In our lives, not everything goes the way we want them to all the time. And this fact also applies to your computer files. Whether it’s because of a virus or an unusual file transfer error, sometimes, a few files end up being corrupted and turn into .chk files that contain the fragments of the original files. Thankfully, there are multiple ways to recover .chk files and get the original file back.
In this article, we will show you where to find the .chk files and how to recover them using some simple and step-by-step methods. So, without further ado, let’s dig in.
What are .chk Files?
A CHK file or a file with a .chk file extension generally contains fragments of a corrupted file from your computer. When a file from your internal storage or disk drive corrupts because of a particular reason, your system will create a .chk file for it. Your device might be forced to create such files for multiple reasons, such as corruption due to virus infections, data transfer failures, malware or ransomware attacks, etc.
Whenever Windows 10 finds out a problem with the files of your computer’s disk drive, it automatically runs a program, Chkdsk, to solve the problem with the file. Once the OS solves the problem, it creates a FOUND.000 folder and keeps all the file fragments as .chk files.
Now, the question is, can you restore the .chk files? What if I accidentally delete the .chk files before restoring them? We will answer all of these questions in the next section.
How to Recover .chk Files?
Now, you already know that .chk files contain fragments of files that suffer from corruption. And Windows 10 creates these files, so we don’t lose our important files after the file corruption. Therefore, you can always recover .chk files and make them normal files again. You can even recover .chk files that you have accidentally deleted from your system. And in this section, we will show you how to do that.
Use the Command Prompt to Recover .chk Files
If you’re into the technical stuff and have no problem using the command prompt, you can use this method to change your .chk files to normal file formats. Just follow the steps below to restore your .chk files using the command prompt:
- Type “cmd” in the “Windows Search Bar” and the “Command Prompt” option will show up on the top.
- Next, right-click on the “Command Prompt” option and click on the “Run as administrator” option to open it with administrator privileges.
- Now, type “cd/” and press the “Enter” key.
- After that, type “X:” and press the “Enter” key. Here, “X” needs to be replaced with the appropriate drive letter. For example, if you have the “FOUND.000” file in your D drive, type “D:” and then press the “Enter” key.
- Next, type “cd FOUND.000” and press the “Enter” key, since all of your .chk files will be inside the “FOUND.000” folder unless you change the .chk files’ location.
- Now, type “ren*.chk*.mov” and press the “Enter” key. Here, you need to change “.mov” with other file extensions such as .mp4, .jpg, .xls, .png, and more. The file extension you choose will depend on the type of file fragments the .chk files contain. If the .chk files in the FOUND.000 folder contain fragments of video files, entering “.mp4” would be the right choice.
With this, you should be able to recover .chk files to normal files of your choice.
Please Note: This method will work only if all the .chk files of your folder of choice have fragments of the same kind of files. If the .chk files in your selected folder have fragments of more than one type of file, such as .xls and .mp4, this method will not be 100% effective. In this case, you should move the .chk files with similar file fragments to a different folder and perform the cmd method. Just change the “FOUND.000” with the name of the folder, where you have moved the .chk files.
Change .chk File Extensions Manually to Restore the File
Not a fan of command prompt? No problem. You can always restore your .chk files by manually changing their .chk file extension to the file extension of the original files. Here’s how you can do it:
- Right-click on the empty space of your “Home screen,” move your cursor to the “New” option, and then click on the “Text document” option.
- Let’s imagine that the .chk file you’re trying to restore was a .jpg file. In this case, type “ren*.chk*.jpg” and save it. If the .chk files were created from some other type of files, such as .mp4 or .xls, change .jpg with the actual file extension of the original file and save it.
- Close the text file and right-click on it. Click on rename and change its file extension from “.txt” to “.bat.”
- Next, copy the “.bat” file and paste it inside the “FOUND.000” folder. After that, double-click on it to activate the .bat file. It will change the .chk extension to .jpg(or any other extension of your choice in step 2) and recover the file to its original form.
Please Note: This method will only convert one .chk file to its original form. If you have multiple .chk files to convert, you can convert them one by one as long as you remember their original file extensions. Make sure you keep only one .chk file in the FOUND.000 folder when you’re executing this method. You can move the remaining .chk files to other folders. You can move them to FOUND.00 folder one file at a time when you’re going through the steps above for each file.
Use a Third-party Data Recovery Software to Recover .chk Files
You already know how to recover .chk files and get the original files, which were corrupted. But what if you even lose your .chk files? What if you accidentally delete them? In this case, you need to use third-party data recovery software to restore the .chk files back to your computer.
Just make sure you download and install professional data recovery software from a trusted company. Most of these data recovery software has a similar user interface and recovery process. So, once you’re done with downloading and installing the data recovery software, follow these steps to recover .chk files:
- Launch the data recovery software you have installed on your computer.
- Now, select the drive, where the “FOUND.000” folder is located or used to be located. For example, if it’s in the C drive, select the C drive from the options.
- After you select the appropriate drive, click on “Scan.”
- Once the scan is complete, you can see all the deleted files in the “Results” section. Locate the .chk files from the search results and click on the “Recover” button.
Once you finish all the steps, all your selected files will be downloaded to your computer, and you will be able to successfully recover .chk files.
