Hard Disk Partition turned into Raw. Testdisk not working

[fedela]

My PC was experiencing frequent lockups and hangs so the local technician formatted the c: drive and reinstalled windows on it.
However, now I cannot access my F: drive as clicking on it says that the disk has not been formatted, and clicking properties shows it formatted as raw.
Searching for solutions, I found similar symptoms described over the web and most recommended using testdisk.
I used testdisk and followed the steps on the on-site tutorial. Testdisk is able to locate the file but the List files option does not appear for that drive, unlike the description on the site. Trying to undelete it is also not possible only for that drive.
Could someone post a more comprehensive tutorial for Testdisk, or suggest a better solution? I need that data really bad.
Thanks in advance

 

[topgear]

Use Easeus Data recovery Wizard to backup important files from F drive - after having backup just format the F drive using Windows Disk Management tool.

 

[ico]

Try using Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD to access files. Home | Ubuntu

 

[root.king]

Try using Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD to access files. Home | Ubuntu

+1 for ico

 

[Vyom]

First of all, do not use any kind of Test disk (or chkdsk) on the partition which is showing as corrupted. You can mess up the disk more, beyond recovery.
Next try ico's method.

If you still don't get data from above methods, I can recommend a good data recovery tool. Stellar Phoenix NTFS Data Recovery. It's quite good.

 

[topgear]

^^ Photo Rec / Test Disk - both are data recovery softwares and entirely different from windows chkdsk tool - so using them or other data recovery apps won't do any more harm to OP's F ( Raw ) partition

 

[Vyom]

^^ Thanks for the info. But "Test Disk" did sound like something akin to chkdsk!

 

[topgear]

^^ the name is little bit confusing but Test Disk never worked for me but Easeus data Recovery wizard has saved my precious data couple of times.

BTW, OP should check his HDD using his HDD manufacturer's Diagnostic Tool as well to see if his HDD is in perfect condition or has some other issues or not.