How to Fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized on Windows

Solution 2: Update Disk Driver

The second step you can do is update your disk drivers. A driver is software that controls the functioning of a disk and allows the disk to communicate with Windows. If your disk driver does not match your version of Windows or is outdated, then the disk may not be initializable by Windows. To update your disk driver, you can follow these steps:

1. Open Device Manager by pressing the Windows + R key, then type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
2. Find your disk under the Disk drives category, right-click on it, and select Update driver.
3. Select the Search automatically for updated driver software option and wait for Windows to search and install the latest driver for your disk.
4. Once the driver is installed, restart your computer and see if the disk is detected by Windows.

Solution 3: Initialize Disk

The third step you can do is to initialize your disk. Initialization is the process that sets the partition style (MBR or GPT) and creates a partition table on the disk. Uninitialized disks can’t be used by Windows, so you need to initialize them first before you can format them or access the data on them. To initialize your disk, you can follow these steps:

1. Open Disk Management by pressing the Windows + R key, then type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
2. Find your disk below the list of disks, right-click on it, and select Initialize Disk.
3. Select the partition style you want, which is MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table). In general, MBR is suitable for disks that are less than 2 TB in size and have four partitions or less, while GPT is suitable for disks that are more than 2 TB in size and have more than four partitions.
4. Click OK and wait for your disk to be initialized by Windows.

Solution 4: Recover Data and Format Disk

The fourth step you can do is to recover the data and format your disk. If your disk contains important data that you don’t want to lose, you need to recover that data first before you format your disk. Formatting the disk will erase all the data that is on it, so you need to back up the data first. To recover data and format your disk, you can follow these steps:

1. Download and install data recovery software you can trust, such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, AOMEI Backupper, or Wondershare Recoverit.
2. Run the data recovery software and select your disk as the data recovery source.
3. Scan your disk and wait for the software to find all recoverable data.
4. Select the data you want to recover and save it in a safe location, such as another disk or external storage media.
5. Once the data is successfully restored, open Disk Management and right-click on your disk, then select Format.
6. Select the file system you want, which is NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. In general, NTFS is suitable for disks that are large and have security and compression features, while FAT32 and exFAT are suitable for disks that are small in size and compatible with other devices.
7. Click OK and wait for your disk to be formatted by Windows.