How to recover RAW file system when CHKDSK reports RAW?

Step 1: get to know the symptom

Some users would regularly use CHKDSK to check their hard drive to make sure everything goes on very well. Maybe one day you will receive "This type of file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available for RAW drive" when running CHKDSK. And then you try to explore some files in this drive, the message "The disk * is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" will be popped out. Feel confused about what happened and don't know what's going on. In short, this volume you want to check is inaccessible and becomes RAW.

Step 2: what is CHKDSK

Chkdsk (Chkdsk.exe) is a command-line tool that checks volumes for problems. The tool then tries to repair any that it finds. For example, Chkdsk can repair problems related to bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors. To use Chkdsk, you must log on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

While if the volume system type information is unavailable, like being RAW, then CHKDSK is unable to check the volume, not even to find errors and fix them.

Step 3: find the right outlet

When this happens, keeping a clear mind is highly required. If the CHKDSK is unavailable for the volume you want to check and reports RAW, find a suitable RAW drive recovery software to handle this. Say Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition. This freeware is designed for data loss out of system crash, software conflicts, format, accidentally delete or other more causes. There is "Complete Recovery" module in this software which is dedicated for unformat and RAW drive recovery. Choose "Complete Recovery" and let it scan your RAW drive, lost data will be displayed later. Just to select what you want to recover.

Tutorial: How to recover data from RAW drive?

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