Is it safe to initialize an external HD without loosing data?

[mowboy]

Is it safe to initialize an external HD without loosing data? I have a 3 TB My Book that is half full, and a download 'hung up' the other day. Now Disk manager says "Unknown, not initialized". If I 'initialize' it, will my data be preserved, and accessible after?

 

[noidea_77]

No! The initialization will be followed by a format and all data will be gone for sure! You may be able to recover some if the data with this: http://www.piriform.com/recuva