Disk initialization in windows 7. External hard drive does not initialize: troubleshooting methods

One of the main utilities command line in Windows- Diskpart, which first appeared in Windows XP and replaced Fdisk. Given software tool provides the ability to partition, format, initialize and resize disks, as well as create RAID arrays. Moreover, in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 it allows you to work with virtual disks. Let's see how to prepare with Diskpart HDD, split it into sections and format it.

At the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. Before us is our own Diskpart command environment - a kind of command line interface within the system. Typing "help" (or any other illegal command) and hitting Enter will display about three dozen commands. It is unlikely that anyone will explore 37 commands that can “scare away” from Diskpart; in fact, only eight commands are enough to use 99% of the product's capabilities.

If you've ever initialized a disk from the Logical Disk Manager graphical snap-in, you first need to click on the physical disk icon, then partition and format those partitions and name them - give them a letter. Diskpart follows the same pattern, requiring you to select a drive before partitioning it, before formatting it, etc. To select a particular drive, you type a command like this:

select disk

But what is the disk number you want to work with? Let's find out by typing the command:

List disk

which will produce the output shown in Figure 1. Diskpart numbers the disks starting from zero instead of one, and you can see that both disks store their partition information in the Master Boot Record (MBR) rather than in the GUID Partition Table (GPT). ), and both disks are basic and not dynamic (because there are no values ​​in the Dyn and Gpt columns).

Now I will complicate the task by saying that the system has two 24 GB disks: one is for the operating system and applications, and the second is just an additional disk for data storage. Obviously, you don't want to accidentally clean up an operating system drive, so how do you know which drive is which? We use select disk along with detail disk. Let's start with disk 0 and see what's on it:

select disk 0

detail disk

The result is shown in Figure 2. Disk 0 is the data disk, so disk 1 must be the operating system disk. So let's work with right disk(disk0).

Let's clean it up first by typing clean. This action does not clean up the disk by overwriting all of its data; cleaning erases the MBR, which is actually the "table of contents" of the disk. The old data is still on the disk, but the operating system can no longer get to it, so the data will be deleted by slow overwriting as soon as we start creating new structure disk over the old one and store the data in this new structure.

Next, the newly created disk needs at least one partition. The simplest method is to make one large partition on the disk using the create partition primary command. However, if you want to create multiple partitions on the disk, you must add the size= parameter followed by the size in megabytes. If I wanted to create two partitions—one 10 GB and the other 14 GB—I would first create the first partition by typing:

create partition primary size=10240

Remember that there are 1024 MB in a gigabyte, not 1000. Then I would create a second partition by simply typing create partition primary, since the create partition command without the size= parameter instructs Diskpart to use all the remaining hard disk space. I can view the output by typing list partition.

So we have partitions, but they still need drive letters and formatting. How this is done, I will show in the next article.

Mark Minasi ([email protected]) - Windows editor IT Pro, MCSE and author of Mastering Windows Server 2003 (Sybex)

The problem with data storage over time arises for each user, and many solve it by purchasing additional hard disk. HDDs are inexpensive and are great for storing large amounts of information. You can easily install several hard drives to increase the available space, but it is necessary not only to insert a new solid-state drive, but also to properly configure it. The computer does not see the hard drive immediately after it is connected by wires to motherboard, and in the operating room Windows system Several steps need to be taken to rectify the situation.

Why does the computer not see the new hard drive

The Windows 10 operating system does not allow you to install a new hard drive in your computer and start working with it right away. Before you start using new drive, you need to check whether it works and whether it is detected by the system. In total, there are several reasons why the computer does not see a new hard drive:

• The drive is incorrectly installed or incorrectly connected to the motherboard and power supply;
• The hard disk does not work due to mechanical damage;
• There was a problem detecting the device by the operating system.

Making sure that the Windows 10 operating system sees the hard drive and you can start setting it up is quite simple. To do this, right-click on the start button in the lower left corner and select the line "Device Manager". Next, a menu will open in which you need to double-click the left mouse button on the "Disk Drives" section.

Find in the list of available disks the new one that was connected to the computer and check its status:

• If it is not displayed, you should check the correct connection of the HDD wires with other computer components;
• If there is a red or yellow exclamation mark next to it, then there are problems with the identification of the media, and you should fix them (most often in this situation you will need to download separate drivers for your model hard drive);
• If there are no extra icons next to the new hard drive, then it is connected normally and no problems have been identified.

When the hard drive is connected normally, and information about it is available in the device manager, you should proceed to its configuration.

How to set up a new hard drive in Windows 10

Setting up a new hard drive in the Windows 10 operating system is quite simple. If it is detected correctly, you must do the following to make the drive available for data storage:

If planned regular use new hard drive, be sure to make sure that during operation, otherwise the drive will quickly become unusable. If you wish, after the initial settings, you can always return to the Disk Management menu and create new volume on the hard drive, format it for another file system or change the drive letter.

Many users of computer and mobile technology quite often come across the term "initialization". What is initialization, basically few people imagine. Therefore, it is worth trying to fill this gap in knowledge by giving specific examples.

Initialization - what is it in a general sense

Initialization, based on the interpretations offered by many respected Internet resources, means the definition of parameters or configuration, preparation for work, activation processes, etc. Sometimes this term is also referred to as initiation, but its interpretation is more consistent with the creation, launch or start of something -then.

Initialization, as a certain process of determining the given parameters or their values, can equally be applied to both software and hardware components of a computer system.

Why initialization is needed, what initialization is in each specific case, can be understood in the simplest situations. For example, a user decided to change his hard drive, bought a new one, installed it in a computer, but it does not work. Why? Yes, only because the system cannot automatically determine its operating parameters, that is, roughly speaking, it does not understand how to work with it. This is where disk initialization is required so that the OS, so to speak, perceives its characteristics and can determine the method for accessing it. This will be discussed in detail.

Main directions of initialization

Among the main or even priority areas that are implied by initialization, in most cases the following are distinguished:

• initialization of programs and applications of all types;
• initialization of hard drives;
• initialization of a special printing subsystem;
• initialization of modems on mobile devices.

Of course, these are only the main types, because if you dig deep into the jungle of computer processes, there are many more such areas. For example, this can also include determining the initial characteristics of processors or random access memory in the primary I/O system BIOS, or even preparing operating system to launch. But due to the complexity technical description, which, by and large, ordinary user not necessary, this issue will not be addressed.

Therefore, without going too far into technical features processes, we will dwell on each specific case separately.

How is the program initialized?

It is believed that in the matter of initializing applications, the priority processes are setting the correct initial variables or setting their values ​​to zero. This includes all kinds of switches, counters, addresses, etc.

For example, for assembler programs presented in most cases executable files COM and EXE formats, the initialization process consists of four main steps:

• an indication of which segment registers should correspond to certain segments;
• saving the address of the DS register on the stack at the start of the program execution;
• write to the stack address zero;

When processing the corresponding data arrays, the process has a cyclical nature, when the values ​​in the array, starting with a variable with a value of 0 or 1, get only after passing through the full cycle and as the application is executed. And there can be exactly as many cycles as there are variables in the entire array.

Hard Disk Initialization Issues

With the initialization of hard drives, the situation is somewhat simpler. Some sources claim that the essence of the process comes down to formatting. This is not true.

Initialization of the disk at the initial stage, if using the tools of Windows systems, determines a new partition by comparing the attributes of boot records (MBR or GPT).

Next, the process of creating a simple volume is applied, indicating the actual size, assigning a letter (so that the system “sees” the disk), and only then formatting begins with the selection of the appropriate file system (in most cases, NTFS).

At this stage, the initialization is completed. What is initialization in this case? This is a set of measures for setting the parameters of the hard drive, and not a single process, as some say.

Print Subsystem

For the printing subsystem, the initialization process is to initially determine which device will be used, and after giving a signal to it, scan its capabilities, including setting the possible paper size, applying a certain number of colors, supported print formats, maximum resolution, etc. .

These parameters are used to set the print subsystem. Thus, the printer brought to its initial state will work correctly and without failures.

Initialization on mobile devices

As for mobile technology, the so-called initialization string is often used here, in which modem parameter values ​​\u200b\u200bare written when setting up an Internet connection through a mobile operator.

As a rule, the entered value always has the same form - AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","Name of the operator or its Internet resource". But this applies only to those cases when it is supposed to access the Internet on a computer through the modem of the connected mobile device.

Initialization errors and methods for their elimination

Finally, it is worth noting that in all the examples given, an initialization error may occur. What to do in such a situation? In the case of hard drives or devices for removable media the easiest way out is to check the connections to the motherboard.

In programs, the most common is a crash with code 0x0175dcbb (as, for example, in the Sims 3 game). Basically, the problem concerns device driver conflicts, their absence or incorrect installation, inoperability of RAM sticks, etc. Sometimes the problem may be in the .NET Framework platform, for which an update needs to be installed. It is possible that the failure is due to damage to the media, for example, from which the game is launched. In general, you never know what can happen. But the solution to this problem should be made on the basis of an assessment of the situation itself and the reasons that caused the failure.

Hard disk initialization is its activation, preparation for work, including disk formatting and recording of control information. After the initialization, the disk is ready for use.
Open the Windows search bar.

Type diskmgmt.msc. Press Enter.

In the disk control panel that opens, we see a message stating that in order to gain access to the disk, it must be initialized.

First, set, in the same window, the style of sections. There are two options, choose the one that best suits you.

GPT or MBR?

Master Boot Record (MBR) - translated into Russian as "Main boot record". This is the first sector (the initial five hundred and twelve bytes of the memory area) of the information carrier - a hard disk or a solid state drive. Contains the bootloader (part of code) for the installed operating system and information about logical disk partitions. For the first time, such technology began to be used in the eighties of the last century in the initial versions of DOS. Supports drives up to 2.2 terabytes and only four primary partitions per drive.

GUID Partition Table (GPT) - a new rule for the location of partition tables on information carrier located in sector two. It has almost no restrictions, disks can be larger, a huge, almost unlimited, number of partitions is created. It is part of the UEFI firmware from Intel, designed to replace the BIOS.
In our case, we stop at the MBR. Check the box for this style.
Click Ok.

In the window that appears, click on the new disk (“not allocated”) with the right mouse button (green arrow), make a choice - “Create a simple volume”.

A wizard opens to create a new volume.
Click "Next".

We select a letter, naming the disk. We have it "R". Naturally, the letter must be assigned such that in this moment not used in naming other volumes. Duplication is not allowed. Move on.

We select the file system, we have NTFS (they offer standard NTFS, FAT32, FAT). Specify the cluster size, in this case, left by default. A minimum of 512 bytes is often recommended, which allows the system to use disk space more economically.

Select the volume label - the name of the disk displayed in the Computer folder.;
Check the box to quickly format the disk.
To continue, click the "Next" button.

External hard disc - popular compact device, which allows you to literally carry large amounts of files in your pocket. Today we will consider the problem of work hard drive when connected external HDD refuses to initialize.

The appearance of a problem when the hard drive is not detected can be influenced by various factors. We will try to cover the most effective ways troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting an external hard drive

Issues related to initialization external hard disk, may occur as program reasons, and hardware. Unfortunately, if the problem lies precisely in the wear of the hard drive, then nothing can be done here - except to contact the place of purchase if the warranty is still valid. But in any case, it is worth trying to resuscitate the disk yourself using the methods described above.

Method 1: Assigning a drive letter

As an option to fix the error - an attempt to assign a drive letter. First you need to go to the "Disk Management" menu. To do this, open the menu "Control Panel", and then navigate to the section "Administration".

In the list of shortcuts, find and open the item "Computer Management".

In the left part of the window that appears, select the section "Disk Management" and wait for the information to load.

Right-click on the external hard drive and in the additional menu that appears, select "Change Drive Letter or Drive Path".

Click the button "Change".

Expand the list with drive letters, select the appropriate one, save changes, and then confirm the action. Try to initialize the disk and check if it exists in Windows Explorer.

Method 2: Data Recovery and Disk Format

The problem with initialization can often be solved by simply formatting the disk, but if the disk contains files, then you should first restore them to another disk.

For these purposes, you can use free utility R. Saver, which will perform a thorough scan of the disk and find all the data contained on it.

Then the disk can be formatted in NTFS. This can be done both through the "Disk Management" menu (how to get to it was described a little higher), and using special utilities, for example, Acronis Disk Director , with which you can perform the recovery procedure.

Method 3: Checking the disk for bad sectors

The problem can be much more serious, for example, problems with disk initialization could be due to bad sectors. You can check the integrity of the sectors using the Victoria HDD program, which will allow you to find bad sectors and hide them if possible.

If the disk is badly damaged, then such a program is unlikely to return it to working capacity. But there is always hope, so do not neglect the use of this program.

And finally

If the disc was purchased less than a year ago, it is still subject to warranty service. In the event that you still could not solve the problem on your own, be sure to contact the place where you bought the external hard drive. Your device must be accepted under warranty and diagnostics should be performed, according to the results of which the device should be repaired.

Unfortunately, the statistics are as follows - modern hard drives subject to very rapid wear and tear, and very few devices can operate correctly for more than two years.