Cannot initialize discs in Windows 7

Question

I have a brand new Dell with Windows 7. I have four external hard drives. Windows 7 recognized one of them but will not let me initialize the others.

One of them is a brand new Western Digital which I used for a few hours on my XP. The device manager recognizes the disc and says it is working properly, but when I go to disc management and try to initialize it, the message "device not working" comes up. I do not believe it is a problem with the discs because they were all working fine with my old computer, but now I am getting the same problem with all of them.

I have seen similar problems addressed here and elsewhere, but never in regard to Windows 7. I have seen this problem with Windows 7 mentioned before with no solution.

Answer 1

I read that this is a Driver issue. Go to Dell Support and download all of the necessary drivers specific to your hardware

Answer 2

This can be caused by the disk not being correctly attached to the caddy.

The caddy still has a fake disk that shows up fine as a USB device and in device manager, but it refuses to initialise with an error along the lines of "device not ready".

Try reconnecting the drive in the caddy.

• Loose connection?
• If IDE, jumpers set correctly?
• Enough power to the drive? If it's a caddy that comes with multiple USB connections for power, make sure they are all inserted. If they are, perhaps try connecting them to different USB controllers, or different USB block.

Answer 3

Have you tried plugging the external drives in internally? (a.k.a removing them from the enclosure and connecting them as you would a normal drive.

I had the same problem with Windows 7 and the the only way I could get one of my drives to detect was to plug it in internally. Its not a permanent fix but it may help you get some critical files on your Windows 7 installation from that particular drive.