Problems with Initializing Disk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Illogic
  • Start date Start date
I

Illogic

I recently acquired another hard drive for the extra storage space. However,
when I go to initialize in the Disk Manager, instead of showing me a Wizard
like the help for the Disk says it should, it just lets me select the drive
and select OK. When I select OK, it computes for a moment and exits, but does
NOT initialize my disk.

Any pointers? Am I missing something?
 
Illogic said:
I recently acquired another hard drive for the extra storage space. However,
when I go to initialize in the Disk Manager, instead of showing me a Wizard
like the help for the Disk says it should, it just lets me select the drive
and select OK. When I select OK, it computes for a moment and exits, but does
NOT initialize my disk.

Any pointers? Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

What does initializing have to do with formatting? Initializing updates
the partition table along with saving a disk signature (part of the MBR;
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record) that gets also
saved in the registry (to track the disk regardless of how it gets moved
around rather than use the old BIOS scheme for detection order in
assigning drive letters) along with defining whether you are
adding/extending a basic or dynamic volume using that hard disk.

Initializing takes only a few seconds. Now you'll have to format the
partitions (after you create them) on the newly added hard disk.

http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/prepare_second_hdd/prepare_second_hdd1.shtml
To prepare a hard disk drive involves the following...
¡E Initialize
¡E Create A Partition
¡E Format A Partition

Since the disk has already been initialized because it is a used disk
from another Windows host, there isn't much to initialize. At this
point, the only time you'll probably see some initializing is if you
change between using basic and dynamic volumes. Initializing an already
initialized disk does do much (I think the disk signature might be
updated but perhaps only if a conflict is found with another volume that
already has the same signature).

You did not install a new hard disk (that needs initializing). You
installed a *used* hard disk that was already initialized.
 
VanguardLH said:
What does initializing have to do with formatting? Initializing updates
the partition table along with saving a disk signature (part of the MBR;
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record) that gets also
saved in the registry (to track the disk regardless of how it gets moved
around rather than use the old BIOS scheme for detection order in
assigning drive letters) along with defining whether you are
adding/extending a basic or dynamic volume using that hard disk.

Initializing takes only a few seconds. Now you'll have to format the
partitions (after you create them) on the newly added hard disk.

http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/prepare_second_hdd/prepare_second_hdd1.shtml
To prepare a hard disk drive involves the following...
‧ Initialize
‧ Create A Partition
‧ Format A Partition

Since the disk has already been initialized because it is a used disk
from another Windows host, there isn't much to initialize. At this
point, the only time you'll probably see some initializing is if you
change between using basic and dynamic volumes. Initializing an already
initialized disk does do much (I think the disk signature might be
updated but perhaps only if a conflict is found with another volume that
already has the same signature).

You did not install a new hard disk (that needs initializing). You
installed a *used* hard disk that was already initialized.
Click to expand...

It is a new Hard Disk, Western Digital Caviar Blue. Since it is new straight
from the box, I need initialization before it will even let me try
partitioning.
 
Illogic said:
It is a new Hard Disk, Western Digital Caviar Blue. Since it is new
straight
from the box, I need initialization before it will even let me try
partitioning.
Click to expand...


illogic:
It does happen, from time-to-time, that for unexplained reasons (at least
"unexplained" to me) the XP OS will not trigger the "Initialize and Convert
Disk Wizard" after detecting a brand-new unpartitioned/unformatted disk when
the user has accessed Disk Management. It should, but it doesn't. We've
encountered this anomaly a number of times.

Hopefully Disk Management will reflect the HDD as "Unknown" together with
its capacity in GB ("Unallocated") and "Not Initialized". You should see a
small red-circled icon with a small horizontal white bar in the middle of
this icon. If so, and the "Wizard" hasn't automatically appeared, just
right-click on that red-circled icon and select the "Initialize Disk" option
from the sub-menu.

I assume you're familiar with the simple process to "initialize" the disk as
a prelude to its partitioning & formatting.
Anna
 
Anna said:
illogic:
It does happen, from time-to-time, that for unexplained reasons (at least
"unexplained" to me) the XP OS will not trigger the "Initialize and
Convert
Disk Wizard" after detecting a brand-new unpartitioned/unformatted disk
when
the user has accessed Disk Management. It should, but it doesn't. We've
encountered this anomaly a number of times.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I've used Western Digital's Data Lifeguard instead - seems
simpler. Not sure what others have used (instead of Disk Manager).
Hopefully Disk Management will reflect the HDD as "Unknown" together with
its capacity in GB ("Unallocated") and "Not Initialized". You should see a
small red-circled icon with a small horizontal white bar in the middle of
this icon. If so, and the "Wizard" hasn't automatically appeared, just
right-click on that red-circled icon and select the "Initialize Disk"
option
from the sub-menu.

I assume you're familiar with the simple process to "initialize" the disk
as
a prelude to its partitioning & formatting.
Anna
Click to expand...

What exactly happens during this "initialize" process, if you or anyone
happens to know?
 
It is a new Hard Disk, Western Digital Caviar Blue. Since it is new straight
from the box, I need initialization before it will even let me try
partitioning.
Click to expand...

Even though it's new and there is no initialization option, have you checked
whether or not the partition option is available? It is possible that the disk
was already "initialized" by some other process. GoBack or some other
drive manager, for example. If so, you do not need to be concerned with
that step of the setup.

If no drive managers (or similar) are installed, you could clean the MBR
configuration information using the cmd line tool diskpart. That would allow
the disk to be initialized afterwards.

If you post back with more information, someone will likely be able to figure
out what the problem might be.
 
Bill in Co. said:
What exactly happens during this "initialize" process, if you or anyone happens to know?
Click to expand...

Wondering about that myself some time ago, I checked it out with a
disk editor. Afaict, Windows (disk management) will see a disk as
"initailized" as far as the MBR sector contains a valid ending sector signature
0xaa55. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what else is in the sector, including
the partition tables, or NT disk signature.

If the ending sector sig is missing or invalid, it will appear as not initialized,
no matter what, even if there exists a valid table.

When you do intialize (using diskmgmt), it basically writes new MBR boot
code, zeros out the tables, and writes the sig. I think it also records the sig
in the registry for the drive.
(I'm almost certain on that, but don't recall the associated key/value)

It's basically an "fdisk /mbr" or "fixmbr \device\harddisk#", with the disk
sig recorded inj the reg.
 
Bill said:
Wondering about that myself some time ago, I checked it out with a
disk editor. Afaict, Windows (disk management) will see a disk as
"initialized" as far as the MBR sector contains a valid ending sector
signature 0xaa55. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what else is in the sector,
including the partition tables, or NT disk signature.

If the ending sector sig is missing or invalid, it will appear as not
initialized, no matter what, even if there exists a valid table.

When you do intialize (using diskmgmt), it basically writes new MBR boot
code, zeros out the tables, and writes the sig. I think it also records
the
sig in the registry for the drive.
(I'm almost certain on that, but don't recall the associated key/value)

It's basically an "fdisk /mbr" or "fixmbr \device\harddisk#", with the
disk
sig recorded inj the reg.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks.
 
It is a new Hard Disk, Western Digital Caviar Blue. Since it is new straight
from the box, I need initialization before it will even let me try
partitioning.
Click to expand...

You are confusing "initialization" with "set up." The steps to get a
new drive set up in XP are:

1) Install the drive
2) Access the Disk Management "application"
3) Select the new drive (hint: unallocated disk should be about the
same size as the new hard drive specifications (size))
4) Define a "partition"
5) Format the drive and assign a drive letter.
 
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