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How To Recover CHK Files Created by CHKDSK and SCANDISK

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

Jan
7
2008

Recently I received an email asking me how to get back .chk files created by chkdsk or scandisk? Whenever you don’t shutdown your computer properly, before Windows is booted up, you’ll be presented by a blue colored screen that will scan your disk for errors. You have a few seconds to press any key to abort the chkdsk.

Recover Windows XP CHKDSK files

Since Windows 98, I’ve been installing many types of software on my computer to test them out. We all know that Windows 98 is very unstable because whenever an application is not responding, ending the task will mostly make the Windows unstable which I can’t even reboot properly. Seems like cold reboot is the only way to restart the computer. After a cold reboot, SCANDISK will appear. Of course I let it scan thinking it can detect and fix problems after an improper reboot but I was wrong. It turned many of my important files into CHK files.

Since that incident, I NEVER allow Windows to ever again perform CHKDSK or SCANDISK to detect and fix hard drive problems by itself. If I am advised to run CHKDISK or SCANDISK, I’d make sure I have proper backup of my important files first. I never understood why Microsoft created CHKDISK or SCANDISK to fix corrupted files and then place them at the root of your drives with the name FileXXXXX.CHK? What’s the point of saving the file there when there is no built-in tool to recover back the .CHK files?

Fortunately there are third party tools that is able to help you recover .CHK files created by CHKDSK and SCANDISK.


You can simply rename all your CHK files to the desired extension and see what works. For example, if you have a Word document file went missing after scandisk, maybe renaming the .chk to .doc might be able to let you open the Word document. It’s tough to identify because there can be many Filexxxx.CHK files at the root of your drive and you don’t know which is which.

The easiest way is to use third party tools to help you check the headers of the CHK file and identify what is the original extension, then renaming it to the correct extension. All 3 free tools below does nearly the same thing and no harm using all of them to recover CHK files.

1. UnCHK by Eric Phelps
UnCHK Restore CHK files
UnCHK is a free tool that is able to help you restore CHK files to the original extension. UnCHK can identify the following file types: JPG PSP PSD GIF ZIP CAB EXE DLL OCX WRI BMP DOC PPT XLS PDF RTF HTM WAV MID AVI RAR TIF MP3 WPD FPX EPS CLP. You can add more file types yourself so it can support more extensions. Just drag a good file, drop it on the program and it will read and recognize the header.

[ Download FileCHK by Martin Kratz ]

2. FileCHK by Martin Kratz
FileCHK get back CHK Files
That’s right. There is no interface or options for this free tool. FileCHK will check for files named FILE????.CHK in it’s directory and rename those CHK files to the correct extension. FileCHK can identify the following file types: 3DS TIF EXE BMP SWF PSD AI GIF PST CAB RAR CHM MID PDF ZIP HLP MP3 DWG MPG LNK URL HTM JPG TTF MDB MOV QT DOC XLS RMI WAV AVI CDR TXT ASF

[ Download UnCHK by Eric Phelps ]

Note: There is a thorough comparison made by Eric between UnCHK and FileCHK.

3. CHK-Mate
CHK-Mate Restore CHK File
CHK-Mate will examine the contents of the CHK files and determine if the contents are known filetypes, such as MS-Word files or GIF files. When contents are recognized (for example, as a Word document), the CHK files are copied to a new file with the correct file extension (Filexxxx.CHK -> Filexxxx.DOC). The new file extension allows you to easily open the file using the associated program.

If the contents of a CHK file can not be linked to a known filetype, you have the option to extract all the readable text from the CHK file. Use this option to recover information from a CHK file that is perhaps not intact enough to be recovered completely as a known filetype.

[ Download CHK-Mate ]


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    • little-hollow

      are there any alternatives to scandisc??

    • chaosdreamer

      thanks raymond

    • rajinder

      how to enable my spelling options in outlook express.

    • Terence Hill

      Nice post, many times I have deleted those chk files. With this kind of software the recovery is possible!

      There is also TrIDNet, it handles over 3000 file types!!!
      http://mark0.net/soft-tridnet-e.html

    • Kip

      I Would be interested in knowing what you use to diagnose disk problems. I have never been a fan of checkdisk. I used to use NDD back in the day but just wandering if you use anything nowadays thats different from built in stuff?

      Great site btw – I just found it and have been going back through the archives. Nice one

    • Pingback: What File is That? How To Identify Unrecognized Files Types and Format » Raymond.CC Blog

    • phinoc

      I use scandisk since window 3.11 i think also ndd, but i only use delete command to remove the chk files. but now i know there is tool to recover the such as files

      thank a lot.. :)

    • Infinite

      Oh!!!

      Thank you for new Knowledge.

    • TG

      Excellent article…i agree scandisk and chkdsk is jus ms crap…keep up the good work.:)

    • dexter

      every drive manufacturer these days provide their own disk tools for maintaining drive health and preventing problems from occuring
      Seagate tools
      Maxtor’s maxblaster .. to name a few
      and then there is HDD life

    • Walter Mileto

      Amigo, muchas gracias, estas herramientas son excelentes.

      Saludos Cordiales.

    • http://consulta henry

      este una duda cuando introduzco un cd se supone que tengo que esperar luego entrar a mi pc y sino me ekivoco al disco e , la duda es que nu aparece el disco e en mi pc COMO HAGO PARA SOLUCIONAR ESO

    • diegodelo

      gracias man

    • kenbrit

      chkDisk did an unprompted scan of my hard drive and deleted the contents of a file I had been working on. I will try the chk file recovery utilities to see if I can recover the lost data. As a matter of interest, why does a search using xp search command not identify the chk files that I’m pretty certain exist on the root somewhere? Am I missing something?

    • he he

      for me check desk once ran after boot and converted the hole contents of a 40 gb partition into FILE00*.CHK
      this partition contained games
      videos and some important files.
      I don’t think this method would be appropriate for recovering massive amounts of data as in my case, however it is still helpful for recovering small numbers of files.
      for me I had to delete all the recovered/destroyed files and
      install my programs again and redo the work that wasn’t backed up yet.
      After that incident I disabled checkdisk on boot.

      this is how to disable chkdisk on boot:

      start–>run–>cmd–> type chkntfs /x c: e: f: g: h:

      where c e f g h are the drive names, change them to your own, don’t forget the spaces.

      this will modify the following reg key to exclude the drives after the /x parameter.

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\Session Manager
      BootExcute:autocheck autochk *

      to

      BootExcute:autocheck autock /k:c /k:e /k:f /k:g /k:h

    • zack

      does it work for window vista??

    • http://PleasetoSolvemyproblem Imran

      In my Picture collection have a format of File001.CHK. How i will change to Jpg?????
      Please inform

    • AJ

      This software is missing a .dll file?

    • Crept

      Hi after my window crash, i did chkdsk/r in recover console, all my files including my os turn into .sqm files, anyway i can retrieve this information??

    • teknishen

      Man I had a scary situation with this disk check thing…I was trying to copy files to my external which had to be moved to another casing, and windows kept locking up. Then I installed some drivers for it, and for some time the drive worked again. Then all of a sudden, the main folder where all the contents could not be read correctly.

      I ran the disk check on vista, and it repaired the folder where all of the files were, but it changed the folder to found.000 which is cool, only one problem…You couldn’t see it on windows explorer! I tried to expose it using the option to show all files and folders, and that still didn’t work…

      The way I was able to find it was run a virus scanner on the hard drive to get the address of that folder and then type it to the address bar. There may be a set of folders within it, but one of them has your lost files. Either access them there, or move them to a folder that has more permissions.

      Hope this helps those that fall into the trap of using chkdisk

    • FJ

      Hi there,

      Does anyone know how to increase the number of file types recognised with Chk mate?

      many thanks

      FJ

    • http://crashwindowsvistafile lalit

      crash my windows vista file then how can recovery my data plz ask me

      thanks & rgds

      Lalit

    • Rich

      To show the ‘Found’ folder/directory (where chk files/folders are stored) for all drives, go once to ‘Tools’ at top of screen, then ‘Folder Options’, then ‘View’ and uncheck ‘Hide protected operating system files’.

      On one drive I found 150gb on another I found 120gb.

      The main problem I am having now is about permissions.

      It lets me move the files from the .chk folder to another on the same drive or elsewhere. However once I have done that if I then shift the new folder back into the .chk folder it won’t let me alter or move or delete it.

      [I did this move to facilitate an intended move of a bunch of folders to another place.]

      Does anyone please know how to change the permissions so that I can move these folders?

    • Rich

      Eventually I found the solution to my permissions problem…

      quote from Jayant Kumar Gandhi (google his initials to find his website):

      ”To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder. The steps are as follows:-

      1. Turn off Simple File Sharing:
      1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
      2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
      3. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
      2. Taking Ownership:
      1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
      2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
      3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
      4. In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
      5. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
      6. Click OK.
      7. You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:

      You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

      8. Click Yes.
      9. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.

      Disclaimer: I do not guarantee that this will save your files. All I can say is that I’ve done it successfully on dozens of machines.”

      This solved some problems for me!

    • sonn

      Doesnt work under Vista

    • varun k

      thank you for such a great software “unchk”,but there is problem it turns everything into text i had 1700 files in .chk from 32k to 30 mb and it turned everything into text in windows text its showing like this” åå , dos text ”ss” ,i tried around 50 files,but i didn’t get success,
      can u tel me what i m doing wrong??

    • Teddy Puguh Primandaru

      makasih bgt bang progamnya .
      sangat membantu :)

    • Farfoor

      Hi
      I lost so many files that i cant recover
      and i found this nice program which covered abit of my lost stuff and named under .chk
      i wish that i can find something for it because my hard disk has got some pics ,videos, and SOngs of my friend who past away few years
      and its the only thing that i can remember him by
      if there is any help to this please help

    • saionara bomfim

      possuo uma camera digital kodak e todas as minhas fotos se trans formarão em arquivo chk.como faço para recupera-las

    • James Bradley

      Thanks a million for the information! You saved my butt big time. I had a file error while transferring voice recording from the RCA5022 DVR to my pc. The files were completely erased stored in a hidden directory as CHK files.
      Thanks to you, we have do not have to spend hours creating the recording again.

      Thanks,
      James

    • Daddy Bear

      where does filechk/unchk stores the renamed files?

      I have a saved my Found.xxxx folders into a different hard drive.

      I used both filechk and unchk to recover the files in my Found.xxxx folders.

      I cannot find where filechk/unchk stored the recovered/renamed files. Where do I look for the recovered/renamed files?

      Thanks

      Daddy

    • anz

      thanks pal!

    • robil

      Mas Found.000 (CHK File) masuk ke flash disk saya, dan pas waktu saya format flashdisk saya, g’ bisa saya sudah menggunakan berbagai cara sampai dengan linux tapi masih aja tidak bisa, gimana ya cara penyelesaiannya?
      mohon bantuan mas-mas…. terimakasih

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KDTXFL3XT5HSFTO5VIQ7R4MISU Jeanbing Buena

      .,what is the easy way to recover the file that has turned into chk file,, ??
      when i try to copy a file, check disk scan pop up and then i selected the “scan the disk and fix it” suddenly, one of my folder has been lost, i tried to attrib all folders available in my flash drive then i found the “FOUND.000″ folder and it’s contents are all in chk format, how can i convert it into the original file extension name???, i want a clear instruction,, i need those file,, any one who can help me???

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KDTXFL3XT5HSFTO5VIQ7R4MISU Jeanbing Buena

      .,what is the easy way to recover the file that has turned into chk file??,
      i was copying a file from cp to flash drive and then the scan disk check pop up and i selected the “scan and fix it” suddenly the newly save folder has been lost,, i tried to use cmd,, then i found the unknown folder,, the “FOUND.000″, when i look at it,, i found all the file into chk file format,,??,, i don’t know if it was the file that i was looking for,, anyone who can help me??, i need those file pls!!!!!

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EKFANTZZ4MRGCU7HLWCP37NFXI Suraj

      none of the softwares are helping me recover my files!!!! wat should i do?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EKFANTZZ4MRGCU7HLWCP37NFXI Suraj

      none of the softwares helped, wat should i do next??? ay hope for me and my files????

    • http://www.facebook.com/gulzaib.zahid Gul Zaib

      you just open all chk files in linux.it will show all files into their format,so you just rename files extension according to softwares, as rename pictures to sample.jpeg,& word files to sample.doc.
      remember in prayes.
      gulzaib.zahid@gmail.com

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