# How to: Initialize And Format A New Disk For Use In Windows



## Sean Webster

How to: Initialize And Format A New Disk For Use In Windows

For those of you who get a new drive and are wondering why it doesn't show up under your Computer window this is what you have to do.

*You can simply use diskpart:*

*2TB drives and smaller:*

Open the Start Menu, type *diskpart*, press Enter
Type *list disk*, press Enter
Type *select disk X* (where *X* is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter
Type *clean*, press Enter
Type *create partition primary*, press Enter
Type *format quick fs=ntfs*, press Enter
Type *assign*, press Enter
Type *exit*, press Enter
*2.5TB drives and larger:*

Open the Start Menu, type *diskpart*, press Enter
Type *list disk*, press Enter
Type *select disk X* (where *X* is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter
Type *clean*, press Enter
Type *convert gpt*, press Enter
Type *create partition primary*, press Enter
Type *format quick fs=ntfs*, press Enter
Type *assign*, press Enter
Type *exit*, press Enter

*Or you can do it in computer management:*

Install disk in your PC and boot up.
Once at the desktop open the Start Menu, in the search line, type *Disk Management* and press Enter
You should get a window popup like this:

If so choose either MBR or GPT and click OK. GPT allows you to create more than 4 partitions on the HDD and 2.2TB+ sized partitions as well.

If you didn't get the popup then right click and select initialize the newly added drive under where it says the *Disk #* shown below:

Now right click the unallocated space and click create a New Simple Volume shown below:

Follow the on screen wizard by clicking Next

Specify your volume size, default is fine, and now click Next

Assign a drive letter to the drive and click Next

Format the partition and name the volume, default settings are fine

Now click Finish and you are done


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## PCCstudent

Sean,these kind of primers are great.They help you out of the brain lockup situations. I ask if you could think about giving a primer on drive mapping (and when the mapping can be used for other things besides drives,like pointing to shares).The other night in Novell class the instructor wanted us to copies files from his server,put them in a folder,then map it,most of us just looked at eachother and he said "you guys do know how to map a drive don't you"? Well we all had varing levels of experience with drive mapping and the variations on drive mapping.

What I do with these primers is use the snipping tool and save to my storage setup (I have hundreds of pages saved from CISCO) and the ones I want with me I print.At times looking at a paper print is not so hard on my eyes and I can write notes on the paper print.


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## Sean Webster

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PCCstudent*
> 
> Sean,these kind of primers are great.They help you out of the brain lockup situations. I ask if you could think about giving a primer on drive mapping (and when the mapping can be used for other things besides drives,like pointing to shares).The other night in Novell class the instructor wanted us to copies files from his server,put them in a folder,then map it,most of us just looked at eachother and he said "you guys do know how to map a drive don't you"? Well we all had varing levels of experience with drive mapping and the variations on drive mapping.
> 
> What I do with these primers is use the snipping tool and save to my storage setup (I have hundreds of pages saved from CISCO) and the ones I want with me I print.At times looking at a paper print is not so hard on my eyes and I can write notes on the paper print.


Like this: http://www.itechtalk.com/thread3673.html

Or like create a junction or symbolic link?


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## PCCstudent

Sean, the process in the link provided is good.I was thinking of more of an explainiation of when you would want to use drive mapping or directory.folder,file mapping.When does mapping start/stop at the directory,folder,file level perhaps. I seem to think that in order to map a file it had to be in a folder and then at times the newley mapped drive/folder was not recognized (hence that warning "Windows was not able to recognized all network drives")

Now junction or synbolic kink, I have not dealt with, or if I have we called it something different.


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## Sean Webster

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PCCstudent*
> 
> Sean, the process in the link provided is good.I was thinking of more of an explainiation of when you would want to use drive mapping or directory.folder,file mapping.When does mapping start/stop at the directory,folder,file level perhaps. I seem to think that in order to map a file it had to be in a folder and then at times the newley mapped drive/folder was not recognized (hence that warning "Windows was not able to recognized all network drives")
> 
> Now junction or synbolic kink, I have not dealt with, or if I have we called it something different.


I've not started any of my computer classes yet so I don't really know the technicalities of it, just how to do it lol.

Oh and for junctions and stuff check this out: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html


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## PCCstudent

OK,I take this symbolic link discussion to the Novell man.I think he would be best with this,For now I can use my library and get an Idea on the terminology.Thanks


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## matw

When I get to initialize the new HD I get the following



Any ideas?


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## Sean Webster

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *matw*
> 
> When I get to initialize the new HD I get the following
> 
> 
> 
> Any ideas?


change the sata cable? Try another sata port? Do the formatting in disk management?


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## matw

The drive is in a caddy which works with other drives so connection checked.

The drive is new with no data

I have got to the present position with Disk Management

I am unable to format



Win7 64 bit


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## Sean Webster

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *matw*
> 
> The drive is in a caddy which works with other drives so connection checked.
> 
> The drive is new with no data
> 
> I have got to the present position with Disk Management
> 
> I am unable to format
> 
> 
> 
> Win7 64 bit


Have you tried the diskpart method?

Are the other drives that work larger than 500GB? Cause the caddy may be limiting you on capacity.


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## matw

Hi
Have tried diskpart - no luck

I had removed the other drives from their caddys and ran the new drive alone with the flash C drive loaded with Win 7 64 bit.

All the drives are 1TB. The caddy is just a slide in contained for the HD so there is no capacity issue.


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## Sean Webster

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *matw*
> 
> Hi
> Have tried diskpart - no luck
> 
> I had removed the other drives from their caddys and ran the new drive alone with the flash C drive loaded with Win 7 64 bit.
> 
> All the drives are 1TB. The caddy is just a slide in contained for the HD so there is no capacity issue.


try using parted magic or another linux live CD to delete the partitions and format it.


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## dzigner

Hello
I have a desktop with 2 hard disks - 1 tb and 2tb. I installed windows 7 on the 1 tb drive, but the drive 2 is not initialised. I tried following your instructions, both using diskpart and management console. Both times, I get the error, The semaphore timeout period has expired.
Please help, as this is stopping me from using my computer.
thanks


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## ginger_nuts

Wish I could +rep you.









Your a genius


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## Rar4f

Thanks Sean


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## Sishya

I tried these and finally used the Gpart which I had made live on a Flash Drive earlier. It worked. See http://gparted.org/liveusb.php


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## Chargeit

Thanks very helpful!


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## Franko99

Thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge to a wider audience.
I've spent hours trying (via numerous websites) to get my 2.5" SATA/IDE enclosure with a new HDD to get recognised in Windows 7.
I spent two minutes working through your well organised guide and BINGO !!
Job done!
Can't thank you enough.
Carry on your good work, and by the way....
Tell Microsoft how it's done!
Have a great day,
Franko99


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## RedMark10

I have encountered this problem:


What can I do?


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## Sean Webster

USB controller is bad most likely, you probably need a new external enclosure for the drive. Also, just making sure you know based upon reading your pm, because you cleaned the drive I hope you know all data on it is gone.


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## RedMark10

please tell me there is a way to undo this, a really need to recover my photos, there s gotta be something to fix this....


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## Sean Webster

You can try testdisk, a partition recovery tool (all you did so far was just delete the file system), but I don't have my hopes up with it as is, not being able to initialize first. Like I said, I think your USB controller failed or something and you need a new enclosure, or it could be your drive has just failed. Either way, if you really need to recover your data you should look into a data recovery service, which may cost a few hundred to $1k or so.

Remember, data does not exist unless it exists in three places. You always need a backup.


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## RedMark10

thanks


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## Bundulla

Thanks very much Sean


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## TwoCold

I am not able to access the drive so now I'm looking to straight up wipe it and download everything. My main sad is about 500gb but I partitioned it into a C and B disk. The B disk cannot be accessed and the C drive only has 223GB of total space. Need help fast.


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## GAMMANU503

Help
ive used the command prompt, computer console...etc
i still cant intialize my 750gb wd hd. I get an input out put error (i/o)

help


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