK".
Formatting via BIOS or the command line can be useful if Windows does not boot and it is not possible to use the standard formatting tools. For example, when there are problems with boot disk C, on which the operating system is usually installed.
To format a hard drive in BIOS, you will need an installation disk or USB flash drive with Windows. Must be installed in BIOS priority boot - 1 for bootable media. All as in Windows installation. When the system installer loads, press Shift + F10 to run command line. If it didn’t work to open cmd, there is another way, go through "Language Selection" - " Additional features" - "Command line". Or click next in the Windows installer until a table with active hard drives and partitions appears, select the item - "format".
At the command line, enter the following commands:
Wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, size, description
The command is used to determine and specify the drive letter, its size. In order not to confuse and format the desired hard disk or partition.
Format /FS:NTFS C: /q
The command to quickly format drive C: to the NTFS file system.
Another way to change the disk file system is ERD Commader, Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset, Acronis Disk Director. You need to create bootable media based on these programs and format them in their environment. I suggest you google it if you're interested.
How to format a flash drive?
What to do when a laptop or computer asks to format a USB flash drive when you insert it into a USB connector (port)? At the same time, he does not see it, it is not readable and does not open. That's right, you need to format it, but only after you have tried all the methods to restore its work and information.
The principle of formatting a flash drive is about the same as for an HDD.
About the file systems of flash drives and hard drives.
When formatting the HDD or flash drive, you must select the future file system. The device will be formatted according to your choice. You can choose one of several possible options.
- FAT32
Which file system to choose for a flash drive or HDD? Evaluating all the pros and cons and without going into details, I advise NTFS. This is a more modern file system that provides reliable read-write information at a decent speed. In addition, NTFS well supports flash drives larger than 4 Gb, which cannot be said about FAT 32.
Do you have questions or something is not clear? Write in the comments.
Rate this article!In some cases, when a user tries to format their flash drives, the system gives an error "Windows cannot complete formatting".
Sometimes this happens when working with HDD, DVD RW and other drives, but most often Micro SD is affected by this problem.
Why does Windows write such text?
This happens because the OS for some reason cannot format it on its own, or the reason is a malfunction of the SD card or hard drive itself.
It is also possible that the memory card was previously used on another operating system(Linux, Mac OS, etc.) and the file system is incomprehensible to Windows.
It is the inability to work with the file system that is the most common cause of such an error.
This error looks like the one shown in the figure.
But what to do when the system gives such an error? There are several ways.
The simplest of them is performed by standard Windows tools and is available for both Windows 7 and Windows 10 and even good old Windows XP.
Solving the problem by means of the system
Step by step instructions on how to remove given error when formatting a removable disk, it looks like this:
- Press the Win + R key combination on the keyboard. This will open the Run dialog box. The image shows which keys to press on the keyboard and the window that should appear after that (circled in green).
- In this window, you need to enter the following: diskmgmt.msc and press Enter on the keyboard. Thus, we opened the Disk Management program.
- In the window that appears, you need to find the designation of the memory card. You can recognize removable media by the corresponding inscription "Removable device" at the bottom of the program and by the image of the memory card, which differs from other media in the upper part.
- In one of the places marked with green frames in the photo above, you need to press the right mouse button. As a result, you can see the drop-down menu shown in the figure.
- In this menu, you need to click on the inscription "Format ...". Then the flash drive will be formatted according to a slightly different algorithm than in other cases.
Clarification! Perhaps the problem is that the media is simply not distributed. Then the inscription "Delete volume" (highlighted with a yellow frame in Figure No. 4) will be active, not dull, that is, you can click on it. Try to do it. After that, you will need to create a new volume.
Create a new volume
To create a new volume on unallocated media, right-click on it and select "Create a simple volume ..." from the drop-down menu.
After that, the "Wizard for creating simple volumes" will open, in which you should not change any parameters - we leave everything as standard and just press the "Next" button several times.
After that, in the "Disk Management" program opposite the flash drive it will be written "Fixed" as shown in Figure No. 6.
After that, you can again try to format the flash drive using standard means - through "My Computer" by right-clicking on the desired media and selecting "Format ...".
Disabling an extraneous process in the system
It is possible that some extraneous process in the system interferes with the formatting of the flash drive.
To exclude this option, you must do the following:
- We restart the computer in safe mode. To do this, open the Start menu, then click on the button circled in green in the image and select Restart (this is for Windows 7).
The computer will turn off and immediately turn on again. So, immediately after shutting down, you should press the F8 button and wait for the boot.
- After that, you should run the command prompt as an administrator. To perform this action, there are many various ways.
The simplest of these is to clamp Shift key on the keyboard and right-click on any free space desktop. In the menu that appears, select "Open Command Window".
- In the window that appears, write the following: format [drive letter]:. To find out the letter of the drive, you need to go to my computer and look at what is written next to the drive, as shown in the figure (indicated by arrows).
In our case, this is the letter “e”, so in the command menu we write “format e:”, as shown in the photo below (circled in blue) and press the Enter key.
If this does not help, you will have to use outside help, that is, third-party recovery programs.
Disk Recovery Software
One such program is D-Soft Flash Doctor. It is very easy to download it online. The program window looks as shown in the figure.
In this window, you must select our carrier. You can recognize it by the letter (in our case it is “e”).
To do this, simply click on symbol flash drives at the top of the program (highlighted in orange in the photo above).
After that, you can select the item "Recover Media" (indicated by a red frame). Recovery will occur, after which you can try to format the disk again.
You can also select Scan for Errors.
Then the scan will start and the user will be able to find out what is wrong with his media.
If the flash drive is not only not formatted, but also shows that the volume is 0 MB, EzRecover helps a lot. By the way, you can also find out the volume of the flash drive in "My Computer".
In the figure, red lines underline the places where the volume of the drive is shown.
In our case, it shows 5.18 GB, but if it shows 0 MB, feel free to download EzRecover.
EzRecover automatically finds removable media, you don't even need to specify anything here.
After opening the program, the user only needs to press the "RECOVER" button and wait a bit.
There are many more flash drive recovery programs on the Internet, you can try others. If none of these options gives a result, the flash drive can only be thrown away.
The video below clearly shows how to format a disk using standard Windows tools.
Flash drive not formatted, repair using Windows
Problem Solving - Windows Can't Complete Formatting
An external hard drive is a compact device that provides the ability to store copies of data, transfer large amounts of information from one device to another. The advantage of an external HDD is the use of a USB interface, which allows you to conveniently connect the device to any tablet, laptop and PC. The rest of its parameters are similar to a regular computer hard drive.
Despite the advantages of conventional hard drives, the device also has disadvantages. When working with external HDD users may have the following problem: the disk cannot be accessed and it needs to be formatted. Let's look at the causes of this problem and how to deal with it.
To organize and store information on any type of drives (external hard drive, flash drive, hard drive), you need to apply a set of special rules determined by the place and method of storage. This is a specific set. software tools providing access to information in a convenient way for various applications. The NTFS file system has become the most popular now. It is also used on external hard drives.
Damaged or missing file system
When viewing information about an external drive that is denied access and, if necessary, formatting it, you can see that instead of the NTFS file system it has become RAW. This means that the file system on the disk is missing and corrupted. Often, the data itself remains intact.
Not all users know that in addition to recorded files, there are special file identifiers on the HDD. They contain information about the type of file, its size and other attributes. This method on the organization of information storage, it is permissible to compare with a table. There is a key and the data itself, and access to them can be obtained using a specific identifier. When the column with keys disappears, it will be quite difficult to get access to specific information. This happens when the disk file system is corrupted.
Solutions to the problem when an external hard drive does not open
Most in a simple way to return the file system to an external drive, the standard CHKDSK command type will be used:
- The command line is launched (press Windows + R, enter "cmd" in the field that appears and click on "Run").
- A console will appear in which to write the command "CHKDSK disk_name: / f". In place of disk_name, specify the name of an external disk that has a RAW file system.
- This method copes with minor damage to the file system. There is a risk of losing some data.
There are applications that provide on-disk file system recovery. The most popular is GetDataBack. The utility recovers all data without loss.
If these two methods did not work, and the external drive still does not open and asks for formatting, then it is necessary to format the hard drive. Quick formatting will not result in data loss. Information in the form of zeros and ones will remain on the disk, but access to it is lost. There are applications that help restore this information. Normal formatting completely deletes information, but solves the problem with accessing an external hard drive.
Formatting with Windows
You need to do the following:
- Connection external hard drive to your computer and open the My Computer window.
- After hard disk by the system and its appearance in the "My Computer" window, you need to open the context menu of the external disk and select the "Format" item.
- Then a window will open showing the settings for formatting the disk. Here you need to select the file system, specify the name of the disk and enable the quick format function.
It is better to choose the NTFS file system. FAT has a large number of restrictions, and under modern conditions it has become frankly outdated. Using the quick format feature will write a clean file system without physically deleting files from the external drive.
When the quick format function is disabled, this process may take several hours. The volume label is optional. After setting the required parameters, you need to click on the "Start" button. Then a window opens where a warning is written about deleting all available data on the formatted disk. After the formatting process is completed, the external drive will be open again and available for use.
Formatting via command line
You can format an external hard drive using the command line. To do this, the disk is connected and the Windows command line is launched.
Disks are formatted with the FORMAT command. To search for all the options that this command accepts, just type "FORMAT /?".
To format an external hard drive, you need to execute the FORMAT command with the following parameters:
- /Q - turns on the quick format function.
- /V:MyDisk - specifies the name of the disk. You can use any other name instead of MyDisk.
- /FS:NTFS - formatting using the NTFS file system.
To format an external hard drive, you can use the following final command: FORMAT X: /FS:NTFS /V:MyDisk /Q. Here the letter X stands for the name of the external drive being used. When formatting using the command line, it is important not to mix up the drives.
When formatting a disk using the command line, no additional warnings are displayed, so you need to be careful.
Formatting via Disk Management
Windows OS has a handy tool called Disk Management. Its functions include formatting disks, creating and deleting partitions, and performing other operations. To gain access to this instrument you need to open the "Run" menu and enter the command "diskmgmt.msc".
After opening the window, the following steps are performed to format the external hard drive:
- Search for an external hard drive and open its context menu (right mouse button).
- Select "Formatting" from the context menu.
- The user is shown a warning about deleting all data from this disk. To start formatting, you need to click on the "Yes" button.
External hard drives very comfortable and useful devices. If a situation arises when an external hard drive does not open and asks for formatting, then you can solve the problem yourself. It is enough to follow the instructions that are given above in the article. To prevent cases of loss of information, you can copy important data to other storage media.