How to Recover Raw File System When CHKDSK Reports Raw

Overview

When you attempt to run chkdsk to repair a hard disk, you receive the error message "This type of file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives." Anyway, what is wrong with the drive? Supposed the drive has so many important files stored on it, and a chkdsk tool complains that it is unable to operate on a hard disk with the raw file system, how can you fix the disk without losing data? Data recovery software, like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with powerful raw drive recovery feature, can help you deal with this job pretty well in most cases.

About error "The type of file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives"

Chkdsk.exe is the command-line interface for the CHKDSK program, which verifies the logical integrity of a file system. If CHKDSK encounters logical inconsistencies in file system data, CHKDSK performs actions that repair the file system data (assuming that the data is not in read-only mode).

While if the volume system type information is unavailable, attempting chkdsk against the volume will result in the following message:

The type of the filesystem is RAW.
Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives.

Sometimes, the drive fails in such a way that it becomes RAW, which usually caused by a sudden power failure, stops error or virus attack. And to fix it you have to format raw to NTFS. And here, data recovery from the RAW drive is quite important to protect your important files.

Perform data recovery when chkdsk reports "The type of file system is RAW"

Tools that can help you recover lost files from raw file system are not provided as standard in any operating system. So you will need to use data recovery software, which understands the internals of the system used to store files on a disk (the file system) and uses this knowledge to locate the raw disk space that was occupied by the lost files.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard gives you an indication of recovering a file intact, and even provide a free trial version for you to check if your lost files are recoverable from the raw file system. With a friendly user interface, EaseUS disk data recovery software can help you manage the job with ease. 

To recover data when Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives:

Step 1. Locate the RAW hard drive

• Download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your Windows PC or laptop.
• Launch the software. Make sure that Windows has detected your RAW hard drive and correctly listed the drive letter on the disk map.
• Left-click on the RAW drive and then click the "Scan" button.

Step 2. Scan the data on the RAW hard drive

At this stage, the software would work very hard to search all data through the entire drive, and timely display the data as the scanning task goes on. 

Tip: users are allowed to pause the scan process for an instant recovery as soon as the target files show up, but it's better to stay and wait for a complete scan till the end.

Step 3. Check files under the "Extra Files" result

• Besides the general scan results of all lost data on the selected drive, the "Extra Files" is specially designed for RAW hard drive/USB flash drive/micro SD card data recovery, under which you're likely to recover what you want with a high success rate.
• Of course, check all the scan results if necessary. Choose the target files and click the "Recover" button. You should save the items to a new location.