💡 This article is written by humans, with all solutions and steps verified.
SD cards are small and can store data for extended periods without an external power source, making them common in electronic devices such as cameras, drones, and dashcams. Because of this characteristic, they are more prone to failure than hard drives. A common symptom is that accessing the SD card on a computer prompts you to format it, and right-clicking to view its properties shows the file system as "RAW".
In this case, formatting may seem like the fastest solution, but it will erase all photos and videos in the SD card. Do you want to fix a RAW SD card without formatting? This guide is what you need. Besides, we will explain the details of the RAW file system and its causes.
In normal situations, FAT32 and exFAT are common file systems for the SD card, which are mainly used to organize and manage data to facilitate efficient access by operating systems and applications.
However, when the file system is corrupted or unreadable, Windows will mark it as "RAW" to let you know its status. Simply put, RAW is not a true file system but rather an error state telling you it lacks a recognizable file system for the SD card. Because of the built-in error-correction mechanism in the operating system, when this occurs, you will be prompted to format the SD card to restore its usability. Usually, it is caused by the following reasons:
As mentioned above, sometimes the SD card file system displaying as "RAW" might be caused by a connection or card reader issue. Therefore, before getting down to the solution, you should first try connecting it to a different USB port or using a different card reader. If it is possible, connect it to another computer or device.
After ruling out a connection issue, it is confirmed that the RAW is caused by a file system failure, such as the file allocation table, partition table, or directory index. These logical errors only prevent you from accessing the files directly. These files are still intact in the SD card sectors. Directly performing a RAW micro SD card fix will cause files to be severely damaged or permanently lost. Therefore, recovering them is the top priority.
Here, we suggest you use iBeesoft Free Data Recovery, which is easy to use, and the deep scan mode can skip damaged file systems to extract recoverable data fragments. This is especially helpful for storing video and photo files that were stored in consecutive segments.
Here are the steps for using iBeesoft Free Data Recovery to recover data from a RAW SD card for free. Before starting, please connect it to your computer first.
Note: If you want to get the SD card working right away, you can skip the repair methods below and format it to a file system Windows can recognize directly. However, before starting, please make sure all your data has been successfully recovered.
Once all important files on the RAW SD card have been recovered, you will no longer have to worry about fixing this error. Here, we recommend starting with the first method to ensure you don't miss any useful solutions.
Unlike other applications, Windows Error Checking is integrated into the "Tools" tab as a supplementary feature for disk maintenance, yet it is still very useful for fixing RAW SD card file system errors such as corrupted file directory structures, inconsistent metadata, and incorrect partition table identifiers.
Simply put, CHKDSK is a supplement to the Error Checking tools mentioned above. You can use it to fix more complex logical errors by combining different commands. For example, "/r, find bad sectors on the SD card and recover any readable information." The command is especially useful if you want to repair a RAW SD card without formatting.
The tool will begin to scan the SD card for file system errors and bad sectors. Once complete, chkdsk will display a summary of the scan results and the repair performed. If you see the message "CHKDSK Is Not Available for RAW Drives," please try the following methods.
If the Windows built-in tools fail to fix the RAW SD card, it means the file system is severely corrupted. Therefore, using professional repair tools is your priority. Professional tools are more powerful and comprehensive. If you have never used any such tool before, try the following two first.
As its name suggests, iBeesoft Disk Partition Wizard is a comprehensive disk management tool. It can not only resize partitions, convert file systems, and clone disks to maximize your storage device, but also repair disk errors.
TestDisk is a well-known open-source data recovery program. It is primarily designed to recover lost disk partitions and repair storage devices that are inaccessible due to corrupted boot sectors. Coincidentally, this is also one of the reasons that causes the SD card file system to be RAW. Although TestDisk can look a bit complicated due to the lack of a graphical interface, you can still repair a RAW SD card without formatting by following the steps below.
Undoubtedly, the ultimate goal of any user who wants to fix a RAW SD card without formatting is to make it work properly without losing data. Therefore, if you prefer a simple and straightforward solution, you can use iBeesoft Free Data Recovery to retrieve your files first, and then follow the steps below to convert the file system of your SD card to be recognizable by the computer.
It’s frustrating when your SD card becomes RAW. However, we believe that with the above methods, you can restore it to its original state without losing data. After fixing the RAW SD card without formatting, we suggest you observe its status in operation. If the problem persists, you might need to ditch it for a new SD card. Furthermore, if none of the mentioned ways work, it’s very likely that there is a hardware failure. In this case, contact a data recovery service to rescue your valuable photos or videos.
Though it’s extremely rare, an SD card hardware failure can still cause the file system to appear as RAW. In this situation, it’s impossible to repair a RAW SD card without formatting. If there are important photos and videos, you should first try iBeesoft Free Data Recovery to recover them. If it fails, the last resort is to use a professional data recovery service. Their engineers can disassemble the storage chips and read data directly from the NAND circuitry.
Possibly yes! If your SD card is slightly damaged, the First Aid in Disk Utility should fix it easily.
Of course, before starting, we still suggest you use a program like iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover the files for free. Because data is priceless.
Absolutely, yes! Whether formatting an SD card on a Windows PC or a Mac, the default formatting method only clears references to the data in the file system. The data itself is not actually affected. Therefore, you can use data recovery software to unformat the SD card.
Please remember not to save new data to the formatted SD card, as it can overwrite the original data and cause permanent loss.
We suggest you try iBeesoft Data Recovery to recover data from the SD card before replacing it. Whether you repair it or not, it will be completely corrupted. The important thing is that you rescued the data from it.
iBeesoft only uses cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience and does not collect any information.