Possible partition change?

[LadyGrey]

Howdy all, hope everyone is doing well.
Question: Is it possible for something or someone to actually change what the partition is on a computer and still have the computer run some what?
By that I mean changing the partition from say an NTFS to RAW, or FAT32 to RAW?
What kind of partition is RAW anyway?
Thanks much
LG

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Raw is just that. It is before any OS partitions it or sets the file system on it. Like a brand new HDD. You could have a working system still if the primary partition is basic or dynamic (Win XP PRO) and another partition is still in RAW format.

RAW is preferable if you are planning on putting a Linux OS on the drive.

[LadyGrey]

Thanks much FTT. Guess I'll have to start a thread on the problem.

[Paul Komski]

An unformatted partition can be described as RAW. Corrupt boot sectors (MBR and PBS) can also result in a partition or a whole drive being described as RAW but such partitions can usually be accessed by data recovery programs to recover data and sometimes the original format.

You may even find that one partitioning utility will describe a particular partition as RAW but another one find it to be normal!

[LadyGrey]

Thank you Paul for your information. Much appreciated.