Drive shows up in Disk Management, but not in Computer（you must initialize a disk before logical disk manager can access it）

[tinghai899220]

Hi Expert,

I have a hard disk problem, need you help.

Drive shows up in Disk Management, but not in Computer， unknown, not initialized, no Disk capacity information， when I open disk management，it reminds me “you must initialize a disk before logical disk manager can access it"


Problem description:

When I copy some data from my External USB hard disk, for some reason the hard disk was not responded, so I shut down my computer . But when I restart my computer, the hard disk can not appear.

1.the hard disk dirve was not list in my computer.

2.But the driver is correct and working properly.

3.In disk management,

So I want to know, if I initialize disk, the data in my hard disk whether exists? because I have important Data in it, so what can I do?
If I initialize it, whether I can restore data?

Looking forward to your help.



Thanks&Regards,
Harry Xie（谢海兵）
Electrical Engineer
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Nanshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, tinghai899220!

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with your external HDD. 🙁
Have you tried plugging it in a different computer? Maybe even a different USB cable?
The other computer should detect it properly and hopefully give you the option to access it, so that you can retrieve your data.
Another thing you can try is test the drive using Data LifeGuard diagnostics:
http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=QNAKnN

Also re-installing the USB drivers in Device manager might be a good thing to try as well.
If the data is that important to you and you still cannot access it, I'd strongly recommend contacting our tech support for further assistance. http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KGAElT

Keep me posted! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[tinghai899220]

Hey there, tinghai899220!

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with your external HDD. 🙁
Have you tried plugging it in a different computer? Maybe even a different USB cable?
The other computer should detect it properly and hopefully give you the option to access it, so that you can retrieve your data.
Another thing you can try is test the drive using Data LifeGuard diagnostics:
http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=QNAKnN

Also re-installing the USB drivers in Device manager might be a good thing to try as well.
If the data is that important to you and you still cannot access it, I'd strongly recommend contacting our tech support for further assistance. http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KGAElT

Keep me posted! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Hi, SuperSoph,
I have tryed it in other computer, but it is still non-working.
I have tryed Data LifeGuard diagnostics, when I Performed to the third step, it hints that writing zeros to the drive, so i do not dare continue it.
if I initialize disk, the data in my hard disk whether exists? whether I can restore data? Because I have important Data in it, so what can I do?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi, SuperSoph,
I have tryed it in other computer, but it is still non-working.
I have tryed Data LifeGuard diagnostics, when I Performed to the third step, it hints that writing zeros to the drive, so i do not dare continue it.
if I initialize disk, the data in my hard disk whether exists? whether I can restore data? Because I have important Data in it, so what can I do?

In this case, you shouldn't format the drive indeed. You could try some third party software to recover the data yourself, or better yet contact a professional data recovery company which would be a much more reliable solution otherwise you are risking losing some important data. Here you will find a list of the Data recovery companies across the world that WD works with: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=P4DSgi

Hope this helps!
SuperSoph_WD