Question

Initialize hard disk under Windows

Answer 1

Initialize hard disk: when is it necessary?
How to initialize a new hard drive in Windows

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New hard drives must be initialized in Windows before they can be used. We'll show you how to do it..

If the new external hard drive or the newly installed SSD is not recognized under Windows, frustration prevails for the time being. But that is often not necessary at all! In most cases, this is not due to a hardware defect. The background to this is that Windows must first initialize an unformatted hard drive. Fortunately, what sounds complicated can be done in just a few steps.

• Initialize hard disk: when is it necessary?
• How to initialize a new hard drive in Windows

Initialize hard disk: when is it necessary?

In practice, you will rarely find yourself embarrassed to initialize a hard disk. External hard drives in particular are usually pre-formatted with a Windows partition in the NTFS or FAT32 file format . In this case, Windows will automatically recognize the data carrier as soon as you connect it to the PC. Windows also automatically assigns a drive letter to the disks .

This is completely different with hard disks that are delivered without a partition or that have been formatted under a different operating system , such as macOS or Linux. Windows usually does not recognize this . Accordingly, the drives do not appear in Explorer. The solution: initialize the hard disk!

How to initialize a new hard drive in Windows

As already mentioned, initializing a hard disk under Windows is quick and easy. We will show you the process under Windows 10. The procedure in the older Windows versions Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 is identical. That's how it works:

1. Open the Windows Run menu with [Windows] + [R] .
2. Enter the command diskmgmt.msc in the box and click OK to open Windows Disk Management .
3. Here Windows lists all connected data carriers such as hard drives and USB sticks - even those that are not listed in Explorer. You can find the compilation at the bottom of the main window.
4. Look for an entry like " Disk X: Not initialized ". Right-click this entry and select the entry " Disk initialization " in the context menu .

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2. Windows will now ask you which form of partitioning you want to define for the new disk. As a rule, simply select the more modern " GPT " system here . If it is a hard drive with more than two terabytes of capacity or if you want to set up more than four partitions , this is a must anyway.

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2. That's it already! The hard drive is now displayed as " Online ". Now all you have to do is partition it and assign it a drive letter.

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