I bought a WD Passport, was working just fine, backed up a nearly full hard drive and was accessing files on WD Passport just fine for a week or so.
Problem: No PC now recognizes the Passport. I’m using a PC that was able to access earlier, plus tried on several others. I’ve also tried a new cable.
Passport DOES show up under Device Manager, and all utilities / drivers show up to date.
Passport DOES NOT show up in Disk Manager. I get Disk 2 unknown, Not Initialized.
Hypothesis - i deleted some western digital files off the passport. I thought these were an owner’s manual or some automated back up software or such, but perhaps they were critical for device running?
I created this back up as I no longer have access to original PC with files, so sure would be nice to retrieve.
Docramon isn’t original poster, but fine by me to pile on. Mine does not make a clicking sound. I’m pretty sure it is solid state, and it never made any click or spin noises during the week that it worked. The small white light on the side is lit.
Whenever there is “disk unknown not initialized” issue occurs, your hard drive may show unallocated space in Disk Management, and the data on which will be inaccessible, or else there is another situation: there is no disk space shown in Disk Management.
Below are the 2 different methods to resolve the issue:
Method 1. Use Disk Management to fix not initialized error on an external hard drive
Connect the uninitialized external hard drive to your PC.
Press Win + R keys, type: diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
Find the uninitialized, unknown external hard drive with I/O device error > Right-click on it and select Initialize Disk.
Then set the disk to initialize and set the disk as MBR or GPT.
After this, you may reboot your PC and keep all changes. Now, your external hard drive will be recognized and read by Windows again.
Method 2. Run CMD to repair I/O device error on not initialized external hard drive
This CMD command would erase all data on the uninitialized hard drive, which you can later restore after repairing the external hard drive not initialized, with the help of any data recovery or partition recovery software:
Press Win+R > Type: diskpart and hit Enter.
Type: list disk and hit Enter.
Type: select disk F and hit Enter; (replace F with the drive letter of an uninitialized external hard drive).
Type: clean and hit Enter.
Type: convert gpt or convert mbr and hit Enter.
Type: create partition primary and hit Enter.
Type: format quick fs=ntfs and hit Enter.
Type: assign and hit Enter.
Type: exit and hit Enter.
To recover your data from the affected drive you need the help of reliable data recovery software. Here, I suggest you to check out Stellar Data Recovery Professional Software to recover your data from the affected drive.
EPILOGUE: Thanks for advice, it didn’t work, drive had completely failed. Had to spend $1,200 at data recovery service to rebuild and get the info back.
I have the same problem. The drive will not initialize under Disk Management (‘initialize drive’ is blocked out).
I have 150 digitized lp records on the portable drive thinking that they were safe.
Can Western Digital help their customers with some basic instructions to fix this problem, or has all my work been lost unless I hire a data recovery firm?
Just saw your note. Not sure what WD can or will do. I pretty much think they just cover costs of hard drive replacement in event of warranty failure. Sympathies on those LP files. maybe actually worth the $1k+ remediation.
