Windows 10: Initialize Disk

I recently had to reset my computer to try and fix some problems it was having (it was crashing constantly). When I re-ran windows I attempted to access an external hard drive I use. When I plug the hard drive in windows makes the sound recognizing it and it shows up as a USB device. However, I cannot access the folders in the hard drive. When I check in disk management it shows up as Disk 1 but states that it is uninitialized. I do not want to lose the dataon the disk and when I attempt to intialize it gives me another error. Can someone assist in recovering the files?

:)

 

Cannot Format HD


Need to initialize it as GPT disk type with HD > 2TB:
From Admin command prompt:

1. diskpart
2. list disk =====> Take a note of disk # for the 4TB HD
3. select disk # ====> From step 2
4. clean
5. exit

Open Disk Management and initialize the disk as GPT, create simple then format.

 

Disk management console view is not up-to-date

i dont know how to fix your disk management, but i can fix your partition problems...




open up Command Prompt with admin rights. (Right click, run as admin)


enter in
DISKPART
list disk

then find the Disk number for your Raid array... lets call it number 7 ( you can tell what disk is what by the total size)
type in

Select Disk 7
List Partition (will give you a list of all the partitions..)
Select Partition 1 (im assuming you only have 1 partition on Disk 7) repeat this step if you have more partitions.
ASSIGN


that should get the array up and running ready to use.


EDITED.

any problems, post back ^^


Still EDITING *Stick Out Tongue

side question, have you tried restarting the PC?

 

disk cleanup

Hi joysoder, to properly and safely delete any files not required by your system, run Disk Cleanup twice as explained below. Each time select everything in the list and delete them. Disk Cleanup will not suggest deleting anything that is not safe to delete
. . .

Open File Explorer

Click on your hard drive

On the Manage Tab, click Cleanup

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Select Everything in the list and choose Delete

Start Disk Cleanup again

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

This time in the resulting dialog, click 'Cleanup System Files'

Let Disk Cleanup run another scan

Select Everything in the list and choose Delete