Forum Nav: How to initialize my Drive that use to be in RAID?

[timmie3054]

I have a Seagate 500GB drive that use to be in a RAID 0 array. I took it out of my old system. How ever I can't get Windows to initialize the drive on my new system.

I tired KillDisk, it took 20 hours to complete, and still I cant get the drive to initialize. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[RealBeast]

Can you see the drive in windows disk management?

 

[timmie3054]

Yes... I can see the drive in Disk management. When I right click the drive and select initialize disk. I get this error

"The system cannot find the file specified."

 

[super-smashman]

Are you in IDE, AHCI or RAID mode on your new system?

Try all three. I'm willing to bet one of the them will notice ol' spinny.

 

[RealBeast]

Yes... I can see the drive in Disk management. When I right click the drive and select initialize disk. I get this error

"The system cannot find the file specified."

Can you change the drive letter? I would not just change the bios mode -- you will get a BSOD, you would first need to change a registry key to the planned mode, but that won't fix the issue that you have.

 

[timmie3054]

My system is set on ACHI.

I cannot assign the disk a letter until I initialize it.

I don't think the hard drive is faulty because it is doing the same thing with my other drive that was also in the RAID 0 array.

 

[RealBeast]

First I would see if it is recognized in diskpart. Attach the drive and in the command prompt box (best to right click open with run as administrator) type these commands:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # # = the disk you want to fix
clean
create partition primary

Here is a good page of the syntax if you have questions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770877%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

If diskpart doesn't work, I would either attach it to an unused secondary controller that is in raid mode -- like a Marvell -- or use DBAN to clean the drive: http://www.dban.org/

 

[timmie3054]

I tried the diskpart clean thing already before.

My mother board has a 2 marvell ports. Should I use these?

Also, I have used KillDisk before. Is it any different then Dban? I really don't want to waste 20 hours again, if I know its not going to work.

 

[RealBeast]

What happened with diskpart, usually works for me? Are you sure you were logged as an admin and opened the command prompt with a right click, run as administrator? Were you able to see the drive volume in diskpart?

I would use the Marvell ports if they support RAID, otherwise I would use DBAN.

 

[timmie3054]

What happened with diskpart, usually works for me? Are you sure you were logged as an admin and opened the command prompt with a right click, run as administrator? Were you able to see the drive volume in diskpart?

I would use the Marvell ports if they support RAID, otherwise I would use DBAN.

This is what I got from diskpart

Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: JAKE-PC

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 931 GB 931 GB
Disk 1 Online 111 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 931 GB 0 B

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create partition primary size=100000

DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified.
See the System Event Log for more information.

DISKPART>

It says the drive is 931GBs but its actually only 500Gb. I guess that's because it use to be in Raid 0?

And, yes I am an administrator. I also did run cmd as administrator.

 

[RealBeast]

Instead of just a clean, I would try a clean all. It is the equivalent of a secure erase on an SSD.

 

[PittzBlitz]

I don't know if you ever figured this problem out, but I have had the same issue after building a new PC and using my previous RAID 0 drives. One drive (drive #2) worked fine, but the other drive was unable to initialize through Disk Management with the same DISKPART error you are having. I managed to fix this today, though.

Went to my bios and re-enabled RAID instead of ACHI. Rebooted and after the bios splash screen, a black screen appeared showing my drive information, then said at the bottom of the list press Crtl+I for RAID Configuration Management or something to that effect. Then a blue screen showed, listing my drives and 6 options. The first drive listed was the RAID 0 configuration at 931 GB (only a 500 GB drive). Option #2 was delete RAID Configuration. It then listed the RAID 0 config. Pressed DEL and selected YES to continue when prompted about loosing my data on the disk. Rebooted the computer, entered BIOS, change storage config from RAID back to ACHI. When the PC booted the drive had initialized itself.

Maybe this will work for you as well. I was at my wit's end trying to figure out the issue.

 

[jasonpeck22]

Thanks You! Thank You! I had the same problem. Did what PittzBlitz posted and all is fixed.

 

[virtualdanger]

Thank you. The diskpart steps fixed my issue.

The drive was initially appearing as GPT and Dynamic in 'list disk'. After issuing the 'clean' command it listed without GPT and Dynamic. Went back to Disk Management and was prompted to initialize the new disk. So problem solved.

First I would see if it is recognized in diskpart. Attach the drive and in the command prompt box (best to right click open with run as administrator) type these commands:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # # = the disk you want to fix
clean
create partition primary

Here is a good page of the syntax if you have questions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770877%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

If diskpart doesn't work, I would either attach it to an unused secondary controller that is in raid mode -- like a Marvell -- or use DBAN to clean the drive: http://www.dban.org/

 

[RandyD123]

I don't know if you ever figured this problem out, but I have had the same issue after building a new PC and using my previous RAID 0 drives. One drive (drive #2) worked fine, but the other drive was unable to initialize through Disk Management with the same DISKPART error you are having. I managed to fix this today, though.

Went to my bios and re-enabled RAID instead of ACHI. Rebooted and after the bios splash screen, a black screen appeared showing my drive information, then said at the bottom of the list press Crtl+I for RAID Configuration Management or something to that effect. Then a blue screen showed, listing my drives and 6 options. The first drive listed was the RAID 0 configuration at 931 GB (only a 500 GB drive). Option #2 was delete RAID Configuration. It then listed the RAID 0 config. Pressed DEL and selected YES to continue when prompted about loosing my data on the disk. Rebooted the computer, entered BIOS, change storage config from RAID back to ACHI. When the PC booted the drive had initialized itself.

Maybe this will work for you as well. I was at my wit's end trying to figure out the issue.

PERFECT!!! Woks as Advertised!!!

 

[David Rollinson]

In DISKPART, after you do a CLEAN, the disk is in an uninitialized state. You need to initialize it with one of the following commands before you can create a partition.

CONVERT MBR

or

CONVERT GPT

depending on whether you want it to be a GUID Partition Table style disk, or a Master Boot Record style disk. You can also do the same in the Windows Disk Management Console, that will prompt you to initialize the disk when it notices that it is uninitialized.

Cheers

 

[vincor7]

I have a Seagate 500GB drive that use to be in a RAID 0 array. I took it out of my old system. How ever I can't get Windows to initialize the drive on my new system.

I tired KillDisk, it took 20 hours to complete, and still I cant get the drive to initialize. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[vincor7]

The first thing I will make sure you have all the drive controllers installed, by checking the Device manager. Install them from your motherboard Disc. Then find the drive in your BIOS.