Converting RAW HD Format to XP NTFS with out losing any data
Last response: in Windows XP
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)
All:
Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
external command, operable program or batch file. So i
then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
do?
All:
Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
external command, operable program or batch file. So i
then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
do?
More about : converting raw format ntfs losing data
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)
>-----Original Message-----
>All:
>Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
>booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
>it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
>not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
>i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
>like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
>XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
>access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
>able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
>is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
>windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and
under
>the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format.
So
>I took the next logical step and looked under the
Windows
>disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
>it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
>the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the
entire
>HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
>found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
>raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
>at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
>i red said that it works but the responce i kept
receving
>was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
>external command, operable program or batch file. So i
>then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
>not work properly since they were demos. Short of
cutting
>my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
>do?
>.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>All:
>Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
>booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
>it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
>not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
>i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
>like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
>XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
>access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
>able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
>is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
>windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and
under
>the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format.
So
>I took the next logical step and looked under the
Windows
>disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
>it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
>the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the
entire
>HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
>found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
>raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
>at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
>i red said that it works but the responce i kept
receving
>was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
>external command, operable program or batch file. So i
>then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
>not work properly since they were demos. Short of
cutting
>my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
>do?
>.
>
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)
Hi, fobb198.
> Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
As they say, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!" :>(
Don't use DOS tools to try to repair your NTFS volume. When you must do
gut-level surgery on WinXP, boot from the WinXP CD-ROM, choose the Repair
option to enter the Recovery Console, and use its DOS-like interface. But
be sure to read the instructions or Help for the Recovery Console; even
though it looks familiar, it is NOT DOS.
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive.
What do you mean by "get into the drive"? If it is NTFS, you should not
have been able to do anything from MS-DOS but just recognize that the
"non-DOS" volume exists. There is at least one third-party program that
lets you read (for free) and write (for a fee) NTFS from DOS, but you didn't
mention such a program. True MS-DOS cannot read, write or even SEE an NTFS
volume, and it cannot convert any volume into NTFS. In WinXP, we can open a
"DOS" window, which is an emulation of MS-DOS, rather than true MS-DOS.
"DOS" programs running in this "DOS" window can see and manipulate NTFS.
This (run convert.exe in a WinXP "DOS" window) is the usual way to convert a
volume from FAT to NTFS.
But it can't convert RAW to NTFS. Raw means that, so far as the system can
tell, the volume hasn't been formatted at all, so there's no format to
convert FROM. The only recourse, normally, is to format the volume.
> So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data...
WOW! Where did you find this little jewel?
> So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works
Can you point us to those articles? I think you have misunderstood
something here. Convert.exe is a fine tool for converting from FAT or FAT32
to NTFS, but I can't find anything that says it can be used to convert from
RAW. And, since it will not convert into anything but NTFS, it is useless
when you are booted into MS-DOS. I'm not aware of a version of convert.exe
for MS-DOS or Win9x/ME.
You haven't yet mentioned Disk Management. Yes, you did say you "looked
under the Windows disk utility", but you didn't say which one. If you are
not familiar with Disk Management, you can access it in several ways,
including from the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc The Help file here is very
good; it lists several possible Disk Status messages, including Not
Initialized, Foreign and Failed, but not Raw.
Your best bet now may be to use a file recovery program (R-Studio, $70 from
www.r-tt.com last year, worked for me) to get all the data you can, then use
Disk Management to repartition and/or reformat the drive.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
"fobb198" <fobb198@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:258e01c49cd6$305dbb00$a401280a@phx.gbl...
> All:
> Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
> booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
> it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
> not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
> i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
> like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
> is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
> windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
> the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
> I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
> disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
> it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
> the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
> HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
> was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
> external command, operable program or batch file. So i
> then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
> not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
Hi, fobb198.
> Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
As they say, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!" :>(
Don't use DOS tools to try to repair your NTFS volume. When you must do
gut-level surgery on WinXP, boot from the WinXP CD-ROM, choose the Repair
option to enter the Recovery Console, and use its DOS-like interface. But
be sure to read the instructions or Help for the Recovery Console; even
though it looks familiar, it is NOT DOS.
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive.
What do you mean by "get into the drive"? If it is NTFS, you should not
have been able to do anything from MS-DOS but just recognize that the
"non-DOS" volume exists. There is at least one third-party program that
lets you read (for free) and write (for a fee) NTFS from DOS, but you didn't
mention such a program. True MS-DOS cannot read, write or even SEE an NTFS
volume, and it cannot convert any volume into NTFS. In WinXP, we can open a
"DOS" window, which is an emulation of MS-DOS, rather than true MS-DOS.
"DOS" programs running in this "DOS" window can see and manipulate NTFS.
This (run convert.exe in a WinXP "DOS" window) is the usual way to convert a
volume from FAT to NTFS.
But it can't convert RAW to NTFS. Raw means that, so far as the system can
tell, the volume hasn't been formatted at all, so there's no format to
convert FROM. The only recourse, normally, is to format the volume.
> So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data...
WOW! Where did you find this little jewel?
> So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works
Can you point us to those articles? I think you have misunderstood
something here. Convert.exe is a fine tool for converting from FAT or FAT32
to NTFS, but I can't find anything that says it can be used to convert from
RAW. And, since it will not convert into anything but NTFS, it is useless
when you are booted into MS-DOS. I'm not aware of a version of convert.exe
for MS-DOS or Win9x/ME.
You haven't yet mentioned Disk Management. Yes, you did say you "looked
under the Windows disk utility", but you didn't say which one. If you are
not familiar with Disk Management, you can access it in several ways,
including from the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc The Help file here is very
good; it lists several possible Disk Status messages, including Not
Initialized, Foreign and Failed, but not Raw.
Your best bet now may be to use a file recovery program (R-Studio, $70 from
www.r-tt.com last year, worked for me) to get all the data you can, then use
Disk Management to repartition and/or reformat the drive.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
"fobb198" <fobb198@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:258e01c49cd6$305dbb00$a401280a@phx.gbl...
> All:
> Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
> booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
> it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
> not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
> i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
> like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
> is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
> windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
> the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
> I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
> disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
> it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
> the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
> HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
> was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
> external command, operable program or batch file. So i
> then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
> not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)
Since you have reason to believe that there is valuable data on the drive,
do NOT re-format it, and do NOT try to convert format at this time.
Instead, hope that the problem is as simple as a bad master boot record.
That can be fixed by using the XP CDROM to enter the "recovery console"
Type HELP for a list of commands. Type a command followed by /? for more
info. You probably want the FIXMBR command.
Here are some links to the recovery console:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm
"fobb198" <fobb198@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:258e01c49cd6$305dbb00$a401280a@phx.gbl...
> All:
> Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
> booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
> it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
> not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
> i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
> like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
> is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
> windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
> the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
> I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
> disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
> it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
> the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
> HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
> was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
> external command, operable program or batch file. So i
> then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
> not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
Since you have reason to believe that there is valuable data on the drive,
do NOT re-format it, and do NOT try to convert format at this time.
Instead, hope that the problem is as simple as a bad master boot record.
That can be fixed by using the XP CDROM to enter the "recovery console"
Type HELP for a list of commands. Type a command followed by /? for more
info. You probably want the FIXMBR command.
Here are some links to the recovery console:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm
"fobb198" <fobb198@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:258e01c49cd6$305dbb00$a401280a@phx.gbl...
> All:
> Recently my secondary HD went on the fritz. On day i
> booted my PC and tried to access my secondary drive and
> it gave me th following Error " The Disk in drive D is
> not formatted. Do you want to format now?" And of course
> i clicked no because there is dataon there that i would
> like to keep. The secondary drive was previously an 40GB
> XP NTFS Partition. So i booted to dos to see if i could
> access the drive. I had to set it to master but i was
> able to boot to DOS and get into the drive. So I know it
> is not a complete lost cause. Then i booted back into
> windows XP, the drive shows up in "my computer" and under
> the propities of the drive show it is in "RAW" format. So
> I took the next logical step and looked under the Windows
> disk utility and then in Partition magic. they both show
> it as un formatted and will not allow me to just convert
> the partition over to NTFS with out formatting the entire
> HD. So i then did a little research i ran across and
> found a Dos command that would convert a partition from
> raw to ntsf with out loosing any data... So i then typed
> at the c:/> prompt "convert d: /fs:ntfs" sevral articles
> i red said that it works but the responce i kept receving
> was " 'convert' is not recognized as an internal or
> external command, operable program or batch file. So i
> then downloades sevral drive recovery programs which did
> not work properly since they were demos. Short of cutting
> my losses and starting over fron scratch What should I
> do?
Related ressources
- Converting RAW HD Format to XP NTFS with out losing any data - Forum
- Converting RAW HD Format to NTFS with out losing any data - Forum
- How to convert a RAW drive to NTFS ? - Forum
- How to convert raw to ntfs without lose of data - Forum
- Simple and Free Guide to Removing Malware - Forum
A corrupt or missing boot sector will cause such kind of problem.
To fix the boot sector, you may refer to How to Fix the Boot Sector Problem?
If it still cannot be solved, you have to recover all the data out and then format the partition as the system indicates and choose format to NTFS partition before applying the format. After that, you can get a new Windows XP NTFS partition with all data be protected.
How to Recover Data from Raw Hard Drive?
To fix the boot sector, you may refer to How to Fix the Boot Sector Problem?
If it still cannot be solved, you have to recover all the data out and then format the partition as the system indicates and choose format to NTFS partition before applying the format. After that, you can get a new Windows XP NTFS partition with all data be protected.
How to Recover Data from Raw Hard Drive?
RAW is an obsolite file type that was used in windows 9x. in order to recover your data easily without losing it or repairing the MBR with a copy of windows simply download VM Ware for windows 9x and open it using windows XP/Vista/7 then browse to your locked files using your virtual machine and copy it all over to another drive. Then you know your files are safe and you can just as easily format the hell out of that annoying RAW drive and move on with your life ![:D]( ":D")
or if you don't have much you wanna safe you can use Active Undelete [its a program... download it, torrents have it] to recover all the lost files to another drive. Active undelete only recovers files, NOT FOLDERS so all your files will be in one location. I used active undelete on my RAW HDD and i got over 400K files back. a lot were program files that i had no idea where they went. but the ones i had compressed and archived away came back just as they were in .rar format.
I hope this helps a lot. any questions you can email me at dkostelecky@live.ca
or if you don't have much you wanna safe you can use Active Undelete [its a program... download it, torrents have it] to recover all the lost files to another drive. Active undelete only recovers files, NOT FOLDERS so all your files will be in one location. I used active undelete on my RAW HDD and i got over 400K files back. a lot were program files that i had no idea where they went. but the ones i had compressed and archived away came back just as they were in .rar format.
I hope this helps a lot. any questions you can email me at dkostelecky@live.ca
Related ressources:
- ForumHelp. don't know why can't format to NTFS with RAW .
- ForumBlackout causes NTFS to RAW format - Help?
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