# initialize and convert disk wizard



## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

is there a way for me to force the new disk wizard to come up? i guess its only supposed to come up when windows does not recognize a drive, which in my case, it does.

see, just got a mad dog external hard drive enclosure. i put my 200gig drive in it and it registers as a 33gig drive. the manual says i need to initialize the drive by going into disk management (expecting new disk wizard to come up on its own)

i have service pack 2, the jumpers are correctly set, and the file system is NTFS.


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

Try going into your Disk Management console and then right clicking on the drive as it appears in there and you should be able to select 'Initialize disk'. To access the the Disk Management console, please try the following:

- Click Start -> Run -> type:
diskmgmt.msc
- Click OK

Hope that helps


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

i do not have that option: 
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1723/vbph2.jpg


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

Ok, it may be worth trying to uninstall the drive in your Device Management console (devmgmt.msc) then rebooting and as soon as Windows starts, go back into Disk Management and see if you can get the 'Initialize Wizard' going then.


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

still didnt work.


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

Does anything happen if you select Action -> Rescan Disks in the Disk Management console?


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

Yeah, It rescans the disks


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

I know it rescans the disk but I was hoping it would kick start the wizard too 

Only other things I can think of is to format or delete the drive and then you may get the chance to initialize it.


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

we've already done those things. 
is there anything else i could do, maybe without the new disk wizard, to get this drive to be read as its true size?


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## nickster_uk (Feb 7, 2005)

Not sure to be honest but as you're confident the jumper settings are correct, I think you're a bit limited....perhaps email mad dog or check out their support forums as someone else is bound to have something similar happen to them.

Sorry i couldn't be any more help.


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

i will do that tomorrow, and if the problem is resolved, i will post the solution here for future reference.


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## radical ed (Mar 10, 2006)

*EDIT*
i will have to get to this sometime next week, as they are not open on the weekends.


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## Bruce Crissman (Jan 25, 2008)

Ed:

Try right-clicking on the square which has the following text:

Disk 1
Basic
31.49 GB
Online

That should bring up a menu that includes "Initialize Disk".


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## MacLover (Aug 10, 2008)

Your suggestion was like gold to me, Bruce

I was stumped all weekend trying to get a Mad Dog enclosed disk to be recognized, that is until I stumbled across your entry.

Such a stange, obscure and hidden function. And what happened to the New Disk Wizard.. did it go off with Gandorf?

Anyway, suddenly the sun came out and the birds started to sing. My weekend was not a total waste after all.

XP-Hater


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## Speshal_K (Jan 31, 2009)

Oh me, oh my,

I've spent a few hours on this problem. In Disk Management, Right Clicking on the Disk1 square was THE one area I did not click (I was clicking and searching everywhere)!!!!

Thank you for the posted solution. The weekend is now mine!!!

Speshal_K


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## ProfessorLeakey (Jun 11, 2009)

NOTA (None of the above.) I could right-click on the box and only got the options to open the properties box. What worked for me was right-clicking on the space to the right of the box, then selecting "Create Partition." That got me the "Partition and Format Disk Wizard." As soon as I clicked "Finish" the drive appeared in "My Computer," it had a drive number and formatting began. 

Hope this helps someone. Many thanks to previous contributors.


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## general714 (Mar 1, 2010)

Hi - just wanted to say Cheers, Bruce!! I also was struggling with this for ages. What a non-intuitive solution! Thanks again. :tongue:


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## Bruce Crissman (Jan 25, 2008)

general714 said:


> Hi - just wanted to say Cheers, Bruce!! I also was struggling with this for ages. What a non-intuitive solution! Thanks again. :tongue:


I'm glad this solution helped some of you. You are correct general714. The solution is very non-intuitive. My experience with Microsoft has taught me to try different things even though they may not seem to be the most intuitive solution.


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