Can someone help me find a way to send RAW photos to Skydrive/Onedrive retaining their original file designation, i.e. NEF?

Your information is pretty much what I read in researching this issue. However the aspect that causes me to question this further was the ability to acquire the NEF file from the camera and then in a subsequent move upload the to my PC without a change in file name or characteristics. As there is some type of ability for the iPad to deal with RAW files, then it seems there has to be some way to deal with RAW without file extension change or loss of photo data. So, my question wasn't so much about why that happened as it was about the possibility of a work-a-round or a specific app that could facilitate my quest.

Both replies help to understand the restrictions of the iPad. JimHdk seemed to be a better technical reason for this issue. The reality is I am not looking for more explanations as to 'why not'. Is there a way around this? I have read about a couple of apps that handle RAW files better. But I am not sure if they will facilitate an export of the RAW file to any of the cloud services. When I upload pics from my camera, they show up in 'camera roll' not iPhoto. If I use iPhoto the whole process is nothing but JPG. I have to assume then the pics when then uploaded to my PC is acquiring them from 'camera roll' which leaves a collection of files in their original file format.

iPhoto certainly has access to Camera Roll. However the photos dealt with by iPhoto are JPG files. iCloud does not store any RAW files... at least in my attempts. When I load RAW files from my camera to my iPad they show up in Camera Roll. The only way I have seen those files remain RAW (or NEF in my case) is when they are then uploaded to my PC via the iPad regular cable. I noticed even trying to move RAW files into another folder it causes them to become JPG files.

Perhaps you have had the experience where something is the way you believe until... I just tried an experiment on my iPad and PC. I tried the RAW files from Camera Roll again. I went on the computer in 'photo' section of Windows 8 and discovered the iCloud Photos folder. Sure enough my RAW files were there. I apologize to you. You were right and I was wrong. I was striving to be able to upload to OneDrive because I thought iCloud did not keep the validity of the file. However, it did. I thank you. As limited as 5 g of storage on iCloud might be, the pictures I will take for a 3 week period should be able to fit in that. Again, thanks for your help.