Disk Not Initialized: Fix It with Proven Ways

Disk not initialized? Fix disk uninitialized with proven ways here! Learn why disk not initialized and how to initialize hard disk without losing data

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• Filed to: Hard Drive Recovery • Proven solutions

Everyone is no longer unfamiliar with hard disk storage devices. In daily use, due to improper operation or shortened hard disk life, hard disks will experience various failures. Some users are unfamiliar with the hard disk prompt initialization failure and don't know how to deal with disk not initialized. Normal hard disks are initialized when they are sold at the factory and can be directly partitioned for use. Therefore, it is almost difficult for us to encounter the failure of the new hard disk prompting initialization. In this article, we will let you know different ways to initialize a hard disk and the benefits of initializing a hard disk.

Part 1: Why We Need to "Initialize Hard Drive"?

A hard disk is the basic component of a computer to store data digitally. Without a hard drive, we can’t store data on computers. We can’t use a new hard drive without initializing it. If it is a new hard disk, the general order is initialization then partition and format. The hard disk must be initialized before it can be used and read by the disk manager. Initialization is generally to import or activate the hard disk, while formatting is to format a partition of the hard disk.

Hard disk initialization refers to the operation of initializing the disk or the partitions in the disk. This operation generally clears all files in the target partition. Most new disks go through an initialization process the first time they are used. Of course, a few disks are already initialized when they leave the factory, so no additional initialization work is required.

We need to initialize hard drive for:

For the hard disk, the failure of the hard disk prompting initialization will definitely affect the data in the hard disk. If the hard disk data is not regularly backed up, this failure will cause data loss. If a hard drive not initialized, we can’t access it and can’t store data on that particular hard drive. Therefore, it is very important to initialize the new hard drive for the best results.

Part 2: Reasons Behind "Disk Not Initialized" and Its Symptoms

Initializing a storage device (very similar to the formatting process) is a method of erasing the data on the drive and allowing it to be used again when it is not used before. But these days most Windows system users will encounter the problem of uninitialized disks, including those who have upgraded to the latest and more advanced Windows 10.

Users still occasionally encounter system errors such as "Uninitialized and unallocated disk unknown" and disk unknown not initialized. In fact, "uninitialized disk" is a common problem, including internal hard drives of desktop computers and laptops, as well as removable external hard drives, which can be solved by using system tools and professional recovery software.

The following are some main reasons behind this error.

Virus: We all know that a virus can damage the computer or anything that comes into contact with it (external hard drive). This virus attack may be the cause of computer problems. It is recommended to install a powerful anti-virus program on the computer to avoid any inconvenience.

USB port: It is strongly recommended to check the condition of the USB port and data cable before using the storage device. This can happen due to a low-quality power cable or a damaged USB port. Therefore, it is important to check both power cable and USB ports.

Physical damage: There is a problem with the hard disk itself. It may be broken. Use a tool to check it. If it is broken, you can only send it for repair.

Power cable: The data cable or power cable is not plugged in properly, check it.

Bad sectors: One of the most common reasons for external hard drive failures is bad sectors, which may cause "read/write" problems.

Free use of hardware: It is strongly recommended to select the "Safely remove hardware and eject media" option from the notification area of the taskbar before unplugging the storage device, and do not remove the device during data transfer.

Mechanical failure: If you find a click inside the drive and check whether the disk is continuously frozen, it may be an internal mechanical failure that caused the drive to malfunction.

Symptoms That Cannot Initialize Disk

Generally, hard disk can’t initialize due to the following problems.

Furthermore, when the hard disk is used for a long time, the oxidation on the gold fingers on the back circuit board causes poor contact, and you need to remove the oxide on the gold fingers by yourself. In this way, we can avoid these types of issues and problems.

Part 3: Proven Ways to Initialize Hard Disk Without Losing Data

There are different tools available that we can use to initialize hard disk, but if you want to initialize hard disk without losing data, we suggest you recover data from uninitialized disk with Recoverit. With this hard drive data recovery software, you can easily and risk-free recover almost all types of files from uninitialized disks, including photos, videos, and audio files, Text files, etc. We can efficiently, safely and completely recover lost or deleted files, photos, audios, music and emails from uninitialized disks.

Recoverit Data Recovery

Why Choose This Hard Drive Recovery Software:

  • Recover data from uninitialized/failed/crashed hard drive as long as it can be recognized by your system.
  • Recover everything on your hard drive, support 1000+ types of data.
  • It supports raw recovery that can deeply search your drive, deep scan tracks down all the lost files thoroughly, increasing the recovery success rate.
  • Preview found data to check how many files can be recovered.
3,015,629 people have downloaded it

Simple steps to use Recoverit:

Step 1. Download Recoverit on your PC/Mac and choose Hard Drives and Locations, then connect your hard drive and select it.
select location
Step 2. Scan the hard drive data.

Recoverit will automatically scan the hard drive. After the scan, the user can browse the scanned software in two ways: [Path View] and [File View] on the left. The specific scanning time is based on the capacity of the mobile hard disk. Please wait patiently or run it in the background.

scan data
Step 3. Preview and recover the recovered data.

After the scanning process finishes, you will see all your deleted data come back, preview, and click the Recover button to retrieve the lost data.

preview and recover

In this way, we can recover data from uninitialized disk easily by using Recoverit.

Partition and Format the Disk

Partition and format the disk is a way to initialize a hard disk. Within a few steps we can initialize the hard drive and create new volumes on a disk without losing data. Follow the steps to perform this action.

Step 1. Open disk management by right-clicking on this pc then manage and disk management.
Step 2. Create new volume by right-clicking on unallocated space, then click Next.
Step 3. Assign a drive letter and determine the size of the drive and click Next.

Part 4: How to Fix Disk Not Initialized on Hard Drive?

Even after inserting it into another computer or unplugging/re-inserting the disk from the same PC, the hard drive problem still exists. When such a problem occurs, the computer may display the external hard drive, but will not authorize access, and it will refuse to confirm internal data. We can solve these types of issues in the following 2 simple ways.

1. Initialize The Hard Drive

When checking the drive status through the Disk Management Utility, if you find unallocated space next to the external disk icon, you must perform the initialization process on the device. You can follow the detailed guide below to initialize the drive.

Step 1. Open disk management by right-clicking on my computer or opening the Disk Management Utility through the start menu.
Step 2. Right-click the hard disk, which may be located under the "Disk 2" label, and then select "Initialize Disk". A window will pop up asking to select the correct disk.
Step 3. After selecting the external hard drive, select MBR or GPT as the partition style of the disk. Then click the OK tab to continue the process.

If you plan to use the drive on various versions of the Windows operating system, it is recommended to choose the MBR partition style. GPT is only supported on Windows 10 and is not available on earlier versions of Windows.

2. Recover MBR

Master Boot Record is a partition, which is the first sector of a computer hard drive and is used to tell the computer how to partition the storage drive. It is also vulnerable to boot sector viruses, which can damage or delete the MBR on the external hard drive, causing the "disk uninitialized and unallocated" problem. Due to the MBR issue, we can’t access to drive. We can solve this problem by rebuilding the partition. After rebuilding the partition, we can use the drive again in the normal way.

Elva

staff Editor

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