She ended up turning off her laptop during a Windows update.
She ended up turning off her laptop during a Windows update.
I completed the update of her computer to Windows 11, updated the GPU drivers, and left it to download updates. I stepped away for lunch and she restarted because the Nvidia control panel prompted it. I think it likely went through a major Windows update since I had created the installation media about a year ago. She was just seeing a gray screen, and after a few minutes of waiting, the restart shut down the system with the power button. It booted back into an old Windows partition I didn’t remove from her old HDD, which is when she called me back. Her M.2 drive no longer showed a bootable partition in the BIOS, so I used disk utility on the old Windows partition and found it claimed the partition was formatted in RAW. The file system seems corrupted, making it impossible to read data. Do you have any suggestions for recovering files from this failed drive? She hasn’t backed up many files recently—she had to replace her phone just a month ago. The old phone was sent to Samsung for a screen repair, and they refunded us without sending it back due to part shortages. I’ve tried reinstalling the Windows 11 media, but it won’t run even if told to wipe the drive. Running chkdsk /f from another partition failed because RAW isn’t supported. I plugged in a bootable Linux USB (Mini OS toolkit) and it didn’t recognize the damaged drive. I’ve never really worked with data recovery before, and most YouTube tips seem only basic. Any advice would be appreciated.
That usually means the drive is dead. Pull it and try it in another PC to verify. Generally unless the problem is "missing F6 driver", which would be the issue if the windows install was upgrade from Vista/7/8 on an intel platform thru to 10 or 11, the only other possibility is BIOS feature. Like there is the CSM (compatibility mode) that should be turned off before you repartition and reformat to GPT/UEFI. If there is a mismatch between OS installed/booted in GPT mode and the CSM mode on/MBR mode then the drive disappears. Not usually "0 byte raw" Which is why I'm saying pull it and plug it into known good windows 11 install to make sure.
Windows isn't able to read RAW format. That doesn't necessarily mean the drive is broken. It may happen after an incorrect shutdown or power cut. Try starting from the old hard drive in Windows. Digital Picture and File Recovery offers tools like Recuva to restore deleted files at no cost. There are additional free options available too. I can't represent every single one. You might need to experiment to find the best fit. Changing the drive format from RAW to NTFS will result in data loss.
She became frustrated and suggested I clean the drive and reinstall Windows. I restored it in the Windows disk partition, but now it’s showing an unfamiliar error when I try to delete the partition. I also checked the file explorer properties and received this third message.
This indicates the partition table is corrupted, causing Windows to interpret the disk as a sequence of characters rather than a structured partition. It resembles what you'd see on a Linux system when inspecting a Windows drive. At this stage, consider using free recovery software to attempt file restoration. A recommendation was made for Disk Genius, which helped recover data for another user with a similar issue. Occasionally, some files remain intact, while others are partially readable because of fragmentation. Ideally, the drive should be completely wiped and reformatted, as Windows lacks native options for this task. However, prioritizing data recovery is usually the best approach first.
Check disk D: and offer a brief prayer. If the NAND was interrupted by a partial write, the bitmap table might become irreparably damaged, making it unusable as an NTFS volume. Professional data recovery could be considered if data value justifies the cost—it's essentially a risky approach. Your partner didn't actually trigger the issue. The most likely outcome is that the Windows OS crashes and stops booting. However, the NTFS volume should still be intact and readable on another system because it uses journaling. Something went wrong during the reboot, possibly even in a fully working OS. Timing was critical. Reminder: always adhere to the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Thanks for your support so far. I've tried all the suggested methods, but nothing has worked. The Digital Picture and File recovery tool was the only one that managed to locate the disk—it spent around 24 hours scanning and ended up with no data. Recently, I removed the M.2 drive and connected it to my computer. Oddly enough, the operating system initially displayed the top-level file directory but couldn't navigate to any subfolders. It also appeared in the disk partitioner as formatted in NTFS. When I booted from it, my Windows installation no longer recognized the disk. During BIOS setup, I ran the built-in drive self-test and received an immediate error message. Is this drive beyond repair? Should I consider replacing it?