How to Fix CHKDSK Is Not Available For RAW Drives on Windows 10

When repairing the SD card with the CHKDSK command, it displays an error message "The file system type is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives" and the SD card cannot be repaired, how do I do it? Why does this error appear? How can we fix this? This article aims to explain what this problem really means and how to fix it.

RAW is a state of a storage device or a particular partition that, from the point of view of the operating system, does not have a valid file system. In fact, the operating system cannot tell if the files are missing, corrupted or if their type is not supported: it simply cannot find the data it expects to be in certain locations on the disk, so it is unable to identify the format applied and the way the files are stored.



As a result, it becomes unable to manipulate data on that partition / drive and blocks access to it until it receives a compatible structure.

The Raw Drive Cannot Be Fixed:CHKDSK Is Not Available for RAW Drives
Sometimes, when you want to access a drive on the computer, you may receive a message like this: You need to format the disk in Drive *: before you can use it. Do you want to format it? (The symbol * stands for the target drive letter).

After taking a close look at the drive, you can discover that the drive is displayed abnormally: it has the drive label and drive letter without any drive capacity condition. When you view it in Disk Management, you can see the partition is shown as RAW.

The file system is RAW how to fix it?

If there is no important data on the drive, you can feel free to format the drive and then use it again as normal.

However, if the drive keeps many vital files, you’d better not format the drive directly to avoid data loss.



How to fix RAW drive without format: this must be the first thing to concern you.



Here, CHKDSK can be used to check the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors, and this may be the first choice for you to fix the RAW drive without format. However, is it really available?

Take Drive G as an example.

Press Win + R keys at the same time to open Run. Next, type cmd into the text box and press the Enter button to enter the Command Prompt interface.

Type chkdsk G: /f /r and press the Enter button in Command Prompt. However, you will discover that CHKDSK doesn’t work because The type of the files system is RAW.

CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

Unfortunately, the RAW drive cannot be fixed: CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

Some Recommended Solutions on the Internet!
Since CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives, you may then search for other methods on the internet to try to fix the RAW drive without format. In the following content, we summarize two most mentioned solutions.

Try 1: How to Fix the Raw Drive by Using the Error Checking Tool

CHKDSK is unavailable to fix the RAW partition. In this case, you can use the Error Checking tool to have a try:

Right-click on the RAW partition and then choose Properties from the popup list. Then choose Tools from the Properties interface.

Next, please click on the Check button to continue.



You will get an error message like this: This disk check could not be performed because the disk is not formatted. Would you like to format the disk? See! This method also reminds you to format the RAW drive.

Obviously, if there are important files on the RAW partition, the Error Checking tool can’t be used to fix the RAW partition without formatting.

Try 2: How to Convert RAW to NTFS without Losing Data Command Prompt

It is impossible to fix the RAW partition by CHKDSK and Error Checking tool. However, is it possible to convert the RAW file system to the NTFS file system by using a command line?

You can have a try:

Suppose that Drive G: is the RAW partition you want to convert.

Press Win + R keys to open Run. Next, type cmd into the text box and press the Enter button to enter the Command Prompt interface where you need to type convert g: /fs:ntfs and then press the Enter button.

You will receive an error message like this: CONVERT is not available for RAW drives. Now, you know that it is impossible to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data command prompt.

All of these three tries have failed and the result shows that it is impossible to fix the RAW drive without format. But, you still want to use the important data on the drive.

What should you do then?

Why not recover data from RAW hard drive and then format it to the normal state. If you agree with this method, you can move to the next part to learn how to do this job.

Make RAW Drive Recovery and Then Format It to Normal State
Stage 1: Recover Data from RAW Partition
To recover data from RAW disk effectively, you had better choose a piece of reliable free data recovery software. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good option.

This software has four recovery modules, and they are This PC, Removable Disk Drive, Hard Disk Drive and CD/DVD Drive. Among them, This PC can be used to recover data from RAW hard drive.



After downloading and installing this software on the computer, you can follow these steps to recover data from RAW disk.



Step 1: Open the software and you will enter This PC interface directly. Just stay on this interface.

If you only want to retrieve some certain types of files from the RAW partition, you can click on the Settings button and then make some selections from the popup window according to your needs.

Then, you can choose the RAW drive and click on the Scan button to generate the scanning process.

Step 2: When the scanning process ends, you will see the scan result interface as follows.

To find the files you want to recover, you can try these options:

Normally, the scanned files are listed by path. You can open each path to find your needed files.
On the other hand, you can click on the Type option which is close to the Path option to make the software show the scanned files by type.
If you remember the name of the file you need to recover, you can click on the Find feature and input the name of the file to locate it directly.
Additionally, you can also use the Filter feature to filter the files accordingly.
When you want to recover pictures and text files, you can even preview them if they are not larger than 20MB.
Step 3: Since it is the Trial Edition that you are using, it is impossible to save the selected files then. You will receive the following warning after you press the Save button.

Here, you can directly click on the Upgrade Now button on the above popup interface to get a license key and register the software to recover your data successfully.

Stage 2: Format the Drive to the Normal State
The most effective way to fix the RAW partition is to format it and there is more than one way to format a RAW partition.

Method 1: Use Disk Management

Here, we will do the operations in Windows 10.

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows icon and choose Disk Management from the pop-out list to enter it.

Step 2: Right-click on the RAW partition and choose Format from the list. Then, you will see the following interface.

Please define the Volume label and choose the File system & Allocation unit size. Then, check or uncheck Perform a quick format and Enable file and folder compression accordingly.

Step 3: Then you will see a warning saying like this: Formatting this volume will erase all data on it. Back up any data you want to keep before formatting.



Do you want to continue? Since you have recovered all your needed files with MiniTool, you can just click on OK to format the RAW partition.

Here, you need to know that you will have no chance to stop the formatting process after clicking on the OK button.

Bottom Line
Due to virus attacks, damaged file systems, bad sectors, etc, the hard drive partition can easily become RAW. In this situation, CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives and the best solution to fix the RAW partition is to format it to its normal state.

To avoid data loss issue caused by formatting, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to retrieve your important files in advance.

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