You need to manually initialize the newly-added hard drive before working with it. Initializing a disk erases everything on it and prepares it for use by Windows, after which you can format it and then store files on it. When adding a brand new disk to your PC, it will not show up in File Explorer immediately. In such a case, most users have files or folders stored in the disk and are eager to know whether initializing a disk erase the data on it. However, a disk that has been used for a period of time may also become 'Not Initialized'. If you have a new disk that shows up as 'Not Initialized', you can initialize the hard drive without worrying about data loss.

The disk has been used for a period of time and suddenly becomes 'Not Initialized'.

Afterward, you need to format the partition in order to make it ready for data storage. You need to initialize the disk in order to partition it. Then, how to initialize disk without losing data becomes a problem. You may see a disk showing ' Unknown, Not Initialized' in two situations: When a hard drive becomes uninitialized, you can no longer access data there. 'Disk (0, 1, 2.), unknown, not initialized and unallocated' is one of the common hard disk errors that make us upset. PAGE CONTENT: What Does Initialize Disk Mean? Does Initializing a Disk Erase Data? 3 Procedures to Initialize Disk without Losing Data Hard Drive Showing Unknown, Not Initialized

Hard drive unknown not initialized