Windows 7: Disk not initialized message

I have used a hard drive disk for 3 years or so and today when booting I see its not showing and I get a message from disk management that it is not initialized although as I say its been running perfectly all this time and was so reliable that I placed all my "needed program and file on it" ...sad eh If I right click to/and initialize will I loose all my data on the disk..? I see the disk in the management consul as 'disk one 'but with the message not initialized..can anyone help..I saw and saw an old thread but not sure if it the same thing.. Can anyone help please..?? urgent..

Sounds like your disk has become corrupted, or has otherwise failed. Disks are notorious for failing, just when you think that they are "running well". The only answer for data redundancy is RAID 1 (or a derivative), plus backing up to an external hard drive.

I suggest using some sort of Partition repair program in an attempt to rebuild the disks "Index" thus potentially allowing you access to the disks contents again. However this sort of activity is risky, either you will fix the partition or make the situation worse, in my experience the outcome is usually 50 / 50 - sometimes things end with a smile, and other times a tear!

Best of luck...