Solved Fixing a drive that is now detected as RAW with TestDisk

So I may have suffered some kind of hiccup or power failure that caused an issue with the USB ports on my computer or hub. Regardless, I ended up with the issue where the drive is now detected as RAW and unable to be detected by Windows - it gives both the "Parameter is missing" error and asks me to format.

PhotoRec is able to recover files, so at the very least I know the files are still there, but I'd really like to be able to recover the disk entirely to be able to get the files out in the original context.

It's my first time trying TestDisk, but I read some tutorials/instructions but was kind of stuck.

I did Analyze, and found the partition:



But when I try to list files, I get this error:



I saw elsewhere that you can go to Advanced options to try to fix the boot sector directly by recovering from a backup, but the option doesn't appear:



It does appear when I select a working drive (and I'm also able to view the files as well).

What do I need to try next? Do I need to do a deep scan in order to see the "Backup BS" (boot sector) option? It's an 8tb drive so it'll take forever, but I don't mind if that's really the only option I have.

Or is there something else I can try?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

Rustys said:

When I have a disk that is not accessible by windows I use Linux.

You can also try this

Recover deleted or lost partition in 3 steps

www.easeus.com

2 Ways to Recover Lost Partition in Windows 10, 8, 7, And 11

How do I recover a deleted partition or lost partition in Windows 10? Here you can know how to recover lost partition from Command Prompt, or using a professional partition recovery tool.

www.diskpart.com

Can you tell the program where to put the files? Like to a different drive.

Click to expand...

I've actually installed EaseUS DRW to see if it could detect some of the files and it can, but they only seem to offer the option to retrieve files from RAW hard drives rather than to try to repair them.
As a bit of a last resort, I may use it because it is able to preserve some file names (PhotoRec is not) but I was hoping to recover the drive entirely by fixing the boot sector if possible.

The partition shows up in DiskPart as RAW:



So it's not that it's hidden, just completely inaccessible because Windows thinks it's RAW (which I've read is due to a corrupted boot sector). If there's a way to recover this using a Linux tool other than TestDisk, I would love to give it a try at least.

Thank you for your help.

I've also attached my testdisk log file, if you may be familiar with that program and the log might be helpful.

Rustys said:

Linux is an OS that can be ran off a USB drive no need to install.

What happens when you try to retrieve a file can you open it.

RAW USB Recovery | How to Recover Data from RAW USB Drive

USB drive becomes raw? Here is a 3-step RAW USB drive recovery solution that shows you how to recover data from a raw USB drive. Try it to fix raw USB flash drive, memory card, SD card, etc. without losing data.

www.easeus.com

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I know. I'm booting the Alt Linux Repair suite to use TestDisk. I know about using ddrescue to clone, but I'm not sure if there's anything I should try to use for recovery.

With EaseUS I actually didn't try to see if I could read the files because of the size, just the file listing. With PhotoRec the files did open at least, so I think they should be fine.

Just thought I'd update in case it may be helpful to someone else - I wasn't able to use Testdisk to recover the partition and ended up using DMDE and R-Studio Recovery to view the files on the RAW drive to retrieve the files.

Thanks Rustys for the help.