Windows 7: chkdsk not available for raw drives problem

Hi. I have a Win 7 Pro 64-bit pc with VMWARE player installed on a second partition on the main HD U:/. I recently starting getting errors when using the VM saying that the operation on the file U:/xxxxxxx/windows 7 x64.vmdk failed. I tried to run chkdsk /f /r on the U: drive and got the error above saying the type of file system is RAW. I went into computer managment/disk management and U: still says NTFS. I use the U: drive for all my data files with the C: drive containing OS and programme files. I am not getting any errors when accessing other files on the U: drive just the VM. i managed to copy the offending file .vmdk to another drive.

Just not sure what to do next as reluctant ot use some random tool without knowing what exactly I am shooting at. You guys are always so helpful I thought it best to get it from the horses mouth.

I have a system image of my C: drive but not the U: drive. I keep daily backups of the U: drive using Windows backup.



Thanks for any advice

Mike

Good on you for keeping it backed up. You'll likely need it since RAW normally means a failed/failing HD.

Test your HD with maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

To try to pull the partition back use Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help.

If disk has failed or PW won't restore it I wouldn't bother with data recovery if you have it backed up. Just replace the HD and copy data onto a new Partition or Volume - Create New

Enter BIOS setup to make sure SMART monitoring is enabled so you get advance notice in the future, or use from the desktop CrystalDiskInfo - Software

Stupid me I just realised my main HD is RAID 0 assembly so I should have 2 copies fo everything. Overkill on backup for just this event. Unfortunately that means I can't use device manger to tell me what the HD are as just says Volume0. Its a Dell so guess WD.

Does having RAID affect the other instructions?

You're thinking of RAID1, aka mirroring. Your data on a RAID0 array is split among the two drives, making it twice as likely for data loss. Sounds like you may have a corrupt array, and could try RAID repair utilities.

Getting confused it is RAID1, but device manager calles it Volume0.

Ran the WD DataLifeguard extended test and it finished in under a second which doesn't sound right. Also says capacity 0GB. Trying the Seagate extended test. Running the free home edition of partition wizard. my RAID drive shows a FAT16 LBA 63-224909 Lost/Deleted and rest are all Existing. That small partition is labelled SYSTEM RESERVED in the disk management and think that was something to do with the recovery for the DELL factory installed OS (which I changed to Windows 7). Will leave them both running.

If this is a hardware issue I assume only 1 of the RAID disks should be an issue. If this is the case I asusme I can take out the offending disk and replace and and reclone the RAID. Question is how do I know which disk is the problem? Do I manually disconnect them and rerun the test and see which one throws an error?

I have been running CHKDSK overnight and 10 hours into it it has got stuck (or running incredibly slowly) at 25% of stage 4 "verifying file data". Pesumably I should just leave it even if it takes several days to complete?

CHKDSK hgas eventually completed, but now my U: drive properties says 0 used and nothing works. Help!!!!

Tried the WD disk check and it says too many bad sectors. Should the pc run ok if I disconnect one of the RAID disks?

If you have WD HD's then run the WD test on each separately to find out which is the bad HD.

Wipe the remaining good HD with Quick Wipe from Data Lifeguard CD, repartition in Disk Mgmt, or during booted Clean Install Windows 7 with SATA controller set to AHCI.

So if one disk is still good i can't just replace the bad disc and the RAID will kick in and duplicate the disc? i thoguht that was the point of RAID 1?
thanks
Mike