HDD not wanting to initialize

[dpr123]

My hard drive is not wanting to initialize. On disk management, it says Disk 1, unknown, not initialized. It also says that it's offline. However, whenever I try to put it to online, it says that the device is not ready. It is a new hard drive, and there isn't any data on it. Can anyone help me with this problem? It will be much appreciated.

 

[glamdringfh]

You might need to format the drive if it is new. In disk management, does the drive have a black bar and the word 'unallocated'? If so, you'll need to click that space and choose to 'format' your drive in nfts before Windows can use it.

 

[dpr123]

It does not say unallocated

 

[glamdringfh]

So you have already formatted the drive in either nfts or fat32? Depending on your version of windows the box might not actually have the words 'unallocated' in it.

 

[dpr123]

I haven't formatted the drive, and I don't know what nfts or fat32 is. Sorry

 

[glamdringfh]

No problem! Nfts and FAT32 are just file structures for your drive.

You'll need to format the drive before you can use it in Windows.

Here are the steps on how to do it in Windows:
** You'll want to follow the steps below for "create and format a new partition"
** Be sure you choose the new drive

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-format-hard-disk-partition#create-format-hard-disk-partition=windows-7

Edit:

Just in case you are using Windows 10, you can get to the 'Adimistrative Tools' part of the above Windows 7 tutorial by going to: Start --> All Apps --> Windows Administrative Tools. From there the above tutorial should work just the same.

 

[dpr123]

The thing is though, the drive isn't unallocated.

 

[glamdringfh]

Well, if it is a brand new drive (and it doesn't have any data on it you want to keep) I'd recommend trying to format it. If that doesn't work or pulls up an error then you might be looking at a bad drive.

 

[dpr123]

That's probably the problem. I will be returning the hard drive and buying a new one. Thanks for the help anyways!