So I was handed a damaged USB drive and I was asked if I could recover some (apparently important) files on it. I know of software that recovers files (my favorite one being Recuva) but these generally work on a filesystem that is already working, whereas this usb drive gives me a "you need to format this drive" message.

I tried a couple of suggestions I found on Google. Like running chkdsk /r but it told me that the "file system is RAW and chkdsk doesn't work with RAW". I also read that you could do a quick format of the drive and it wouldn't erase anything, and THEN I could run Recuva but I'm a little apprehensive and I'd rather leave that as my last resort.

So my question is this. Is there any software I could use to try and recover files from a damaged usb drive WITHOUT having to format first? I skimmed through a couple of hits from Google but the sites always look super shady. Please help.