external drive says not initialized

[shashgo]

I have a 500GB WD external drive.  I was using it fine with my windows 7 laptop  Then I needed to save some data from my windows 10 laptop, so I plugged it into that laptop.  It made that connect sound, but would not show up in windows explorer.  Okay, so now I went into system management, manage disk drives.  It was listed there as disk 1, but under that it said not initialized.  And wen I right clicked on the disk, it said "Initialize with MBR or GUID, and GUID was prechecked.  Anyway, I did that, but still no luck, it said cannnot be done, and some error I forget what exactly.  I then did it with the other option checked.  It again gave some error message and said cant be done. 
Now the hard disk is not even being read on the original windows 7 laptop, and I see the same disk not initialized message in system management.  What should I do, I dont want to lose all the data on my external hard drve

[kburra]

Simple and may sound a silly answer(Worked for me) connect your External HD to another computer.and if shows up as normal,then connect again to your PC and see if fixed?....incidentally in my Experience External HD are notorious for failing....

[Lisa_maree]

Hi
It would help if you could give the drive part number it is on the label with the serial number.
Can you hear the drive spinning when it is plugged in?. If not it is likely not getting enough current from the usb port. Try the drive in a USB 3.0 port, if still not spinning are you using the usb cable supplied with the drive. If the drive is USB 3 then use a usb 3 cable not a micro usb cable.

If the data is important on the drive please stop trying to initialize the disk.

   

[strollin]

Whatever the original problem was with Win 10 not recognizing the drive correctly, you compounded it by trying to initialize the disk.  Even if you hadn't gotten the error, you would have ended up with a blank disk with all data wiped. Were you aware that initialize is another term for format?

[Lisa_maree]

Whatever the original problem was with Win 10 not recognizing the drive correctly, you compounded it by trying to initialize the disk.  Even if you hadn't gotten the error, you would have ended up with a blank disk with all data wiped. Were you aware that initialize is another term for format?

The re initialize  error ed so once the drive is working the data should still be there. First to know is what of the 10's of 500 GB models of Western Digital drive this drive is .  It could be this one or an old elements drive. The way to deal with the situation is different for each type.
 

[OliverYY]

Hi there,


It is very likely that this HDD was damaged when disconnected suddenly. I suggest you look for a data recovery tool and use it to scan the lost data. Apart from this, you can try connecting the HDD directly via SATA. Good luck.

[marthaneilson]

External HD is easy to connect to another computer and seems to have an easy answer (it works for me). If this sounds normal, reconnect the computer and make sure it is correct. By the way, my special outfit is known as HD