Bought a new hard drive-"Device is not ready" when trying to initializ

Bought a new hard drive-"Device is not ready" when trying to initializ

A while ago, my desktop was having problems. It would BSOD persistently through restarts and eventually, it stopped working completely. When i turned it on, it would make all the startup sounds (hard drive spinning, fan starting, etc), the hard drive would click a few times, and it would all start over. Thinking it was a problem with the hard drive, I decided to buy a new hard drive.
Today, i bought a Hitachi 2TB internal hard drive to install on my broken desktop. Wanting to try to partition/format/install an OS before i put it into the desktop, i hooked it up to my laptop with a SATA/USB adapter, with an AC plug. I went to Computer Management->Disk Management, and saw, along with my laptop's HD, a new drive called Disk 1. Knowing that was the hitachi i just plugged in, i tried to initialize it. However, it gives me a message saying "Disk is not ready". I tried restarting both the hard drive and my computer, to no avail. But now even the "initialize disk" button is greyed out. What's wrong?

tl;dr?
I recently bought a new hard drive, and am trying to format/partition/install OS with my laptop before putting it in my desktop (I'm using a SATA/USB adapter with an AC power plug). In DIsk management, i try to initialize the HD, but it tells me "Disk is not ready". After restarting my computer and the hard drive, now the "initialize disk" button is greyed out. What do i do?

Try removing the drive in Device Management then power down your computer and physically disconnent the drive cable from the motherboard.

Reboot and check Windows doesn't see a driver for the hard drive then power down again before reconnecting the drive. Reboot and with a bit of luck the drive will be recognised.

Welcome cellfoneguy,

Sometimes this may be a problem of not enough power to the USB port especially on laptops.

seavixen: I'm connecting the drive through my laptop though, not my desktop. I'm using a SATA/USB adapter.
docbrown: Is there any way i can tell my laptop to send more power to a port or will i have to borrow a friend's desktop to try?

As you are using a SATA/USB adapter with an AC power plug, there is no need.

Check all the cables for a good fit.

You probably will have quicker luck with a Desktop

Sort of like this adapter setup ?

Yes! exactly like that. I'll try a desktop in a minute and post results.

It worked! I could successfully partition and format it. However, it's being very slow. Just for the first 300gb partition, it's been over 2 hours and the progress has only gone by 2 percent. Is this normal?

I think the last 1tb HD that I did was 3 or 4 hours.

Hello, the problem is that one can't do disk changes on a USB, it has to be either eSATA or a direct motherboard connection. Your time does seem very long though.