Learn more from the difference between MBR and GPT.
Windows 11 only supports UEFI, if you want use Windows 11, you'd better choose GPT disk and UEFI boot mode. > Choose GPT if your computer uses UEFI and MBR if your computer uses BIOS. Follow the wizard to initialize the WD drive as MBR or GPT disk. Right click on the WD drive that needs initializing and select “Initialize Disk”.ģ. Click on “Disk management” to open Windows Disk Management.Ģ. Right click the “This PC” icon on the desktop and hit the “Manage” option. Keep in mind that initialization will erase all your data on the WD drive, so do file backup for your crucial data before you start. The first thing you can try is to initialize the WD hard drive in Disk Management directly.
I’ll present how to fix the issue under two cases separately:Ĭase 1: Disk unknown, not initialized, unallocatedĬase 2: Disk unknown, not initialized, no disk space When you find your WD external hard drive becomes unknown, not initialized, Disk Management may show you different status: “Disk 1 Unknown, Not Initialized” with “Unallocated” shown at right or “Disk 1 Unknown, Not Initialized” with no disk space shown. Learn how to fix it efficiently from the next part. ▪ Virus infection which breaks file system directlyĪll these factors can lead to WD drives not initialized, such as WD Elements not initialized. The issue of “Disk 1 Unknown, Not Initialized” Western Digital can be caused by following reasons: Some users find their WD external hard drives become unknown, not initialized in Disk Management all of a sudden! How it comes and how to fix it? Please read on. Popular as WD hard drives are, they disappoint users sometimes. Products like WD My Book, My Passport and Elements are favored by a lot of people. Western Digital (WD) provides various data storage solutions to help users capture and preserve their most valued data. How to fix the uninitialized WD hard drive efficiently? Why does the WD disk become uninitialized? But then why did it work with the 3.The issue: “Disk 1 Unknown, Not Initialized” Western Digital
But for this to happen on both 3.0 ports on the Lenovo and Pro 4 suggests it's an issue with the individual ports either, but somethingĪbout compatibility between the WD drive and 3.0 ports in general. Not an extension cable, to make sure it's getting enough power but that didn't do anything either.Īny suggestions? On the face of it, it can't be the hard drive or power cable as they work with the Lenovo 2.0 ports. I've also tried plugging the WD power cable directly into a wall socket, Obviously I've also tried restarting the Pro 4 after uninstalling all the greyed out devices, but it still didn't work after restart. Out devices in Device Manager - but nothing's happened. I've tried the same fix again - uninstalling all greyed However, it's stopped working again now (same issue: light comes on, spins up, nothing on the Pro 4). This worked, and the drive started working with the Pro 4 3.0 port again. I clicked "View > Show hidden devices" and then uninstalled all the greyed out devices which appeared under both "Disk Drives" and "Universal
This issue came up a few weeks ago and, following advice I found online, I tried accessing Device Manager on the Pro 4. If you plug it in to either 2.0 port on the Lenovo it works fine.Īs I say, this is recent. Nothing appears in Device Manager either. You don't get the "ping" sound you normally get when you plug in a USB device, and the drive does not appear in my computer. If you plug it in to either 3.0 port, the light comes on the hard drive and it spins up, but It doesn't work on the 3.0 ports on either the Lenovo or Pro 4.
My issue is that, recently, the WD has started only working with the USB 2.0 ports on the Lenovo. The WD drive is set up for File History backups with the Lenovo. I have Bitlocker activated and have used it to encrypt the WD drive with Bitlocker too. I also have a relatively newly purchased WD My Book 2TB external
I have a Surface Pro 4 also running Windows 10 and with the usual single USB 3.0 port. I have a Lenovo Z50 laptop running Windows 10 which has two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 ports. I've seen people post similar issues in the past, but haven't yet seen a response which has worked for me.įirst, my devices.