Windows 10: Win10 Updates corrupting Partition Table external USB HDD's - to RAW

This is a recurring problem. I am looking for suggestions on:
1. how to repair my partition tables without formatting my HDD's.
2. how to prevent this problem from recurring.

Background:

I run a Dell XPS-15 9550, internal 512gb SDD.
My data is photographs and video files.
I use external HDD's via a 2-Bay USB dock.
See additional system details below.

Problem:

On some Windows updates, my external USB HDD becomes RAW after restart.

This problem has occurred on and off for about two years now, I would say since Windows 1803. It took me several occurrences to figure out the problem was tied to Windows updates. Once I did, only a few months ago, I called Microsoft and the fix was to update drivers. From what the agent said, Windows was installing conflicting drivers on update. The problem recurred three more times, and each time, I could go in and update the drivers (USB Mass Storage Controller), and that fixed the issue. My drive showed up as NTSF again and I was able to access my data.

On Saturday (Sep 21, I started my computer to find my two HDD's inaccessible: both had been turned RAW. I checked the update history and a Definition update had been applied on the 20th. When I tried to update the drivers, the disks remained RAW. I called Microsoft and they tried several different ways of updating the drivers without success. Finally, they started a Chdsk on one of the HDD's to see if that would work. Chkdsk completed successfully, but the disk was still RAW.

I have not run any other process on the drives, not wanting to make things worse.
I have most of my data backed up, but I don't want to plug those in, in fear that an update might come in and corrupt those HDD's.

This problem has occurred too many times to be a coincidence. I have seen other similar references to this problem on other forum, but few solutions, other than tools trying to fix the partition table and data recovery solutions.

A perfect-storm of hardware and software?

I can only conclude that I happen to have a very particular combination of hardware and software that lets a bug corrupt the partition table on external HDD's. It doesn't seem to be a prevalent problem, so there is little chance that Microsoft will take care of it.

SO:

I am looking for any suggestions on how to make changes to my system to prevent this from happening again?

- The problem ALWAYS occurs on external HDD's plugged in on a USB dock.
- It occurred on several (at least 3) different docks, different brands of docks.
- ALL my HDD's are WD's, but some were Green, others were Red. HDD's ranged from 2TB to 8TB. so that might be one of the constants...
- Some of the HDD's were as old as two years, and as new as two weeks.
- The last occurrence had two HDD's in the dock: one was brand new (less than two weeks old), the other was about one year old. Both turned RAW.
- The drives do not make any clickling or strange noise.
- In earlier occurrences, after running data recovery on the drives, I have reformatted and they work fine.
- The problem has NEVER (yet) happened to external HDD's that are "encased", like MyPassport, or other such drives.

I am considering setting up a NAS Raid drive in place of my USB-dock, which would be a better solution. I do not know whether a similar problem might occur with that system.

My specs:

XPS-15 9550
6th Gen i7-6700 GHzHQ Quad Core (6M Cache)
16GB (2 x 8GB) 2133MHZ DDR4 Memory
512 GB SSD
NVIDIA GTX960M video card 2GB DDR5
15.6" UltraHD 4K monitor

Windows 10 Home 64bit
Recent updates:

Update that created the last occurrence of the problen:
Definition Update:
Security Intelligence Update for Windows Defender Antivirus - KB2267602 Version 1.201.1812.0

Note: There were four new Definition Updates since, but no HDD were connected via USB.

General recent updates:

2019-09 Security Update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64based Systems (KB4516115) Installed 9/11/2019

2019-09 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64 (KB4514359) Installed 9/11/2019

2019-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems (KB4515384) Installed 9/11/2019

I can provide the full list of updates if necessary:
The 1903 update was first installed on my computer in June
....
This update created one occurrence of the problem 2019-05 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64 (KB44495620) Installed 6/6/2019

:)

 

Repar HDD partition table in Windows 10

I have two 4TB HDD's that were in a Qnap NAS. The partition table on both has apparently been corrupted. The drives will not show up in the NAS. I took them out and installed on a computer with a USB adapter. They show up in Disk Manager with all partitions,
including the main data partition, as RAW. I tried to analyze with TestDisk, but it did not show the correct disk size (1.8TB vs. 4TB). The same reduced size shows in the computer's UEFI, but the full size shows in Disk Manager. I am leary of EaseUS or Parted
Magic after reading some poor reviews. Is there a way to repair the partition table without deleting the data; and if not, what is the best recovery tool to copy the data off of the drive?

 

Corrupted NTFS Partition Table

I have a 160GB drive that for some reason or another has a corrupted NTFS partition table.

The NTFS partition (about 129GB) is inaccessible, (I get an error message stating that I need to format the drive inorder to use it.) and the remaining free space is in RAW format. For some reason the normal tools will not recognize the original NTFS partition and I cannot repair/recover the partition.

Can anyone recommend any tools that they've used to repair/recover NTFS partition information?

Part of me is thinking of just formatting the drive and then trying to recover what I can through recovery software.

Any idea's?

 

Raw Partitions

Hi Everyone!

A few days ago, I accidentally told the Ubuntu Installer to wipe my Windows 10 partition. I quit the installer, but my partition is now RAW.

What is a RAW Partition?

In Windows, partitions with an unknown filesystem (like my Ubuntu partition) are marked as RAW. In this case, Windows was unable to recognize the filesystem type. Lets say your Windows partition filesystem gets corrupted badly. Windows would mark
it as RAW. So, in short, a RAW partition is
not a filesystem, but an error of the partition.

What happens if you have a RAW partition?

It depends. If your primary partition is RAW, Windows will not boot. Period. If an external storage device or other partition is RAW, Windows will ask you to format it. You will not be able to get any data off of this partition.

Is this error fixable?

It seems like it also depends. If your partition's filesystem got really messed up, then no. This will happen:

> The type of this file system is RAW.

> CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

However, I have seen reports of people fixing a RAW partition. This is what happened:

> The type of this file system is NTFS

> The first NTFS boot sector is unreadable or corrupt.

A little suprising, but this is good. It means that your partition is fixable. The first sector is what caused the RAW error.
p.s. I used chkdsk to get these errors

How do you fix this error.

First off, you will probably need a Windows Installer device.

If you can get to a command line, skip this part.

Boot from the installer.

Set your keyboard, mouse, etc. Click next.

Click Repair your Computer (bottom-left corner)

Click Advanced Options (or similar)

Now, first, try and use Startup Repair. If Startup Repair works, great! If Startup Repair fails, keep reading.

Open a command line.

Run the following commands in order:

> diskpart

> list volume

This will show you the RAW partition, and what letter it is.

> exit

> chkdsk /r /f D:

Replace D: with the letter from Diskpart.

You should get some errors at the beginning (first sector corrupt). Don't worry, it is actually fixing the second sector!

If that doesn't work, then you are in trouble, and should just reinstall Windows. Sorry

I hope this tutorial was useful. And also, please leave comments if you have another method that worked for you. Thank you!