Initializing a hard drive? How?

**Lasher13** · April 24th, 2008, 03:09 AM

I keep getting this error " The operation cannot be completed becuase the disk is not initialized". I have windows vista and I just added a sata hdd. Currently I run off a IDE hard drive and DVD rom drive and decided to add a sata drive. I want to format this disc and assign it to the letter E:/
In the control panel I went to administrative tools, computer management, storage. There I right click my unallocated space a click assign a simple partition and try to format it from there. Than bam I get that error. Ah man I just want some extra space.

So whats up with that? How do I initialize a hard-drive?

**BluesMan1** · April 25th, 2008, 04:29 AM

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...nced/ntfs.mspx

Hope this will help

**Lasher13** · April 25th, 2008, 05:19 AM

"8.
Right-click your external drive (which will probably be drive E or drive F), and then click Format."

A quote from the link. Thanks for the help man. In vista you have to literally right click the new drive not the unallocated space on the drive and there it was initialize, before I was right clicking the empty box beside it that said unallocated space. And it wouldn't let me initialize. Hmmm.... seems very odd that no hardware detection wizard or anything came up when I installed the hard drive in the first place. Oh well, no worries now, Thanks again BluesMan1.

**BluesMan1** · April 26th, 2008, 06:19 AM

You're welcome, i'm glad that it is working now

**illiniwatcher** · July 3rd, 2008, 09:39 PM

Thanks! That did the trick!

**Junkyman** · July 19th, 2008, 03:15 PM

Right click the picture instead of the unallocated space.
That was just the tip I needed. Thanks!

**iansta_guy** · September 12th, 2008, 10:51 PM

i've been searching for a good answer to this question because I bought a unformated hard drive for my media enclosure and needed to use windows vista. I was hopeing to find the simple way of doing it, and had forgotten that I had done it before. In facto lots of times every times I had installed a operating system. so even though I found out that you can use vista's {control pannel/computer management /disk management/right click-(drive) /initialize } I found it much easyer to pop in my old xp boot disk, with the hard drive as the only one in the computer. Then simply canceling when it finishes the farmat part of the instalation. so obvious but if you don't have a compatable boot disk. thankfully vista being bloated and all, at least added some usefull features built in even if there hard to find.

hope my posts usefull and less a rant cheer's

**hamolkin** · October 29th, 2008, 07:39 AM

yes, totally. first you have to right click on the name of the new drive (in Disk Management) to initialise, only then can you do the format wizard.... by right clicking on the space available to 'create simple volume'.... thanks all

**4cloud9** · March 5th, 2009, 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by Lasher13

In vista you have to literally right click the new drive not the unallocated space on the drive and there it was initialize, before I was right clicking the empty box beside it that said unallocated space. And it wouldn't let me initialize.

Thanks Bluesman for the original link, and thanks Lasher13 for the new insight on Vista OS.

**Erzexeget** · March 12th, 2009, 02:19 PM

easy to resolve:

1. right click on My Computer
2. left click on Manage
3. left click on Disk Manager
4. right click on the icon of the hd
5. left click on Initialize

best regards,

Erzexegt

**carolebrew** · March 15th, 2009, 09:35 AM

wow, i have been looking for a way to fix this for hours until I came across this site. thanks, now it is formating and i hope it will continue to do so.

**svrider** · March 26th, 2009, 04:22 PM

Hi guys - prob a bit of a dumb question BUT does initialsing an HDD format it? As in I would lose all the info on it?

My PS3 died and I wanted to backup the Sata drive that is in it before I sent it off to get fixed.

**gndc** · April 4th, 2009, 07:00 PM

Many thanks. I installed my new hard drive on Vista and could not figure out how to get it initialized. I tried right click but did not get that option because it was not initialized. Right clicking the Drive letter worked. Thanks again...

**RickVT** · April 6th, 2009, 08:44 PM

I also got hung up on not right clicking the icon - see the following link for a video of the entire process of getting a hard drive up on Vista

How to format a hard drive on your Windows Vista PC

**dyingllama** · April 26th, 2009, 12:03 PM

New computer build - everything working :-) Apart from the stupid empty hard drive hanging off the end of my disk management list like a deformed carrot :-( And all because i forgot to right click on the blooming hard drive's name (shakes head...) But now all fine - horray !!! And now its formatting away like a golden parsnip !!! (I think i might be a bit hungry...) Much Thanks to all the people here !!! Cheers !!!

**coverdale** · July 30th, 2009, 01:51 PM

I've done exactly what the steps say, but to no avail. The Logical disk Manager says: incorrect funtion. I have windows vista. What do i do now?

**vineet1** · September 3rd, 2009, 09:26 PM

Hi Lasher13,
Thanks very much for your fix. It helped me a lot. I was right-clicking on the unallocated drive earlier and never even thought of right-clicking somewhere else.

**george77** · December 15th, 2009, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by Lasher13

"8.
Right-click your external drive (which will probably be drive E or drive F), and then click Format."

A quote from the link. Thanks for the help man. In vista you have to literally right click the new drive not the unallocated space on the drive and there it was initialize, before I was right clicking the empty box beside it that said unallocated space. And it wouldn't let me initialize. Hmmm.... seems very odd that no hardware detection wizard or anything came up when I installed the hard drive in the first place. Oh well, no worries now, Thanks again BluesMan1.

I followed your directions here and finally figured out how to initialize and format the HDD. It worked perfectly and now I can see the drive in Vista when I couldn't see it before.

Thanks,
George

**Warlord2010** · January 2nd, 2010, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by BluesMan1

You're welcome, i'm glad that it is working now

Very many thanks. The world's a better place with people like you who take the time to help. A similar problem...fixed!

**boombastik** · February 21st, 2010, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by coverdale

I've done exactly what the steps say, but to no avail. The Logical disk Manager says: incorrect funtion. I have windows vista. What do i do now?

i have a problem with my wd passport external hd doing what was mentioned above i see no one replied to cloerdale

so looking to revive this thread for an answer is my hard drive broke ? as i get incorrect function when i try and initialise it