Free to Initialize Disk on Windows XP 7 8 10

Initialize disk is a process to prepare the disk available for data storage. Usually, you need to initialize a disk when you add a new hard disk to your computer in order to write data to it. Sometimes, you may also need to initialize an old disk when it is corrupted due to virus infection, bad sectors or some other reasons.

Possible reasons to initialize disk on Windows

Here are some common reasons that you may want to initialize a disk on your computer:
1. You add a new hard disk to your computer
2. The disk shows as uninitialized after cleaning up disk, deleting disk or due to other reasons
3. Disk is corrupted due to virus attack, bad sector and some other causes
4. You attempt to erase all data permanently from the disk by initializing disk

This article would share all solutions for disk initialize on Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 no matter why you want to execute such a task.

#1 Free to Initialize and Format a New Disk for Windows under Disk Management

When you install a new hard disk to your computer, it usually shows uninitialized. You have to initialize it in order to use it. You can follow the steps below to initialize and format a new disk for Windows under Disk Management:

Step1. Open Disk Management on Windows computer (it is available on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10) and it will pop up a windows showing as image below.

initialize disk

If it does not pop up the window, you can right click the disk that shows uninitialized and select Initialize Disk option to show the window above.

select to initialize disk

Step2. Now, the uninitialized disk would shows as unallocated space. You can right click the unallocated space and create new partitions on the disk.

create new partition

For more details to create new partitions, please visit this page – Free to create new partition Windows 7>>

#2 Free to Initialize Disk without Formatting by Diskpart on Windows

You can also run Diskpart from Command Prompt to initialize disk on Windows computer.

Initialize MBR Disk

To initialize MBR disk, please follow this guide:
Open Command Line > type Diskpart > list disk > select disk > attributes disk cleared readonly > online disk > convert mbr
initialize disk diskpart

Initialize Disk GPT
To initialize MBR disk, please follow this guide:
Open Command Line > type Diskpart > list disk > select disk > attributes disk cleared readonly > online disk > convert gpt

You can create partitions after initializing disk on your computer.

#3 Freeware for Disk Initializing on Windows XP 7 8 10

Whether you want to initialize a new disk or an old one because it shows uninitialized due to any reason, partition software IM-Magic Partition Resizer provides an easy solution for disk initializing on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10.

Download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free Edition

Step1. Right click the disk you need to initialize and select "Init Disk" option. initialize disk

Choose MBR or GPT for the disk. If you do not know which one to choose, just leave it default setting. initialize disk

Step2. Confirm to initialize the disk and click "Apply Changes" button. initialize disk

Tips:

Initialize a disk would erase data. Therefore, if any disk shows uninitialized due to virus infection or bad sectors, you had better recover all data from the disk in advance before initializing it.