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#1
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Initializing a new disk?
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer
does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? Peter |
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#2
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Initializing a new disk?
On 28/04/2012 1:36 AM, Peter Jason wrote:
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? You gotta be careful when using the words "initialize disk", because it has a very specific meaning. It means introducing a partition structure to it. These days you have a choice between two different types of partition structures, the old traditional MBR (Master Boot Record), or the new GPT (GUID Partition Table). Since it's not asking you to initialize the disk, that means that it's already got the partition structure on it, and now you simply have to introduce the filesystem structure to it, i.e. NTFS. Just right-click on it, and it'll ask you to create a volume, but it won't ask you to initialize it anymore. If you truly want to reinitialize the disk right from the beginning, then you'll have to run a disk wiper on it which will erase everything including the partition structures. Yousuf Khan |
#3
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Initializing a new disk?
Peter Jason wrote:
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? Peter This program will display the primary partition entries. ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip Unzip it. Right click on ptedit32.exe and select "Run as Administrator". Otherwise, the program will give "error 5". For it to work, I expect it needs to find the signature bytes 0xAA55 down at the end of sector 0 of the disk. So if the disk truly wasn't initialized, you're likely going to get a complaint from ptedit32 when it looks for disk 3. If the signature bytes are present, then you get to see the four 16 byte partition entries. You'll notice in this picture, there is a drop-down menu to select which disk, at the top. http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/files/dell-tbl.gif If all four fields were completely zeroed out, it would mean there aren't any primary partitions (yet). ptedit32 can actually write to the disk, and you can make changes to the partition table. I would not advise that, without more research first. I've swapped table entries, as an example of something you can do with it. If you move a boot.ini based OS (i.e. swap table entries), you need to edit boot.ini after swapping entries or it will no longer boot. You can also delete a partition, by simply zeroing out a table entry, but the partition is still intact and easy to recover with "testdisk" program. So you could term such an operation, "hiding" a partition. If you forgot about the hidden partition, and defined a new one, then the old partition would be ruined. (Data recovery utilities, could still find some of the files. Doing a "Secure Erase" gets everything, including the MBR.) ******* The other option, is to transfer sector 0 of the hard drive, into a small 512 byte file, and examine it with a hex editor. And that will tell you what is going on but require you to do your own analysis. This article, gives some hints about the contents of sector 0 (512 bytes). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record 0-439 boot code (when an OS is installed on the disk) 440-443 Disk Signature 444-445 446-509 Four 16 byte partition entries, displayed by PTEDIT32 510-511 55AA (meaning, the MBR has been written with something valid) HTH, Paul |
#4
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Initializing a new disk?
On 28/04/2012 3:36 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? Peter Try it in Safe Mode (i.e. boot your machine to Windows Safe mode when you start up by pressing F8 at the right moment before windows boots - it takes a few tries). Worked for me in Safe mode after I had the same prob you had in normal mode. HTH |
#5
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Initializing a new disk?
Peter Jason wrote:
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? Peter You haven't got phantom discs 1 & 2, have you? No amount of right clicking on them will bring up the format dialogue. Ed |
#6
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Initializing a new disk?
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#8
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Initializing a new disk?
On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:27:27 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote: On 28/04/2012 1:36 AM, Peter Jason wrote: I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? You gotta be careful when using the words "initialize disk", because it has a very specific meaning. It means introducing a partition structure to it. These days you have a choice between two different types of partition structures, the old traditional MBR (Master Boot Record), or the new GPT (GUID Partition Table). Since it's not asking you to initialize the disk, that means that it's already got the partition structure on it, and now you simply have to introduce the filesystem structure to it, i.e. NTFS. Just right-click on it, and it'll ask you to create a volume, but it won't ask you to initialize it anymore. If you truly want to reinitialize the disk right from the beginning, then you'll have to run a disk wiper on it which will erase everything including the partition structures. Yousuf Khan Thanks to all. I got it working by using the "primary partition" option though the steps I took are no longer clear. But it's working OK and in Disk Management" drives the "Healthy Primary Partition" indication in the Graphical View pane. Perhaps it was difficult because I have the HDD (1TB Sata) connected to the computer via a cable to a USB3 port. I remember selecting the MBR option - like all the other HDDs. Peter |
#9
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Initializing a new disk?
On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:36:00 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
I have plugged in a 1TB HDD and Windows Explorer does not show it. In Disk Management it shows up as "Disk 3" and unallocated. No amount of right clicking will induce the "Initialize Disk" wizard to appear. Is there anything else to do? Peter "Initializing". Now there's a word I haven't heard in about thirty years, from back in the days when I was servicing IBM 3330 Mod 2 disk packs. Huge twenty five pound stacks of aircraft aluminum mylar covered disks that went into a drive the size of a washing machine, and they held all of 200Mb! Wow, those were the days! |
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