HDD crashed and now says 'Disk not initialized'—what do I do? Help.

Mendbob · 2025-04-07T14:34:13+00:00

Hey everyone. I recently ran into a problem with my external hard drive. It used to work fine but now it suddenly stopped showing up in Windows Explorer. In...

HopeInSleep

Mendbob disk drill, used it tons, super reliable. it can even handle non-initialized drives. also, def check out recuva - super chill interface and way easy to use 😎

DanyOrtega89

HopeInSleep Totally agree! Disk Drill works awesome, especially when you need to recover data from all kinds of file systems. I tried it once to save some old family pics - lifesaver 😅 If you’re looking for something free and super simple, Recuva’s the way to go!

MmkrkdlGelo

Don’t initialize your drive, ‘cause that’ll just write partition info onto it. Instead, just plug that thing into your PC and fire up the free TestDisk. Let it run its analysis - sometimes it can actually spot and restore your partition and even fix up the boot sector.

HopeInSleep

MmkrkdlGelo fair point man, maybe we shoulda just started with that in the first place tbh

0neWire

I’d recommend giving MiniTool a try. It’s pulled through for me multiple times when things felt hopeless. Just remember to allow enough time for the scan to complete - on one of my drives, it took over an hour, but the end result was definitely worth the wait

Mendbob

0neWire Thanks for the advice. Good thing you warned me about the scanning time. I will be more patient. By the way did you use MiniTool only for partition recovery or did you try something else?

0neWire

Mendbob Yes, I’ve primarily used it for partition recovery, but it’s also been great for converting file systems without any data loss. It really came in handy when I needed to manage multiple operating systems

7nationArnie

Has anyone tried out AOMEI Partition Assistant? It also helps with recovering partitions and handling all your disk stuff. Personally, I dig its interface - it’s way simpler than MiniTool.

HopeInSleep

7nationArnie aoemi not bad, i guess, but tbh i’ve had a couple times where it just couldnt handle partition recovery 😬 minitool tho? that thing literally saved my drive. both are decent af, but when it gets tough, i’m def goin minitool every time.

Mendbob

Interesting I did not know about AOMEI. I think it is worth keeping it in mind for the future if MiniTool cannot handle it. Thanks for sharing your experience!

MmkrkdlGelo

Another tool I can totally recommend is Paragon Hard Disk Manager. It’s great at handling partitions and has saved my butt a few times when other programs just didn’t cut it. Just speaking from personal experience

Mendbob

MmkrkdlGelo Thanks for the recommendation. I had heard about Paragon before but did not know it could handle recovery so well. I will add it to my list in case the other programs do not work.

Mendbob

So it looks like I finally managed to solve the problem. I used Disk Drill and ran a scan on the drive. The program found the lost partitions and files on them and after recovering everything I just formatted the drive and it became accessible again. I moved all my files back onto it so now I can finally breathe easy. Thanks everyone for the advice and support.

oleksandr-lukashyn

✅ The issue with the uninitialized disk and missing partition was resolved with help from the community. @Mendbob addressed it via Disk Management, selecting MBR during initialization. After that, he used partition recovery software since the file system was missing.

@Nonprofitech made a valuable point: TestDisk (free) can recover the partition table without initializing the disk first - worth trying before making changes.

Several tools support both data recovery and disk initialization: Disk Drill, TestDisk, MiniTool Partition Wizard, and AOMEI Partition Assistant. These can be useful when Windows utilities fall short or if you prefer using dedicated software from the start.

Notably, Disk Drill lets you scan the drive without initializing it, which helps if you’re unsure about the original partition scheme. Which is exactly what our hero did)

Thanks to everyone who contributed. And remember — keep your cool (and your partitions). 🤗