Type: format quick fs=ntfs and hit Enter.

Type: create partition primary and hit Enter. There is a possibility that the hard drive was not in a proper alignment thus resulting in a hard drive uninitialized error code.Type: convert gpt or convert mbr and hit Enter.Type: select disk F and hit Enter (replace F with the drive letter of an uninitialized external hard drive).Press Win+R > Type: diskpart and hit Enter.This CMD command would erase all data on the uninitialized hard drive, which you can later restore after repairing the external hard drive not initialized, with the help of any data recovery or partition recovery software: Run CMD to repair I/O device error on not initialized external hard drive Now, your external hard drive will be recognized and read by Windows again. Then set the disk to initialize and set the disk as MBR or GPT.Īfter this, you may reboot your PC and keep all changes.Find the uninitialized, unknown external hard drive with I/O device error > Right-click on it and select Initialize Disk.Press Win + R keys, type: diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.Connect the uninitialized external hard drive to your PC.Use Disk Management to fix not initialized error on an external hard drive Whenever there is “disk unknown not initialized” issue occurs, your hard drive may show unallocated space in Disk Management, and the data on which will be inaccessible or else there is another situation: there is no disk space shown in Disk Management.īelow are the 2 different methods to resolve the issue:

Hard drive unknown not initialized