Server 2008 Volume Shadow Copy fails, "Type of the filesystem is RAW"

Question

Problem machine is Windows Server 2008 R2 file server with the following drives, all NTFS:

C: OS

D: File shares

E: DFSR staging folders, temp files, and Volume Shadow Copies

The D: drive is configured to place volume shadow copies on E:, and the C: drive has volume shadow copies disabled.

A week ago, a shared folder was removed and the DFS referral deleted. This left an orphaned DFSR replication item, which was removed from display, and all of its staging folders deleted manually.

Several days later, Volume Shadow Copies stopped working.

Run as the standard backup user, an attempt to create a shadow copy fails with "Access Denied", but when run at an elevated command prompt, it fails with a "File system restriction".

Running CHKDSK on E: returns "The type of the file system is RAW." Disk Manager shows "NTFS". Using the "testdisk" tool, the partition table still shows NTFS.

All of the files on the E: drive can be accessed, and temp files are being read and written normally. Existing volume shadow copies can be accessed without trouble.

Using the C: as a test, I found that volume shadow copies can be enabled with the target volume set to C: or D:, but cannot be enabled with the target volume set to E:.

Any ideas what's going on, and could it be related to the earlier DFS issues where the sysadmin deleted settings in the wrong order?

Answer 1

It sounds like the NTFS filesystem volume on your E drive has been damaged and is in a partially functional state. chkdisk saying the filesystem is "RAW" seems to imply that it can't recognize the filesystem.

DFS is all user mode on the server side; there is nothing you should be able to do in there to cause NTFS features to stop working.

I'd recommend you get your data off of that volume ASAP, check for hardware errors (particularly the SMART status of the disk), reformat it and put the data back on.