When you initialize a disk to make it usable, the data on the disk will be erased along with it. This article will introduce a free tool to help you recover data from the initialized disk, and also show you how to initialize a disk without losing any data.
When a disk suddenly becomes inaccessible or prompts to be initialized, you may feel panic—Because you don’t understand what initialization means. Let's explorer more details about initialized disk.
When a new hard drive is connected to your system, Windows may prompt you to initialize it—either as MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table). Initialization essentially prepares the drive for use by creating partition structures. But sometimes, this can also happen with used disks. The disk is displayed as "Unknown" in Disk Management. Typically, the reasons for this situation are as follows:
Problems arise when you initialize a drive that already contained data. In such cases, while the disk becomes accessible in Disk Management, your data will be erased during initialization. The encouraging thing is these deleted files can be recovered with correct tool.
For an already initialized disk, the erased data can be recovered using professional data recovery software like MyRecover. It can scan all disks on the computer for lost files and provide an opportunity to recover them. MyRecover covers 500+ complex data loss scenarios, supporting data recovery from uninitialized disks, lost partitions, formatted USB drives, and even crashed computers (only available for paid versions).
Here are the standout features of MyRecover.
✅No Command Line Needed – Simple GUI (graphical interface) for easy file recovery.
✅Higher Success Rate – Advanced deep scan for NTFS/FAT32/exFAT drives.
✅Smart Filtering – Recover files by type, date, or size with precision.
✅500+ Devices Support – Recover files from all types of devices like SSD, HDD, USB flash drive, SD card, cameras and more.
✅Supports over 1,000 File Types – Including documents, photos, videos, audio, archives, and Outlook data files.
✅Smart Scan Modes – Choose from Quick Scan for recent deletions or Deep Scan for formatted/corrupted drives.
✅OS Compatibility – Work not only on Windows 11 /10, but also on Windows 8.1/ 8/ 7 and all Servers.
1. Download and install
Free download and install MyRecover from secure channel on your computer, avoid installing it on the initialized drive to prevent data from being overwritten.
2. Select a Drive to Scan
Launch MyRecover and select the initialized drive to scan for lost files and click "Scan". For files that were deleted a long time ago, you can perform "Deep scan" after the quick scan finishes. It will find more fragmented file clues from the drive to recover additional files.
3. Select Files to Recover
When the scanning is finished, a pop out window will display how many files have been found. Then choose the files you wish to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover" to return them. You can use the filtering function to sift through and find your target files.
4. Choose a Location to Save
Finally, choose a safe location to save the recovered files. But be careful not to save the to them to the initialized hard drive. This could cause other unrecovered data to be overwritten.
Upon the completion of recovery, the message "xx files have been recovered successfully" will be displayed. You can access and check the recovered files by clicking the destination folder.
As mentioned above, sometimes, initialization is necessary to make the disk usable again. To avoid data loss, there are safe steps to initialize a disk without losing data, especially when dealing with unreadable or partially corrupted drives.
This is the most crucial step to ensure data security. You can first use a professional data recovery tool like MyRecover to recover the files on the disk following the steps above and save them to a secure location.
If initialization is unavoidable, once data security is ensured, you can initialize the disk to make it usable again.
1. Press "Win +X" and select "Disk Management".
2. Select the "Unknown" Partition and right click on it, choose "Initialize Disk".
3. Select MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition table based on your needs and click "OK" to start the process. Initialization will create a new partition table on the disk based on your selection, enabling the Windows system to recognize the disk structure.
A disk that has been initialized will be marked as "Unallocated" in Disk Management. You need to format the disk to establish a file system on it, enabling the system to store and read files.
1. Select the disk and right click it, choose "New Simple Volume".
2. In the opened "New Simple Volume Wizard", assign a new drive letter for the disk.
3. Select a file system you want to format the disk as and check the "Perform a quick scan" box, then click "Finish" to start the process.
Copy and paste the recovered files to the new drive.
Whether accidental initialization or a necessary one will completely erase the files on the disk, it's entirely possible to recover data from an initialized disk with professional third-party tools like MyRecover.
By using MyRecover, you can avoid data loss in the future, or at least be prepared to deal with it effectively when it happens. MyRecover also offers the Professional and Technician versions to meet more sophisticated user needs, including recovering data from old system drives and previewing file contents before recovery.
