RAW drive in Windows (0 bytes, “CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives”)

RAW means Windows can’t recognise the drive’s file system, so it shows 0 bytes used and free and chkdsk refuses to run. Your files are usually still on the disk. Don’t format it. Copy the files off with a tool that reads the disk directly, then reformat.

By Jishnu Mahanta · Updated 2026-10-20

In short

A RAW drive is a drive whose file system Windows can’t read. Don’t format, and don’t run chkdsk /f. Check Disk Management, then read the drive read-only and copy files to another drive. Use Deep scan if no file system can be found.

What “RAW” means

In Disk Management or File Explorer a drive shows as RAW when Windows can’t identify a file system on it. In Properties you see File system: RAW and 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free. Run chkdsk E: and you get “The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.” You may also get the prompt “You need to format the disk”: see “You need to format the disk” in Windows: don’t format it.

Common causes:

The file system’s boot sector or key structures were damaged by an unclean removal, a crash, a power cut or a virus.
Bad sectors on a drive that is starting to fail.
A partition table that no longer points to the file system (a lost or deleted partition).
A file system Windows doesn’t know: a Mac or Linux drive, which isn’t damaged at all.
An SD card or USB stick that has failed.

Checks that only look

Open Disk Management. Windows+X, then Disk Management. Find the drive by size. Does it show one partition marked RAW? Unallocated space? “Not Initialized”?
Read the layout, don’t change it. “Unallocated” where you had a partition often means the partition table was damaged. “Not Initialized” on a disk that used to have data means the same. Don’t click Initialize Disk or New Simple Volume; both write.
Try elsewhere. Another USB port directly on the PC, another cable, another computer. This rules out a connection problem. If it is a USB stick, see USB device not recognized on Windows 11.
Check what Windows sees. In an administrator PowerShell, Get-Disk and Get-Partition list disks and partitions and don’t modify anything.

The risky steps

Microsoft’s chkdsk documentation says plain chkdsk only reports and the /f, /r switches repair, which means they write (Microsoft Learn). On RAW volumes chkdsk can’t run in the first place, and tools that “convert RAW to NTFS” are really formatting. A quick format typically doesn’t overwrite the data area, but it does remove the file list, and on an SSD it can cause TRIM to discard the data. Copy first.

Copy your files off with Retrova

Retrova reads the physical disk directly instead of going through Windows’ file system driver, and it opens it read-only. If it can recognise a file system on the drive (some drives Windows calls RAW are Mac or Linux drives, or just have a damaged first sector), you see your folders and file names. It shows the partition layout it finds so you can see what is there.

Plug the drive in and open Retrova. On the home screen choose A drive won’t open. Retrova lists every drive and partition it can see, with the file system it detected.
Pick the drive or partition. Windows asks for administrator permission, because reading a disk directly needs it.
Browse and choose what you want back. If the file system is readable you see your original folders and file names, and you can preview photos, videos, PDFs and text before copying.
Choose a destination on a different drive with enough free space. Retrova never saves onto the drive it is reading.
Copy, then Verify. Files are written as temporary parts and renamed only when complete. When it finishes, run Verify to compare every copy with the original, byte for byte.

If no file system is recognised, or the one it finds is too damaged to list files, run Deep scan from I deleted something. Deep scan ignores the file system and searches the raw drive for the start of 72 known file types (photos including camera RAW, videos, audio, documents, archives, mail files and more). It only recovers files that were stored in one piece, and the original names and folders are lost: finds come back sorted by type with new names.

What Retrova can’t do: it can’t undelete files with their names on APFS, ext or other file systems (only NTFS, FAT and exFAT), can’t open an encrypted drive without its password or recovery key, can’t open the startup disk of a T2 or Apple silicon Mac away from that Mac, doesn’t handle RAID sets or phones, and can’t fix a drive with physical damage. Retrova’s builds aren’t signed or notarised yet, so macOS and Windows will show a warning the first time you open it.

After your files are safe

Run Verify on the copies. Then format the drive in Disk Management (right-click the volume > Format; NTFS for Windows, exFAT for Windows and Mac). If the drive goes RAW again soon, it is failing: replace it.

What not to do

What not to do

Don’t click Format or Initialize Disk to “fix” RAW.
Don’t run chkdsk /f or /r, or a “RAW to NTFS converter”, before copying files.
Don’t keep using a RAW drive, or write new files to it.
Don’t install recovery software onto the RAW drive.

Get Retrova

Free and open source for macOS 11+ and Windows 10/11. No account, no recovery limit, and it never writes to the drive you’re rescuing.

Download RetrovaFree for Mac and Windows

Questions

Why does chkdsk say it is not available for RAW drives?

chkdsk repairs a known file system. A RAW drive has none that Windows recognises, so there is nothing for it to check.

Can I recover data from a RAW drive?

Often, yes, as long as the drive is physically healthy and hasn’t been overwritten. If the file system can be read, you get names and folders, and deleted files on NTFS, FAT or exFAT can be listed with their names. If not, Deep scan finds files by content.

Why does the drive show 0 bytes?

Windows reports used and free space from the file system. With no readable file system, both show 0 even though the disk is still full of data.

Is RAW the same as the drive being dead?

No. RAW is a software-level state. A drive that is physically dead doesn’t show up at all, or shows the wrong capacity.