Storage Unnknown Disk 2 will not initialise.

Yesterday was just one of those days where everything did not go completely right.
I used AOMEI Backupper standard to copy my games folders including almost a TB of Steam games to a 2TB HDD. As it was going to take a while I checked the 'Turn off PC' box. This morning I go to check the drive and discover Unknown disk 4, do I want to initialise it and on clicking yes get disk not ready, which leads me here.

Is the drive toast?

 

Hi @Kronos!

Did you try to run some diagnostic test on the drive in order to see what its health is? If not, run one (if possible with the manufacturers tool since it's tuned to the specific firmware of the drives) and post what the results were. For instance, if the drive is WD you can use Data Lifeguard Diagnostics:

http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=DlXQGb

Let me know how it went.

 

what'd be most helpful would be a screenshot from the Disk Management software in windows (in the Win10 search bar you can search for and click "Create and format hard disk partitions") which should look like this

(Not my pic btw)

Edit: You should also be able to access it by right clicking the start button on the desktop and selecting disk management from the list that pops up

 

Possibly. Check all cables and reseat them. If that doesn't help grab gsmartcontrol, see what the SMART data says and run the extended test on it.

Edit: Never, ever use WD's own test software (I know you have a Seagate drive Kronos but thought it worth mentioning). It's slow, buggy and never fixes anything. Ever.

 

Here is what I am seeing. At the moment it is connected as an external drive but I am rebuilding opr upgrading today and will fit it directly to the new mobo.

 

This is actually a 2Tb WD red. Where did you get Seagate from?

 

Have you deleted all of the data from the original hard drive? Looking at that it would appear that you have (the D: is 99% free). If you choose to initialise a disk it will wipe it.

 

Please ignore the other dives in the screenshot as the problem HDD is connected to another PC. Not my gaming PC which is getting upgraded today. The drive in question is Disk 2, Unknown, Not Initialised.

But as to the drive you mentioned that was another faux pas as I managed to format the drive unintentionally, fortunately it is a backup PC and all info contained is also backed elsewhere so not a big deal, more of an annoyance.

 

I blame being ill for me being thick

 

Lol.

 

Ah well - if it's a blank disk then you just need to initialise it in order to be able to use it.

 

This is what I cannot do as the second image shows the error message I get when I try to do that.

 

I'd still recommend my earlier advice about gsmartcontrol to test it, even though it's WD not Seagate

 

Glenn, is the drive directly connected to the PC or in an external drive enclosure?

Some USB boxes don't lend themselves well to initialising large capacity drives.

 

Will try that once I have got the build up and running.

 

The HDD will be installed and directly connected to the mobo once I have my Z170 build up and running.

 

try attaching it internally and then selecting gpt

 

I meant how was it connected whilst you were trying (and failing) to initialise it? Was it plugged into the motherboard or via an external enclosure?

 

It connected externally as I was copying my games folders over. It was when I went to have a look at whether all was well this morning that I was greeted by the above. No idea why.

 

Like Spreadie said - initialising disks externally can sometimes not work which is why I suggested to try plugging it internally into something to try it