Windows 7: The device is not ready

Hello,

I have been trying to get my WD My Essentials disk working for some time, without success. It worked initially after purchase for roughly a year, and then could not be recognized when plugged in. I can't see it in Windows Explorer, but it is visible in Device Manager and Disk Management. In Disk Management, the box for it reads, "Disk 1, Unknown, Not Initialized". Right clicking on it gives a menu with a greyed out "Initialize Disk" option, along with clickable options for Offline, Properties, and Help.

When I attempt to clean, or format, or create partition primary the disk in DiskPart, I get a message saying,

"Virtual Disk Service error:
The system's information about the object may not be up to date.

DiskPart has referenced an object which is not up-to-date.
Refresh the object by using the RESCAN command.
If the problems persists exit DiskPart, then restart DiskPart or restart the computer."

None of it's suggestions work. Refreshing, and restarting DiskPart as well as restarting the computer just end up back at the same error message.



At one point I was getting a message saying The device is not ready. But I didn't document what exactly I was doing to get that message, and I can't replicate it. So I'm not sure what that error message was for.

Any suggestions? I have the data backed up elsewhere, so I don't really care if I wipe everything. I just want to be able to use the disk again.