The type of the file system is RAW

[Joanne]

I have several disks that were recently formatted on my
XP machine at the office. When I try to retrieve the
data on my XP machine at home,and couldn't I decided to
run chkdsk on them. I get the following message: "The
type of the file system is RAW. Chkdsk is not available
for RAW drives." What on earth happened and can anyone
help me? Thanks a lot.

 

[Eric McG]

What type of discs are you referring to?

If they are CDs, are they CD-R or CD-RW?

If they're CD-RW discs, what application did you use to format them? If that's
the case, you'll probably need the same packet-writing app on your home unit to
read them.

To ensure compatibility do not use packet-writing, use the regular mastering
method using CD-RW or CD-R discs. No formatting is required, only the CD-RW
discs must be erased for reuse when required. Some of these features may or may
not be available to you since Windows XP has limited capabilities in this
technology as installed. You need a 3rd party application.

Read this article for more details:

Burning CDs in Windows XP
http://winsupportcenter.com/win5/a/xpcd.htm
..

 

[Joanne]

Thanks for your help. I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. They
were 1.44 MB disks, formatted from my Win98 laptop.
After staying up all night to try to figure this out, I
realized that the drive had somehow lost its correct
capacity - I could only format disks with the /F:720
switch. Now my challenge is to figure out where in the
CMOS I tell this machine (IBM 55U) that this is a high
density drive. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Orion]

Look at the top of a floppy diskette, (opposite end of
the sliding shutter). See the two square holes, one with
a sliding plastic tab? That one is the write protect
hole. The other one is a hole which tells the drive that
it is a high-capacity disk.

There is a corresponding microswitch on the drive, and if
this gets damaged or clogged with cruft, it can default
to 720kb only.

Try cleaning the front of the drive with a compressed air
cleaner. Failing that, replace it.

Hope this helps.