What do you use to initialize a forgotten disk?

[Diggs]

It happened again today. I forgot to initialize (CRS acting up) a SSD before I put it into a clam-shell laptop. Being clam-shell I couldn't exactly pop it out and put it on a working Win10 machine for initialization. (...and what's with Windows install media not recognizing non-initialized disks anyway? Everyone else does.) I Boot up from my favorite Linux distro and run gParted. How do you handle disks like this?

 

[Larry Sabo]

Boot a Win10 PE and do it from there.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Win10 install recognizes empty disks... I just install and watch it work. I've never partitioned an SSD before slapping it into a new build, I just plug the things in and run the install.

 

[GreyWolf]

Depends on the build usually unless your called Diggs at it seems you're able to get the windows to behave and let you use the drive..and install so lets face it we hire Diggs to scare our clients they pay more we all win.. I knew Diggs photo wasn't right should of been a black cat or a broken mirror Nah love ya Diggs your posts are a great add-on to the site but seriously there must of been a black cat in the way cause most of the time those issues should never happen..

 

[NJW]

...and what's with Windows install media not recognizing non-initialized disks anyway?

I have never experienced this, on any hardware (computer and SSD brand) with any Windows install medium. You need to move from under those power lines.

 

[Diggs]

Win10 install recognizes empty disks...

Empty yes, but not disks that have yet to be initialized fresh out of the package. It must be me I guess. As @GreyWolf says I must be cursed in this area. Or is it the BIOS used on HP machines which if I remember are the ones I usually forget for some reason......

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Diggs, yes it does. I pull disks out of the package and use them to install operating systems all day every day. There isn't an OS alive that cannot use the disks in it. Windows's installer uses diskpart, which is the command line version of disk manager, it's actually MORE powerful as that's the only MS provided tool that can cleanly wipe partition tables, ironically enough with the command "clean".

I don't configure a partition table type before I stuff a disk into a system. The installer does that for me, if it's EFI I get a GPT disk, if it's BIOS I get MBR, I just select the empty space and click next!

I have no idea why your system isn't partitioning that drive, but it has nothing to do with the Windows installer.

Now, you indicated older gear in another thread, are these Win8 boxen? Because if so, there are many of those units that are "EFI" but not quite... If you're in that class of gear, I highly recommend you tell the BIOS to boot in legacy mode. You'll have far less trouble.

 

[Diggs]

I always use legacy BIOS but if I haven't initialized the disk first then Win10 installer will never "see" there is a drive installed. If the drive has been initialized then diskpart takes right over and sets up the partitions. Hmm..... That's why I brought up this thread. Seems I need to do a bit of experimentation on my next few installs but there isn't much to do if Windows says there is no medium installed on the machine.

 

[Sky-Knight]

If the installer doesn't see a hard disk that usually means either the BIOS isn't recognizing the drive, or the installer has bad drivers for the drive controller.

I can't say I've ever seen a unit that would see a partitioned disk, but not an empty disk.... that's strange and new to me.

 

[Porthos]

When I use a new ssd out of the box, I slap it in to my main rig and restore a current sysprepped audit mode image on it. 2-3 minutes later I install it in the recipient computer and continue with OOBE. If the computer had data previously backed up with fabs I will copy the fabs backup to the drive and restore it after I finish the OOBE setup.

Main rig is a 4 gen i7 with 32 gig ram. Gets the job done quick.
Have one of these in my rig. https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Univ...5ZC2VBFCXJJ&psc=1&refRID=S2CGF2Y105ZC2VBFCXJJ

 

[Markverhyden]

@Diggs,Windows's installer uses diskpart, which is the command line version of disk manager, it's actually MORE powerful as that's the only MS provided tool that can cleanly wipe partition tables,

After years of ignoring diskpart I've a new found respect for it. Had a couple of USB sticks OSX and Linux seemed to not like. That clean command did the trick reset them.

 

[MichaelBits]

The only time I have had an issue installing W10 onto a new SSD out of the box (to an older machine) was when the BIOS needed an update to properly use the SSD.

 

[nerd2u]

I just did a win 10 install with a new SSD right out of the package slapped it in the system and ran the installer.

No need to do anything with the disk other than select it as the installation destination during install

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[LordIntruder]

same here. Doesn't matter if it is a spinner or a ssd. Unpacking, inserting, installing. That's all I do here.