You must initialize a disk before logical disk manager can access it

Hi,

I have a 1 TB C:/ drive in my Lenovo desktop that is not being recognized by windows 7 prof after rebooting.
I put it in an external drive enclosure and connected to two other systems running windows 7 using USB and got an error "you must initialize a disk before logical disk manager can access it" when checked from "Disk management".
I can't initialize the disk as I have lot of personal files/pictures on this disk that I can not effort to lose. I also tried with Ubuntu and this disk has not been identified. Any help appreciated and I can't spend any money with data recovery labs. I can see the disk was spinning and a green light was blinking but hear a clicking sound within 1 to 3 seconds intervals.

best regards,

Well what was it initialized as in the system ? MBR or GPT

If you have Windows 7 installed on it, it was most likely MBR.

Read these, maybe they`ll help. They all say if you initialize it, you will loose the data.

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/288692-disk-1-unknown-not-initialized-unallocated.html

Will a disk initialisation erase the data on my disk? - Microsoft Community

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ard-disk/4c01e30c-37fb-4884-b124-ac2d59078008

windows 7 - Will initializing disk make data unrecoverable? - Super User

Do my data erase if I initialize my hard drive - Hard Drives - Storage

This link may help get your data.

How to Recover Data from Uninitialized Disk

How to Recover Data from a Not Initialized Hard Drive?

Hi AddRAM.

Thanks you very much for the quick reply and I appreciate your reply. Yes, I have Windows 7 prof installed on this drive. I started seeing "hal.dll" was missing error when I tried to reboot the system and I tried to get it repaired using Windows 7 DVD and it did not help. Finally, I found that the C:/ drive itself was missing from BIOS and removed the disk from the desktop. I will try to recover the data using the software that was mentioned in your post and update this post. Thanks again.

best regards,

Hi,

I tried the recovery software but none of the software did not recognize the disk. Yodot software recognized the disk for a few minutes and disappeared again. Now, I did not even see any thing from " Disk Management".
Am I doing more harm to the disk by changing to multiple systems (all are Windows 7)? I also tried with Linux Mint from USB drive that did not help.
Please help what are my options here.

Hi,
Any help please. I forgot to tell that this drive has three partitions.

Any help please.