Troubleshoot hard disk with data needs initializing

shmu26

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Jul 3, 2015
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Briefly explain your current issue(s)
Hard Disk is not identified by file managers in Windows or Linux
Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful
I tried Gparted, CloneZilla, and MiniTool Partition Wizard, but none of them can see the disk.
Terminal commands in Linux fail to list the disk.
I did not perform any actions yet on the disk because I don't want to make matters worse, especially as I couldn't figure out a way to clone the disk before experimenting with it.
I pulled a HDD out of an old Windows 7 computer that died. It has the OS and data on it.
I added it as an additional hard disk in a working Win10 computer, connecting it by SATA.
Windows Disk Manager says the disk needs to be initialized.
I don't care so much about the disk itself, but I would like to recover the data.
 

shmu26

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Have you tried this?
I downloaded it but didn't try it yet. It requires the disk to be initialized, which, according to most sources I read, will cause data loss. I hesitate to do something that might cause irreversible data loss.
 
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show-Zi

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Jan 28, 2018
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At the expense of additional investment, we recommend purchasing an adapter to convert SATA to USB. In my experience, this was the most likely way to rescue data. Please choose the type that supplies power separately, not the bus power.
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