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

Mendbob

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 Disk Management it shows up as Unknown and Not Initialized. I have already tried a bunch of tips from YouTube and forums including unplugging it and restarting my system but nothing seems to help. Now I am thinking about trying to recover my data with some kind of special software. Has anyone dealt with something like this. Which programs work best in this situation.

SocialImpactCoder

Hey if your drive shows Unknown and Not Initialized in Disk Management, just initialize it first. Right-click the drive, hit Initialize, and if it’s under 2TB, go with MBR. Easy and compatible.

Mendbob

SocialImpactCoder Thanks for the advice. My drive is 500GB. I initialized it through Disk Management and chose MBR. Now the system recognizes the drive but it is not showing any file system and the entire space is listed as unallocated. What should I do next.

SocialImpactCoder

Check out Disk Drill after you initialize the drive, it’s super user-friendly and has a great recovery algorithm. Need something easier? Try Recuva, dead simple and gets the basics done.

Nonprofitech

Yeah, totally agree, Disk Drill is good, but for this kind of situation I usually stick with R-Studio. It’s got more going on, especially when the disk is really messed up. The interface is kinda rough, to be honest, but once you get the hang of it, it’s seriously powerful.

Mendbob

Thanks for the advice. To be honest yes, R Studio looks a bit intimidating with its interface. I think I will start with something simpler like Disk Drill. If that does not help I will try to figure out R Studio

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 😎

KindnessCatalyst

@Mendbob I understand you. If you’re aiming for simplicity, give MiniTool Partition Wizard a try. It’s effective not only for data recovery but also for handling partition management. Plus, you can use it to initialize a drive as well. Personally, it’s helped me out several times in similar situations.

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.