What happens if i initialize my hard drive

Therefore, you have to take measures to get data back before initializing. To get hard disk not initialized fixed, follow the instruction below. Later, you can initialize the disk properly. Finally, restore or transfer those data to your hard disk. Recoverit Pro , the professional and reliable data recovery software, is a good helper in recovering data from a not initialized hard disk.

You can recover lost data that caused by any disaster. It allows you to complete the recovery task with easy steps. Let me walk you through the guide. If it is not an external device, choose All-Around Recovery. A quick scan will start and you can simply preview those files once it completes. If no files find, please go to All-Around Recovery and try again.

Please save these files to another disk or a safe place. After recovering the data from the disk, there is no need to worry about data loss. Then, you can initialize the hard disk without any worries. Two ways are available to initialize a hard disk in Windows. The graphical user interface is friendlier to a user who has less computer experiences. Here are specific steps. The disk status briefly changes to Initializing and then to the Online status.

If initializing fails for some reason, see A disk's status is Not Initialized or the disk is missing entirely. Select and hold or right-click the unallocated space on the drive and then select New Simple Volume. Select Next , specify the size of the volume you'll likely want to stick with the default, which uses the whole drive , and then select Next.

Disks can be divided up into multiple chunks called partitions. Windows uses the partition style to understand how to access the data on the disk. As fascinating as this probably isn't, the bottom line is that these days, you don't usually have to worry about partition style - Windows automatically uses the appropriate disk type. GPT is more robust and allows for volumes bigger than 2 TB. To convert a disk from MBR to GPT or vice versa, you first have to delete all volumes from the disk, erasing everything on the disk.

Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services. Privacy policy. During the disk initialization process, Windows disk management or third-party tool will re-write the 0 sectors in the MBR partition table so as to allow you to create logical partitions on the drive.

As the disk initializing process only affects 0 sectors in MBR, thus, the answer to "Will initializing a disk erase data" is NO. Initializing disk won't erase data on the hard drive. If someone says "Initializing a disk erases everything on it", it's not real. If some of you see no files appear after initializing a used disk, it's not the operation but your hard drive is still unallocated.

You have to create partitions on the drive so to make it visible again. So how to fix the file not visible issue after disk initialization? Check the next part, you'll get everything back on your disk. Whether your disk is brand new or used, as long as the computer request initialization, follow the process presented here. You'll fix the disk initialization issue, making your disk work normally again without losing any data. So how to initialize a disk? You can either use Windows Disk Management or third-party free partition manager for help.

Step 2. Locate the target disk, if it shows "Offline", right-click and choose "Online" first. Step 4. After this, your disk is initialized and the Unknown, Not Initialized symbol will disappear. The disk will display as "Basic". But if your disk still shows as Not Initialized or Unknow, you can try to update the disk driver or change its connection cable to try to fix this issue. The last option is to send your disk to its manufacturer center or a disk repair center for help.

This is a key point for people whose old disk displaying not initialized with important data saved on it. Although the disk is initialized, it is still inaccessible. You still cannot access or see any files on the drive. It enables you to fully scan the whole empty drive and find all your data with its Quick and Deep scan modes.

Select the drive on your hard disk where you lost or deleted files. Click "Scan" and let EaseUS data recovery software scan all lost data and files on the selected hard drive. When the scan completes, you can apply the "Filter" feature or click the "Search files or folders" button to find the lost files on the hard drive.