“When I plugged in my external hard drive, Western Digital My Passport 0740 (500GB), the computer said it was installed successfully, but it doesn't show up in My Computer.
Also when I went into system tools it said the disk is unknown, uninitialized and unallocated
Does anyone know how to recover data when a hard drive is not initialized or how to prepare the drive without losing data (initialize disk without losing data);
Symptoms of a not initialized disk
As in the case above, the disk not initialized issue usually appears unexpectedly in all versions of Windows including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8 and 7. When this problem occurs, your external hard drive may show “not allocated space” or nothing in the disk capacity in Disk Management (as shown in the image below), so you cannot open and access the data of this disk.
Unknown disk Reasons for not initializing
Even though the drive appears as unknown and uninitialized in both cases, different information about the capacity of the hard drive is displayed, which means that there are different reasons for this. The most common problem is MBR corruption.
The MBR, or Master Boot Record, is the first sector on an MBR or GPT disk. Provides Windows loading and disk partition information. So, when it is corrupted, you will definitely face problems like disk showing as uninitialized.
Other possible reasons could be a connection problem, disk drive problem, or other physical disaster.
How to Fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized in Windows 10/11 [4 Ways]
Depending on your situation, you may need to use a suitable solution for the disk not initialized problem on your computer, whether it is a local or external hard drive.
To fix Not Initialized of a disk in such a case, you can directly initialize the disk. Then comes the question – does formatting a disk erase data?
In fact, formatting a disk will recreate the Master Boot Record and format the hard disk. It will delete the files on your disk. In this article, we will introduce six methods to fix the disk that has not been initialized without data loss. You can quickly see information from the table below:
| Methods | Applies to | Editor's review |
| Disk initialization and formatting | The disk is not initialized and appears as unallocated. | This method offers a safe way for the data. Prepare a disk without losing files. |
| Check the disk connection | The disk is not initialized and appears as unallocated. | It is possible that the cable connecting your computer and the drive is not working properly. Changing a cable can quickly fix this problem. |
| Update device driver | The disk is not initialized and shows nothing in the disk capacity. | If the device driver is old, this error may occur. You can easily update the driver to fix this. |
| Send for manual repair | The disk is not initialized and shows nothing about disk capacity | If the methods we offer cannot solve the problem, you will need professional help. |
Solution 1. Boot disk without data loss
Applies to: The disk is not initialized and appears as unallocated. The same method works for preparing a brand new hard drive.
It is the safest way to fix the disk problem. To fix the uninitialized disk without data loss, you must:
- Find the data from the uninitialized disk
- Initialize the unknown disk
- Format the disk to be ready for data storage
Step 1. Recover data from uninitialized disk
Applies to: Unknown disk, uninitialized, unallocated.
The only way to fix a non-initialized drive without losing data is to use specialized file recovery software to restore the data beforehand.
The EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard helps you recover data from inaccessible hard drives, corrupted or RAW external hard drives in three clicks.
First, launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard software to scan your unknown disk.
Second, find or filter the found files.
Third, do it preview and recover the files you need.
Step 2. Initialize the unknown disk
Right-click “My Computer” > “Manage” to run Disk Management.
Here, right-click on the hard disk drive and click “Initialize Disk”.
In the pop-up window, select the disks you want to initialize and select MBR or GPT partition style.
Step 3. Format and Create New Simple Volumes on Disk
Right-click on “This PC” and select “Manage” > “Disk Management”.
Right-click on the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume…” or “New Simple Volume…”
In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click “Next”To continue.
Follow the wizard to determine the volume size, assign a drive letter to the volume, and then format the partition.
If you don't want to create partitions yourself, you can recover partitions on your disk that show “Not Initialized”, which will help you restore your original hard disk partitions.
Condition 2. Check disk connection
Applies to: The repair disk is not initialized and shows nothing about disk capacity.
Small connection problems can cause serious problems like the one discussed above. To check your disk connection:
Connect your external hard drive to another USB port, including the back, of your computer
Use the original cable to connect your hard drive
Use another cable to connect your external hard drive
Connect your external hard drive to another computer
Situation 3. Update Device Driver (Update Driver)
Applies to: Fix “disk is not initialized” and if it doesn't show anything about disk capacity.
An old or corrupt Disk Driver may be the culprit. In this case, you can update the device driver from Device Manager.
Step 1. Right-click on “This PC” (in Windows 10) and select “Properties”.
Step 2. Click “Device Manager” and then expand “Disk Drives". Find and right-click on the problem disk and select “Update Driver”
Step 3. Click “Automatically search for driver software online”.
Step 4. Wait for the driver to update, then restart your computer. Then you can try to reconnect the USB drive to the computer and check whether the USB drive appears or not.
Condition 4. Sent for repair
Applies to: The repair disk is not initialized and does not show anything about disk capacity.
If the above methods fail to solve the problem, h Mission of your device to professionals for repair is a good option.
Additional tip: How to fix disk initialization in Windows
A common reason for not initialized unknown disk is that you could not initialize the drive with a message saying that the request could not be performed because an I/O error occurred. This causes your drive to appear as unknown or uninitialized.
If you can't initialize a hard drive, an uninitialized drive isn't the only problem you're having. For detailed explanations and corresponding solutions, please refer to our article on how to fix I/O device error.
If the guide did not help you to solve the problem, it is highly recommended to ask experts for manual repair or directly replace the disk with a new one.
Finally
If you want to fix a uninitialized disk without data loss, data recovery software is required.
However, if your drive appears unknown or unprepared due to physical damage, no data recovery software will help and only manual data recovery services can rescue your files.
Frequently asked questions about not initialized disk
1. How can I fix disk 1 not initialized?
As described in this guide, some ways can help you fix the unknown uninitialized disk error.
They are:
1. Recover data from the unknown hard drive and create new volumes.
2. Initialize the disk with Disk Management
3. Hard disk partitioning and formatting.
4. Check the hard drive connection
5. Update your hard disk driver
6. Send the hard drive for repair.
For detailed instructions, you can refer to the main content of this page and try any method to get your drive working again.
2. How do I force a hard drive to initialize?
For a new hard drive, you can directly follow the steps below to initialize it.
As for a used hard drive, you may need to copy or create one backups all saved data on another device first. Then use Disk Management to delete all existing partitions.
Then proceed with the following steps to initialize the drive:
Step 1. Open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the uninitialized HDD/SSD and select “Initialize Disk”.
Step 3. Select the disk you want to initialize in the dialog box and set the partition style of the disk as MBR or GPT.
3. Will formatting a disk erase it?
Does formatting a disk erase data? Just formatting a disk will not erase its data. However, to use the disk, you will need to create partitions and further format the disk, which will cause data loss.
Therefore, if you don't want to lose files stored on your hard drive, using data recovery software is essential.
testdisk can restore mbr and partition table without data loss, or even recover files.
There are many guides on the internet.