Right, well I'll tell you what a RAW file
ACTUALLY is then shall I?
This was covered over around 20 minutes on a seminar I went to so this is in brief.... when a RAW image is taken it is actually a Greyscale image. What you see on the back of your camera is actually a JPEG interpritation of what that RAW file would look like with an assigned colour space.
It is only when you actually open the file in a RAW editor that a colour space is assigned to the image and thus, you can generally choose what colour space to use without losing any of the data in the process. If you used a JPEG, you're stuck with the original colour profile, AdobeRGB for example. You CAN change it, but you're still changing an AdobeRGB file to some other format. Kinda like sticking Ferrari badges on your Vauxhall. It's still a vauxhall.
The same applies to White Balance which I completely ignore these days, all my white balance is done during post processing.
I have a PDF somewhere that I took from the seminar, PM me your e-mail address and I'll fire it accross when I'm at home.