How it was lost · RAW & corrupted
Think of a RAW volume as a book with its contents page torn out. The chapters — your files — are still printed inside; what's damaged is the machinery describing where they live. And the real danger now isn't the corruption at all: it's the 'fixes' people reach for next, in Exeter as everywhere else.
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| The error | What it usually means | Step one |
|---|---|---|
| You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it | Its file system no longer makes sense to Windows — the classic RAW symptom | Decline the format prompt |
| The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives. | Even CHKDSK bows out — it can't help here | Give the drive a rest |
| The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable (0x80070570) | Damage inside the MFT's file records | Stop opening things |
| The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable (0x80070571) | Either the partition map or the MFT is damaged | Image first, mend on the copy |
| Location is not available — X:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect. | Often a broken file system riding on bad sectors | Suspect failing hardware as well |
| This volume does not contain a recognized file system. | All of the volume's metadata is gone | Beneath it, the data is untouched |
| Mac users see: The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer | Apple's wording for RAW — and the Initialize button beside it is the one to avoid | Choose Eject; leave Initialize alone |
Your device is logged under its own case number the day it arrives. An engineer finds the fault, tells you plainly what stands a real chance of coming back, and writes you one fixed quote. Nothing is charged for that look, nothing obliges you, and paid work starts only when you say so.
Before anyone attempts a fix, the whole disk is imaged sector by sector — weak areas mapped, the shakiest read last. Corruption and failing hardware tend to travel as a pair, and a full copy protects you from both.
Boot sector, MFT, partition table — all rebuilt on the image, where any wrong turn costs nothing and rolls straight back.
An MFT too far gone still leaves the data itself: we carve files from the image by their signatures, restoring folders wherever the surviving evidence allows.
Before any fee falls due you see a full listing of everything recovered and approve it. Your files travel back on brand-new media, return postage on us, and the case stays open until you've confirmed everything opens on your own machine.
Here's the trouble with repair software: CHKDSK, First Aid and every free 'RAW fix' download share one habit — they write to the very disk they're trying to save. If the hardware is healthy, that gamble sometimes pays off. If it's failing, a job that would have been a full recovery becomes a partial one. An image first costs you a day. A repair in place can cost you the lot.
Pulled out mid-write one evening, and by morning it wanted formatting. We imaged the whole drive, then repaired the boot sector and damaged MFT mirror on the copy. A translator's client archive — fifteen years of work — came back with its folder tree in one piece.
Formatting drops a clean, empty file system on top of the broken one — and with it go the structures a rebuild needs to give your folders their names back. Decline the prompt; recovery comes first.
It means Windows can no longer make sense of the volume's file system — typically damage to the partition table, MFT or boot sector. The files below are usually still whole.
Never here. It refuses RAW volumes in any case, and on a sick drive every pass of repairs brings the finish closer. If repairs must run, run them on an image — not the original.
The commonest cause is pulling a drive mid-write — and the damage falls on the filing system's index, not on your files. As faults go, it's one of the cleanest to sort.
Each power-up of a failing device takes more data with it. Open a case first — the look-over is free whichever way it goes.