[Solved] "Disk Unknown, Not Initialized" Issue in Windows 10/8/7

Solution 1, Solution 2, and Solution 3 apply to fixing the "Disk Not Initialized" issue with "Unallocated" displayed. Solution 4, Solution 5, and Solution 6 address the "Disk Not Initialized" problem where the disk capacity is not shown. You can follow the quick guide below:

Disk 1 Unknown, Uninitialized, Unallocated

“When I connect my external hard drive, Western Digital My Passport 0740 (500GB), the computer indicates that it has been installed successfully, but it does not show up in My Computer. Moreover, when I go to Disk Management, it shows Disk 1 Unknown, Not Initialized, Unallocated. Does anyone know how to recover data from an uninitialized hard drive or how to initialize the disk without losing data?”

Symptom

Just like the above cases, the “Unknown Disk, Uninitialized” issue can pop up unexpectedly on all Windows versions, including Windows 10, 8, and 7, annoying users. When this happens, your external hard drive may show “Unallocated Space” or any information about the disk capacity in Disk Management (as shown below), making you unable to open and access data on the disk.

The reason is that…

Though both show up as “Unknown, Uninitialized,” the disk capacity information is different, suggesting that the causes may be different.

If you see “Unknown Disk, Uninitialized” along with “Unallocated,” it's most likely because your Master Boot Record (MBR) is corrupted. The MBR is the first sector on an MBR or GPT disk, and it provides information for loading Windows and partitioning the disk. As such, when the MBR gets damaged, you'll definitely run into issues, including the disk showing up as “uninitialized.”

However, if Disk 1, Disk 2, or any other disk becomes uninitialized without any disk storage details, it could be due to connectivity issues, a problem with the disk driver, or physical damage to the disk.

How to Fix "Disk Unknown, Not Initialized" Error in Windows 10/8/7

Depending on your specific situation, you might need to employ the appropriate solution for the "disk not initialized" issue, whether it's with a local hard drive or an external one.

In this case, you can directly initialize the disk to fix the “uninitialized” disk issue. But here comes the question – does initializing a disk delete data? Actually, initializing a disk will rebuild the Master Boot Record. It won't wipe the data on the disk. However, to make the disk usable again, you need to further partition and format the disk, which will erase files from the hard drive. Therefore, to resolve the “disk uninitialized” issue, you need to:

• Initialize the hard drive
• Recover data from the disk and create new volumes
• Partition and format the hard drive for efficient data storage

Solution 1: Initialize the disk

Applies to: Fix the uninitialized disk showing as unallocated.

This is the easiest way to fix the “Unknown Disk, Uninitialized” issue. This also works for initializing a new hard drive.

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage" to run Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on the hard drive and select "Initialize Disk."

Step 3. In the window that appears, select the disk you want to initialize and choose either MBR or GPT partition style.

With the disk initialized, you can now recover data from it. Depending on your needs, you can recover just the data from the disk, or the partitions and files on the disk.

Solution 2: Recover data from the hard drive and create a new volume

Applies to: Fix "disk not initialized" and "unallocated" issue.

If the external hard drive contains important files, you can try using a professional hard drive recovery software - tools Data Recovery Wizard to retrieve files from the inaccessible disk.

Step 1. Select and Scan the Lost Partition

Launch the Data Recovery Wizard, select "Lost Partition," and click "Scan" to search for all lost data. If you have multiple lost partitions, you should be able to identify them by their partition size.

Note: Since the Windows system does not support the Linux file system, Ext2 or Ext3 partitions will be recognized as lost partitions without drive letters in the software. To recover data from an Ext2/Ext3 partition, you can follow these steps.

Step 2: Refine the scan results

Given that you'll likely have many scanned files, you can use the Quick Filter feature to search by file type, such as Images, Videos, Documents, Audio, and Others. If you remember the name of the file, you can also type it directly into the search bar in the top-right corner.

Step 3: Preview and recover data from the lost partition

Before recovery, you can preview the files to make sure that they are the data you need. Select all the files you need and then click “Recover” to restore them.

If you only need to recover data, you will have to partition the drive yourself following these steps.

Step 1. Right-click “This PC”, and select “Manage” > “Disk Management”.

Step 2: Right-click on the "Unallocated" space and select "New Simple Volume"…

Step 3. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next to continue.

Step 4. Specify the volume size that the wizard suggests, assign it a drive letter, and format the partition.

If you don't want to create partitions by yourself, you can recover the “Uninitialized” partition on the disk, which will help you restore the original partition on the hard drive.

Solution 3: Perform a partition recovery

Applies to: Resolving the "disk not initialized" issue with "unallocated" status.

Please download and run a reliable partition tool – tools Partition Master on your computer. With it, you can easily recover partitions on the hard drive.

Step 1. Launch Partition Master and then click "Partition Recovery" from the top menu. A new window will prompt you to select a disk to start searching for lost partitions. So, choose the desired disk and click "Scan".

Step 2: A quick scan will start immediately. When the lost partition appears, you can click "Resume" at any time to pause the scanning process and start data recovery.

You can double-click on the partition you want to search to preview its content.

Step 3: Once you've found the lost partition and data, click "Recover Now". Otherwise, proceed with "Deep Scan" to restore more lost data.

Step 4: When the recovery is finished, click "Finish". Your lost partition should now be visible again on your disk.

In addition, you can try to rebuild MBR to fix “Disk Unknown Uninitialized”.

Scenario 4: Check disk connectivity

Applies to: Fix "disk not initialized" issue and no display of disk capacity.

Even minor connectivity issues can cause the serious problems discussed above. To check your disk's connections:

• Plug the external hard drive into another USB port on your computer, including rear-facing ports.
• Use the original cable that came with the hard drive to connect it.
• Try connecting your external hard drive with a different data cable.
• Connect your external hard drive to another computer.

Scenario 5: Update the device driver

Applies to: Solve the issue where the disk is not initialized and the disk capacity information is not displayed.

Outdated or corrupted disk drivers can also be the culprit. In this case, you can use Device Manager to update the device driver.

Step 1: In Windows 10, right-click This PC and select Properties.

Step 2: Click on "Device Manager," then expand "Disk Drives." Right-click on the problematic drive and select "Update Driver."

Step 3: Click on "Search for driver software automatically from the Internet."

Step 4. Wait for the driver to update, then restart your computer. After that, try reconnecting the USB drive to see if it shows up properly.

Scenario 6: Send for manual repair

Applies to: Fix the "Disk Uninitialized" issue and shows no disk capacity information.

Physical damage will inevitably lead to serious hard drive issues, including the “unknown, uninitialised disk” problem. If none of these options work, it's best to take the device to a professional for manual repair.

Additional Tip: How to Fix the "Unable to Initialize Disk" Issue in Windows

One common reason for seeing “Unknown Disk, Uninitialized” is a failed attempt to initialize the drive, which results in an error message that reads, “The request could not be performed due to an I/O device error.” This can cause your disk to appear as unknown or uninitialized.

When you can't initialize a hard drive, “Unknown disk, Uninitialized” is not the only issue you may run into. For a detailed explanation and corresponding solutions, refer to our article on how to fix IO device error.

If the guide doesn't help you resolve the issue, it's strongly recommended that you seek assistance from a professional for manual repair, or simply replace the hard drive with a new one.

Bottom line

While initializing the disk itself won't delete the data on the device, the subsequent operations will. Thus, if you want to fix an uninitialized disk without losing data, you need to use data recovery software. However, if the disk shows up as “Unknown” and “Uninitialized” due to physical damage, no data recovery software can help, and only manual data recovery services might save your files.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on "Disk Not Initialized"

How do I fix the "Disk 1 Unknown Uninitialized" issue?

As mentioned in this guide, there are 6 ways to help you fix the "Unknown Disk Uninitialized" error. They are:

< li > 1) Initialize the disk using Disk Management < li > 2) Recover data from an unknown hard drive and create a new volume < li > 3) Perform partition recovery on unallocated and uninitialized drives < li > 4) Check the hard drive connection < li > 5) Update the hard drive drivers < li > 6) Send the hard drive for manual repair

For more details, refer to the main content on this page, and try any of the methods to get your disk working again.

How do I force initialize a hard drive?

For a new hard drive, you can directly initialize it following these steps:

For a used drive, you may need to first copy or back up all saved data to another device. Then, use Disk Management to delete all existing partitions. Afterwards, proceed with the steps below to initialize the hard drive:

Step 1: Open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated HDD/SSD and select “Initialize Disk.”

Step 3. In the window that appears, select the disk you want to initialize and set the partition style to either MBR or GPT.

3. Will initializing a disk delete it?

Initializing a disk alone does not delete data. However, to use the disk, you need to partition and format it, which will result in data loss.

Thus, if you don't want to lose the files stored on the hard drive, you need to use data recovery software. You can refer to Recover Data from Unrecognized/Uninitialized Hard Drive for detailed instructions.