Cannot initialize disk

Question

I have a drive which has no bad sectors, and when I control panel/computer management/disk management (in Windows 7) it reports as not initialized.

When I attempt to initialize, it says that the device in not ready.

Bin it?

---

Update: teh disk was fine, running Ubuntu, until I dcied to install Windows 7, which needed an NTFS partition. I created one using GpartEd but W7 dropped out - propnlem with teh install media an dperhaps the disk is about to die ... since then, Gparted can't even see the disk... (nor W7 on another machine when I connect it externally, not a live Linux CD)

Answer 1

You might also look for advanced diagnostics from the drive vendor. That might identify the issue and provide the ability to fix. Or indicate it should go in the dustbin.

Western Digital and Seagate both have the tools on their suppoort site

Answer 2

Initializing is mainly writing the partition table.

Might be some hiccup of the USB-to-SATA controller implemented within your device. Try attaching the disk directly to a SATA or eSATA (if you can) port and initialize it there.

Another option is that Windows tries to read data off the drive before overwriting it and does not like what it is seeing. You could start a live rescue system with a partition manager (e.g. a GParted Live CD) and partition the drive creating a single primary NTFS partition - Windows should be fine with that after formatting.