After an upgrade from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 to Windows 10 is completed, the HP 3D DriveGuard driver is displayed as an unknown device. Device Manager displays an exclamation mark (yellow bang) indicating there is a problem with the driver. To find drivers for unknown devices in Windows, we need to access device manager where you can manage all your hardware device drivers. To open device manager in Windows 8, press “Win + X” to open the power user menu and then select the option “Device Manager.” If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, you can search for the device manager. For whatever reason, Windows 10 didn’t install drivers for the device. This may be a simple error where it was unable to find drivers or it wasn’t able to correctly identify a device. Regardless, to fix the problem, open Device Manager and right-click the unknown device. Latitude E5470 with Win10 64bit has an unknown device: ACPIVENDELL&DEVABC6 ACPIDELLABC6.DELLABC6 Do you have a driver?

Every windows user has to face this problem at times- a device driver related issue, driver update issue, and sometimes ‘Not driver Found’ issue. You need to update drivers when installing new hardware that is not working or updating a new Windows version. This article will discuss all aspects of Windows drivers update to ensure that it won’t drive you crazy anymore.

What is a device driver, and what is its purpose?

A device driver is a software that controls your operating system when you attach a hardware device (a mouse, video card, or an external storage device) to your computer. For example, if you want to play a song on your PC using an application like VLC media player. When you click on the play button, it sends a request to the OS, which communicates to the video or audio card to play using specific drivers.

If these drivers do not match between OS and hardware device, it results in poor driver performance. So, it is crucial to have the right for driver updates.

What happens when you connect hardware to your PC?

Hardware can be of two types; plug and play (PnP) and non-plug and play (non-PnP). Nowadays, mostly hardware devices come with PnP type. Windows tries to identify a driver for that device in the Device Store when you connect such a hardware device to your computer. If It finds a required driver, it starts and operates the hardware. But if it does not find an installed driver, it searches in the other folders or looks for windows update for a matching driver. If it finds multiple options, it opts for a driver suitable for hardware ID and installs it. After installation, your connected hardware devices become operational.

Which driver should you install?

Often you get confused about what driver you should install? The manufacturer’s driver or the Microsoft one? Windows gives the manufacturer’s device driver preference to install as they provided the best-suited drivers for your device.

Some manufacturers made generic drivers that are of a third category. Such kinds of drivers do not offer custom drivers and do not fall in the expected standard.

Things you need to know before updating your device drivers

Windows 10 has inbuilt driver updates along with the OS updates. Whenever you update your window, all the applicable drivers will automatically update with the latest version. But if your PC has some internal issue and you need to update drivers visit the manufacturer’s website.

Please avoid using any third-party driver update websites in windows 10 as it can download virus or malware which is harmful to your computer. Before updating your device driver, make sure that you have a backup plan for crucial data with you. It will help you to restore your essential data. You can also create a restore system.

Manage device drivers and Find missing drivers

In Windows 10, You get a warning of ‘Unknown Device’ when your Windows doesn’t identify the device. It may happen due to some missing driver during installation or disability of automatic driver download. You can fix it by checking in the Device Manager. There is a yellow warning sign that indicates the unknown device.

How to fix an unknown device problem?

• Press Windows key + X to go, Device Manager
• Right-click on the unknown devices and click on properties
• On the error ‘The drivers for this device are not installed.’
• In the Detail tab, go to properties and select Hardware Ids.
• Ids that are visible in the value box note down them.
• Google search device drivers for these unknown devices throws ids.
• After downloading, right-click on the unknown device and then go for Update driver software.

Install and update device drivers

You can also install drivers by yourself. But be careful. Otherwise, you can affect the smooth running of your system. Before installing a driver, check its compatibility with your computer; otherwise, it will cause issues. Visit the manufacturer’s website and download the drivers. In the case of an executable file, it will be downloaded quickly, but if the drivers are in zip form, unzip it first and then update it through the Device Manager procedure.

Update through Windows 10

As we have discussed above that Windows 10 has the facility to update all its software automatically. You do not need to update your drivers individually.

• Go to settings
• Click on Update & Security, and Check for Updates.

If there is an update required, download and install; moreover, the Windows update will update device drivers. If you want to update it manually, go to the manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers.

• Go to the Device Manager. Locate the desired drivers right click and choose Update driver.
• Then select Browse my computer for drivers.
• Enter the path in the text box for downloaded device drivers.
• Follow the wizard for the latest version.

You can update your device drivers using both methods. For Windows 8, right-click on the hardware’s icon and click Update Driver Software. For Windows 7 and Vista, right-click on the hardware’s name.

• Then on to properties.
• Then click on the driver tab and click on the Update Drive button.

For Windows XP only do the same process as for Vista. Then choose No, not this time from the hardware update wizard. Then proceed with clicking Next >.

Enable or disable drivers:

Windows enables all devices automatically, but for some reason, if it fails to do this, a black arrow next to that driver shows up. You can allow it by yourself from the device manager. Click on the Disabled Drivers, then click on the Enable device by clicking on it in the context menu.

Take the Backup of your drivers:

We take backups for critical data, then why not for drivers? If a manufacturer stops offering the device driver, then in such cases, Backup for a driver can rescue the hardware. Use DSIM utility to take the driver’s Backup. You can also block automatic driver updates. Type gpedit, click Edit group policy, then navigate the folder path and double click on Do not include drivers with Windows updates. Enable the option and apply it, followed by OK.

Interesting Related Article: “How to do Windows Installation at Home?“

Summary:In this blog, you will learn how to fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized error in Windows 10. The cause of this error may be corrupt MBR, outdated device driver, missing partition, bad sectors, etc. You can try the best methods to fix this error. We have also articulated an efficient way to recover data using a powerful data recovery software in case of data loss due to this error.

When you connect an external drive to the system to copy some files from it to your system, or to create a backup of the system data, sometimes you get a ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ error (See Image 1). This error on your disk makes the drive unreadable, due to which, you are unable to access your data stored on it. However, you may take help of a data recovery tool to get back your data. And to fix the error, try attempting the methods given in this blog post.

Why ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ Error Occurs?

There could be several reasons due to which ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ error message may occur, which are mentioned as following:

• Corrupt/ Incompatible/Outdated Driver
• MBR Corruption
• Missing or lost partition
• Bad Sectors
• Corrupt File System

Best Ways to Fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized in Windows 10

Method 1: Update Device Driver

As explained above, an outdated, corrupt or incompatible device driver may be the cause for this error. You may fix it by updating the latest driver or uninstalling the problematic one, and then reinstalling the compatible driver for the device. Follow these steps to update the device driver:

a. Press Windows + X, locate and open Device Manager. (See Image 1)

b. Select the category of the devices and double-click on the one you want to update driver for.

c. Right-click on the driver. If you see the Update driver option, select it.

d. Choose ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’ and Windows will find the latest one. (See Image 2)

e. If you see Properties option on right-clicking the driver, click Driver tab on the open window.

f. On the next prompt, click Update Driver. (See Image 3)

g. Proceed by clicking ‘ Search automatically for updated driver software’.

When Windows will find you a latest driver for the device, update it. If you couldn’t see any latest driver software available for the device, you may uninstall the corrupt one and re-install the compatible driver to fix the error.

Method 2: Rebuild MBR Boot

If the error occurs due to the MBR corruption, you may fix MBR (Master Boot Record) with the help of the following steps:

a. Open Command Prompt and type the following commands:

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot (See Image 4)

b. Once done with the process, close the Command Prompt.

c. Check if the error still persists.

Method 3: Initialize Disk

Try fixing ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ error in Windows 10 by initializing disk with the help of the following troubleshooting steps:

a. Open Disk Management and locate the drive, which is not initialized. The drive will show as unallocated. (see Image 5)

b. Select the unallocated disk, right-click on it and click Initialize Disk. (See Image 6)

c. Select between an MBR and GPT. It is recommended to select GPT and click OK to proceed. (See Image 7)

d. Once this process is done, you will be back to the main window. The drive will be listed as Online and Basic.

e. Go to This PC and check if you can access the drive.

Method 4: Assign a Drive Letter

If you see your drive in Disk Management as UNALLOCATED, you may assign a drive letter and a file system to the drive to fix it. To do so, follow the steps given below:

a. Go to Disk Management and find Unallocated drive.

b. Select the disk drive, right-click on it and select New Simple Volume. (See Image 8)

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c. Click Next and then click Next on the next prompt to specify the volume size. (See Image 9)

d. Click ‘Assign the following drive letter’, choose a letter from drop-down list, and click Next. (See Image10)

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e. Choose ‘Format this volume with the following settings’. Provide the drive a NTFS file system and click Next to proceed. (See Image 11)

f. Select Finish to complete the procedure and close the window. Once done, check if the error is fixed.

Method 5: Run CHKDSK Command

This error may occur due to bad sectors on disk drive. To fix the corrupt drive or drive with bad sectors, you may run CHKDSK command utility. Follow the given steps:

a. Go to Start by pressing Windows + X, find and open Command Prompt (Admin) (See Image 12)

b. Type chkdsk /f /r d: in the Command Prompt, and hit Enter. (See Image 13)

This command line utility fixes if there is any corruption with the disk. However, it also finds and marks down the bad sectors on the disk. This utility helps Windows understand not to store or read data stored on the bad sectors. Doing so, will make you lose any data stored on those sectors.

Hence, if you run this command to fix ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized” error and lost data due to this, use a powerful data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery Software. This Do-it-yourself tool can recover data from a formatted, or corrupted Windows PCs and external storage devices like HDDs, USB, SD, and SSDs, etc.

Method 6: Run Diskpart Utility

You may also try to fix ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ by using Diskpart utility. This utility helps to quickly format the drive partition or change the disk partition to NTFS or FAT32.

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NOTE: This method requires you to format the partition that leads you to data loss situation. Therefore, before proceeding further, either create a backup of your data or keep a data recovery tool handy to restore the data.

Follow the given steps and to fix the error:

a. Open Run window by pressing Windows + R, and type cmd to open Command Prompt.

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b. In the command prompt window, type diskpart, then type list disk, and hit Enter.

c. Now, type Select Disk 0 (Where disk 0 is the disk showing error) and hit Enter. (See Image 14)

d. Type clean and hit Enter.

e. Type create partition primary and hit Enter.

f. Type format fs=fat32 quick or fs=ntfs quick and hit Enter to proceed. (See Image 15)

g. Let the process finish, type exit and hit Enter.

h. Reboot the system and check if you are facing the error with the disk.

Recover Lost Data with Data Recovery Software

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Due to ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ error, you will not be able to access your drive. Even, in an attempt to fix this error by applying some of the methods mentioned above, you may end up losing data stored on the drive. Regardless of the reason of losing data, you may get it back with the help of a powerful data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery. This do-it-yourself (DIY) software can recover lost documents, email files, photos, videos, and more. It supports multiple file formats on different storage devices. The data can even be recovered from formatted and corrupted Windows PCs and external drives.

Conclusion

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In this blog, we have discussed what you can do when your system or an external drive encounter ‘Disk Unknown Not Initialized’ error. Performing the aforesaid methods may help you fix the error. However, methods such as diskpart utility or fixing unallocated space require you to format the drive, wiping out the data stored on it. To avoid losing data on the drive, you may use a data recovery tool such as Stellar Data Recovery software. The tool can efficiently extract lost files, folders, documents, photos, and more.