I recently got a friend's NVME drive after Dell couldn't repair her high-end PC, which had some severe issues with the motherboard and CPU. I tried using a cheap third-party USB to NVME adapter to transfer data to my new Windows 11 PC, but now I'm seeing a "disk not initialized" error in Disk Management. I'm really hoping to get her data back, especially since she has had a rough time with the hardware. Do you think the adapter is typically to blame for issues like this? If so, do better quality adapters usually help avoid such errors?
3 Answers
It’s suspicious that Dell couldn't fix the PC. They may have swapped out the drive without telling you, which could explain why it's showing "disk not initialized." Sometimes they replace parts with factory uninitialized drives that have no data on them at all. If the drive was really the original one, it might indeed be fried or damaged, but one would typically see a different error if it was completely dead. I’d recommend trying a different adapter or even another PC to troubleshoot.
It's definitely possible that your cheap adapter is the culprit here. These third-party accessories often have quality issues that can lead to errors like "disk not initialized." If you can, try to use a higher quality adapter for your NVME drive, as they usually have better compatibility and stability. If that doesn't work, it could indicate a hardware failure with the drive itself, especially considering its history with Dell.
If your PC has a spare m.2 slot, you could try placing the NVME drive directly into that to see if it shows up there. Sometimes the adapters fail to recognize the drives properly. If it still shows as uninitialized, there's a high chance the drive itself might be damaged, and that would be tough news to hear.
I attempted this with mine, but when I used the spare NVME slot on my new gaming PC, Windows froze up. Startup Repair didn’t help either; it just led me to a command prompt that didn’t find the NVME. I didn’t want to risk causing more issues with my new computer.