Windows 10: The type of the file system is RAW, CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives

CHKDSK is a useful tool when you need to repair bad or corrupt sectors of your hard disk. But at times, when trying to run this Disk Checking tool you may see an error message – The type of the [...]

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Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives.

I have a Lenovo Laptop E531.

After upgrading to Windows 10, I have been running backups for about a week. Now I received a message "File History doesn't recognize this drive."

I tried to run a CHKDSK, and I got this error message: "Chkdsk is not available for RAW drives.."

What happened?

 

Raw Partitions

Hi Everyone!

A few days ago, I accidentally told the Ubuntu Installer to wipe my Windows 10 partition. I quit the installer, but my partition is now RAW.

What is a RAW Partition?

In Windows, partitions with an unknown filesystem (like my Ubuntu partition) are marked as RAW. In this case, Windows was unable to recognize the filesystem type. Lets say your Windows partition filesystem gets corrupted badly. Windows would mark
it as RAW. So, in short, a RAW partition is
not a filesystem, but an error of the partition.

What happens if you have a RAW partition?

It depends. If your primary partition is RAW, Windows will not boot. Period. If an external storage device or other partition is RAW, Windows will ask you to format it. You will not be able to get any data off of this partition.

Is this error fixable?

It seems like it also depends. If your partition's filesystem got really messed up, then no. This will happen:

> The type of this file system is RAW.

> CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

However, I have seen reports of people fixing a RAW partition. This is what happened:

> The type of this file system is NTFS

> The first NTFS boot sector is unreadable or corrupt.

A little suprising, but this is good. It means that your partition is fixable. The first sector is what caused the RAW error.
p.s. I used chkdsk to get these errors

How do you fix this error.

First off, you will probably need a Windows Installer device.

If you can get to a command line, skip this part.

Boot from the installer.

Set your keyboard, mouse, etc. Click next.

Click Repair your Computer (bottom-left corner)

Click Advanced Options (or similar)

Now, first, try and use Startup Repair. If Startup Repair works, great! If Startup Repair fails, keep reading.

Open a command line.

Run the following commands in order:

> diskpart

> list volume

This will show you the RAW partition, and what letter it is.

> exit

> chkdsk /r /f D:

Replace D: with the letter from Diskpart.

You should get some errors at the beginning (first sector corrupt). Don't worry, it is actually fixing the second sector!

If that doesn't work, then you are in trouble, and should just reinstall Windows. Sorry

I hope this tutorial was useful. And also, please leave comments if you have another method that worked for you. Thank you!

 

How to convert RAW partition to NTFS partition.

Thanks for your reply. Apparently the convert drive to NTFS doesn't work when the drive is RAW. After following your instructions in step 2 I get message "convert is not available for RAW drives.

Any suggestions?