Corrupted file system ≠ lost files
A "RAW" or corrupted drive almost always means the file system metadata — the index that tells the computer where everything is — got damaged. The actual photo, video and document data is typically still intact in the data area. Because RecoverHelper doesn't rely on a working file system, it can read straight past the damage.
Open the raw device and run Carving
If the drive won't mount, pick its raw physical-disk entry as the source rather than a drive letter, and run Carving Only. RecoverHelper opens the raw block device directly and reconstructs files by signature, with no working file system required — across NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and Mac APFS/HFS+ volumes alike.
Failing drive? Bad sectors are skipped automatically
On a dying HDD or SSD, some reads will simply fail. Instead of crashing or stopping, RecoverHelper's bad-sector tolerance skips the failed reads and continues, so the drive still gives up everything it physically can. The source is opened strictly read-only — scanning a fragile drive can never write to it or make the damage worse — and recovered files are always saved to a different drive. Tip: if the drive is physically failing, recover your most important files first and keep scan sessions short.
Works with internal and external drives
Internal and external HDDs and SSDs, USB flash drives, SD and microSD cards, and cameras — with MBR and GPT partition tables. JPG and PNG recovery is free; RAW, video, audio, documents, archives and partial recovery unlock for free by pairing the free RecoverHelper mobile app.