diff --git a/sbin/dump/main.c b/sbin/dump/main.c
index 30be0c9280ab..d7783b16aedd 100644
--- a/sbin/dump/main.c
+++ b/sbin/dump/main.c
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ static const char rcsid[] =
 #endif /* not lint */
 
 #include <sys/param.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #ifdef sunos
 #include <sys/vnode.h>
@@ -548,7 +549,19 @@ rawname(cp)
 	char *cp;
 {
 	static char rawbuf[MAXPATHLEN];
-	char *dp = strrchr(cp, '/');
+	char *dp;
+	struct stat sb;
+
+	if (stat(cp, &sb) == 0) {
+		/*
+		 * If the name already refers to a raw device, return
+		 * it immediately without tampering.
+		 */
+		if ((sb.st_mode & S_IFMT) == S_IFCHR)
+			return (cp);
+	}
+
+	dp = strrchr(cp, '/');
 
 	if (dp == NULL)
 		return (NULL);
diff --git a/sbin/dump/optr.c b/sbin/dump/optr.c
index 71dd8d1f6318..bb4c262c8132 100644
--- a/sbin/dump/optr.c
+++ b/sbin/dump/optr.c
@@ -437,11 +437,6 @@ getfstab()
  * Search in the fstab for a file name.
  * This file name can be either the special or the path file name.
  *
- * The entries in the fstab are the BLOCK special names, not the
- * character special names.
- * The caller of fstabsearch assures that the character device
- * is dumped (that is much faster)
- *
  * The file name can omit the leading '/'.
  */
 struct fstab *