# can't initialize external hdd because of I/O error



## valigarmanda

Hello, and happy new year !

I bought an external hard disk drive. When I plug it with the USB 3.0 wire, its pilot is correctly installed and is up to date according to Windows.
I don't get the icon in the Computer window, so I looked into the disk manager. 

The volume does not appear in the upper field, but there is a new Disk at the bottom, named "Disk2" and marked as "unknown" and "not initialized"
The disk manager directly displays a pop-up, telling me the disk needs to be initialized before the manager can use it. I validate and I get an error: "Unable to initialize because of an I/O error"

What should I do ?


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## Punk

Hello and happy new year too!

Can you give us specs of your computer and what OS too? Also specs of the HDD. Right now I'm not sure what the problem is but the info I asked could help.


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## Agent Smith

It could be lack of power or a bad drive. Try other USB ports for the hell of it. I have an external drive and it wouldn't work on the front USB ports, but it worked on the back USB ports.


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## StrangleHold

Just right click on the new drive in Disk Management and pick New Simple Volume and go from there.


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## S.T.A.R.S.

Try this and don't skip any steps:

http://www.computerforum.com/208819-how-prepare-external-hard-disk-drive-use.html


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## Flear

with the OPs original question. i am having the exact same issue

a 3TB external network drive (linux formatted)
i have 1.5TB of data stored on the drive right now, i am desperate to ensure i don't loose this data if at all possible

i installed linux on my home machine to access the drive directly after this very same identical problem the OP is having.

linux does not recognize the drive at all (not too familiar with linux so perhaps that's why)
windows the disk as: "unknown" and "not initialized" just like the OP
when asking it to initialize the drive, it asks to put in a (master boot sector or something) or a GUID (recommended for drives larger than 2TB)

i got extra risky and sure, i'm getting desperate, so do the GUID thing.

next message "Unable to initialize because of an I/O error" (just like the OP)

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as best i can figure/guess either some master boot sector on the drive is lost.
or more likely, i'm thinking
the HDD controller card on the HDD died.

---

can i get around this issue ?

am i thinking of things that may not actually be the problem ?

looking around for data recovery companies, ... haven't looked too far.

they're asking $500
or i can get a double of the same drive for $200, ... if it is the controller card this works

---

if i'm on the right track of what the problem is ...

$200 for possibly fixing it
$500 for a more guaranteed recovery.

what to do, what to do ?

or if others have ideas of what is going on, that would be great to see if it will help me out.


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## johnb35

The motherboard must support drives of that size before windows will correctly recognize it.  Usually any motherboard with UEFI bios will work.


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## Flear

will look into that, thanks


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