Cannot initialise disk (WD 1TB Hard Drive)

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BashX

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Generally what causes a disk to not initialise?

I was given a 2nd hand WD 1TB drive, so yesterday I decided to connect it up and start using it. On start up the drive was recognized but showing a capacity of only 32MB. I then proceeded to format the drive but with no luck, still showing 32MB capacity. After doing some research I found a software app that recoveres the full capacity of the drive, after I recovered the full capacity of the drive, I then went into disk manager to format it. The Drive shows the full capacity but I cannot format it due the disk not being initialised. Every time I try to initialise the disk it gives me an I/O device error. Any idea's as to hoe to resolve this issue??
 
Stuffed. Most probably physical disk damage.(wear and tear with old age) Still have running 320 GB Seagate HDD. Hard as nails.1 an 2 TB all gave the ghost already. They just don't make them like they used to.
 
BashX said:
Generally what causes a disk to not initialise?

I was given a 2nd hand WD 1TB drive, so yesterday I decided to connect it up and start using it. On start up the drive was recognized but showing a capacity of only 32MB. I then proceeded to format the drive but with no luck, still showing 32MB capacity. After doing some research I found a software app that recoveres the full capacity of the drive, after I recovered the full capacity of the drive, I then went into disk manager to format it. The Drive shows the full capacity but I cannot format it due the disk not being initialised. Every time I try to initialise the disk it gives me an I/O device error. Any idea's as to hoe to resolve this issue??
Click to expand...

Real random question, but was the file system FAT32?
 
What do you see under Disk Management?

Sounds to me like you are just seeing the 32MB Partition and not actually looking at the whole drive.

Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc
 
If it was given to you for free there must be a reason...
 
SauRoNZA said:
What do you see under Disk Management?

Sounds to me like you are just seeing the 32MB Partition and not actually looking at the whole drive.

Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc
Click to expand...

I agree go to diskmgmt.msc, what do you see ? if you can select the partition's and remove everything till its raw it should sort it out.

You can always try a firmware update or the manufactures tools.
 
You can always download the diagnostic tools for windows and wd drives, test the drive, and if all tests pass, just correct the partition with disk manager.

The tests would point out if you are wasting your time or not, if you need link, PM me that i get email to reply quickly
 
Problem solved!! I used Testdisk 7.0 as a first resort and that fixed the problem.
I deleted the existing partitions on the drive and then re-created them. Went into disk manager and was able to initialise the disk.
Thanks for everyones feedback. Much appreaciate it.
 
You can also try the 'diskpart' tool from the Windows command line and use the 'clean' command to get rid of any funky things that might cause issues like that.
 
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