computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...

, the term raw disk, often referred to as raw, is used to refer to

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

access at a raw, binary level, beneath the

file system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...

level, and using

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

data at the MBR. A notable example is in the context of

platform virtualization Hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers as complete hardware platforms, certain logical abstractions of their componentry, or only the functionality required to run various operating systems. Virtualization hides the physica ...

, and a feature of certain virtualization software is the ability to access a hard disk at the raw level. Virtualization software may typically function via the usage of a

virtual drive Virtual disk and virtual drive are software components that emulate an actual disk storage device. Virtual disks and virtual drives are common components of virtual machines in hardware virtualization, but they are also widely used for various pu ...

format like OVF, but some users may want the virtualization software to be able to run an operating system that has been installed on another disk or disk partition. In order to do this, the virtualization software must allow raw disk access to that disk or disk partition, and then allow that entire operating system to boot within the virtualization window.

File system

RAW file system indicates a state of your hard drive which has no or unknown file system. A disk or drive with a RAW file system is also known as RAW disk or RAW drive. When a hard drive or external storage device is shown as RAW, it could be: * The file system of the drive is missing or damaged * The RAW drive has not been formatted with a file system * The current file system of the storage medium is not recognized by the computer

References

Hard disk drives Virtualization software {{computing-stub