If there is an unexpected error in your windows system, the possibility is that you might have used the Scandisk utilities or CHKDSK to find and recover the corrupted files. You are probably here because you can see a file extension that has .chk in the end. The files that have a .chk file extension can only be opened with specific applications.
You can find your .chk files in the folder labeled as FOUND.000 folder in your windows local drive. Each file that is labeled with the .chk extension can’t be accessed directly. But the good thing is, that you can easily recover them using third-party software or following manual instructions.
Before we get down to the CHK file recovery process, it is important to know what CHK files are and why it is necessary to recover them.
What Is A CHK File Extension?
CHK files are fragments of a corrupted file; they can be data, images, or other documents. You can find these types of files in a FOUND folder.
Generally, CHK files are the recovered lost clusters from your windows system. These types of files have the lost contents of files or any documents after abrupt action.
The data which has not been restored properly by the window system will be labeled as “lost file fragments” and will be automatically converted as CHK files.
This type of file usually occurs due to interrupted file transfer, virus attacks, incorrect manual operation, storage device corruption, Scandisk utility, and many more.
How To Detect CHK Files?
Your windows system often experiences issues like interrupted file operation and storage device corruption. If you still physically unplug the external device before the windows system says “safe to remove hardware, ” you experience a sudden application and system crash.
Windows will ask you to scan and fix the issue. And usually, you will run the inbuilt utility CHKDSK, which is available in windows.
After completing the scan and repair procedure, CHKDSK creates a file with the .chk extension in a folder labeled as FOLDER.000. So, CHK files are fragments of corrupted files, data, or other documents on a windows computer.
Why Is It Necessary To Recover CHK Files?
You may face many situations where you will lose or delete CHK files. But, you will need those deleted CHK files at one time or another. After the abrupt action or interrupted file transfer followed by a CHKDSK scan, you might see that you lost a lot of valuable data. Then simply you can go back to the FOUND folder and try to recover the lost data.
For example, you had some files on a USB drive that was connected to your computer, and you removed the drive before the system said: “safe to remove hardware”.
After this, you ran CHKDSK, and it created CHK files. Later, you came to know you are missing some valuable files and you are experiencing issues like the doc file not opening or the USB showing errors, etc.
How to Convert CHK files to Original Content?
The good thing is you can easily convert the CHK files into original content. You can follow the manual way or you can also get help from third-party software that is specialized in converting CHK files into the original. So, let’s get going
Strategy 1: Recognizing the CHK file type
Well, the good thing is you can easily convert CHK files just by converting them to their original extension. But, don’t think that this method is easy to do.
You have to figure out the file type first of all in order to convert the CHK file to its original form. Although you might find it difficult to recognize any character at the beginning of each CHK file, you can use a text editor app like notepad and open these files there.
The unique headers at the beginning of each CHK file will help you to determine the file type. For example, files that contain ID3 at the beginning are the mp3 files. Another file that has RAR at the beginning or closes to the beginning is Winrar files.
Strategy 2: Changing the CHK extension manually
Once you are down with the file identification part, it’s time to change the extension of the CHK file. For instance, if you have identified an mp3 file, you can change the extension to .mp3 and then use an audio or media player and try to open it there,
Strategy 3: Changing the CHK extension using CMD
CMD can be a big help while trying to convert CHK files to the original content. So, how do you recover CHK files through CMD? Let’s get you through a step-by-step guideline, but remember, you need to be very good at using command lines.
- Step 1: First of all, locate the command prompt in the windows menu and run it as administrator.
- Step 2: Input CMD and press the enter button in order to change the root directory.
- Step 3: Next, input the drive letter where all the CHK files are stored and type cd FOUND.000.
- Step 4: Then, input ren.chk.jpg in order to change the extension to the original format. You can convert a jpg file to any file like .mp3, png, doc, etc.
Apart from this, you can also recover CHK files from FOUND.000 folders or recover CHK files from an SD card or USB drive.
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Some Free Software To Convert Chk Files Into The Original Format
Some free software can be used to convert CHK files into the original format. We are going to briefly discuss this software and show you how you can easily recover your CHK file using this software-
1. UNCHK to Recover CHK files
UnCHK is a free file recovery software specialized for CHK files. You can go for this if your files aren’t corrupted. We recommend you consider this professional data recovery software if you want to directly recover the deleted files. This is how you use UnCHK:
- Step 1: Download and install the UnCHK software on your device and run it.
- Step 2: Select the directory where the CHK files are located and select a destination directory.
- Step 3: Now, choose the Whole file option to scan and then click OK
2. EaseUS Data Recovery Software to recover CHK files
If you unknowingly deleted the CHK files or only have the CHK files left on your computer, EaseUS file recovery software can be your best shot. With its raw recovery power, it can help you recover deleted CHK files without any hassle. It has a recovery rate of 99.7%
Step 1: Choose a location and start scanning.
First of all, launch the EaseUS data recovery wizard on your computer, then hover on the drive where the deleted CHK files were located. Click SCAN and find the lost files.
Step 2: Select the files
Once you are done with the scanning, choose the deleted files you want to recover. You can also filter the file types you want to recover. You can search any file in the search bar, which is the quickest way to find any file or folder.
Step 3: Preview and recover files
The good thing about this software is you can preview the recoverable files. So, you can easily select which files to recover. Select the files you want to recover and then click Recover. After this, store the files in a new storage location.
3. CHK-Back To Recover Chk Files
CHK-back is another great software for recovering lost CHK files. This one has a great interface and is very easy to use. It can support up to 40 different file formats such as video, audio., images, word files, doc files, executable files, or even office files.
Conclusion
We know it can become very much frustrating to see unrecognizable CHK files on your device. But, if you follow our methods properly, you can easily convert and recover the deleted files. You can either recover files from the FOUND.000 folder by converting the extensions, or you can use the software we mentioned in our article.
So, whenever you see such types of files on your device, don’t panic. You can easily retrieve them. You can also use CHK-mate or FileCHK software to recover your lost data, but it is better for you to use the ones we described in the article. Good luck with the recovery process.