How to Fix “The Device is not ready” Error?

‘The Device is not ready’, Well, if you found this error after inserting the USB flash drive/hard drive on the PC display, it means the Operating System fails to access the hard drive. Most of the users think that the issue arises due to the failure of the USB flash drive or hard drive. But, the hard drive is not solely responsible for this issue. The other factors which are responsible for this issue are listed below.

Why ‘The device is not ready’ error occurs?

There can be various reasons behind this error. The common possible reasons behind this error are listed below:

• The device is not connected/partially connected with the computer. In short, you can say lose connection.
• The USB port of the computer is damaged.
• The device is not fulfilling the minimum requirement of the computer. In other words, it is incompatible with the computer.
• The device is corrupted.
• Sometimes, the failure of the system files also become the major reason behind an issue ‘Disk has encountered an error the device is not ready’. There are multiple factors which fails the system files such as the improper installation of the drive, virus attack and much more.

These were the prime reasons for an issue ‘The Device is not ready’. Now, it’s time to fix it, but before moving ahead, let’s go for the basic solution. First and foremost, you will have to check whether USB port of the computer is working or not and for the same, insert another hard drive in the port if it is working then USB port of a computer is in good condition. However, if you have an additional computer, then insert the drive which is having the problem and check the issue. If the issue still persists on another computer, then replace the hard drive as it is corrupted.

How to Fix ‘Disk has encountered an error the device is not ready’?

 

Amid the basic troubleshooting steps, if you found the hard drive is working smoothly on another computer and not working on the primary one, then you will have to go with the advanced solution and the same is listed beneath.

Check the Drive Connection

There can be chances that the error may be caused due to the loose connections or damaged USB ports. To verify whether the error is caused by loose connections or damaged computer USB ports, just follow the following steps:

• Disconnect the USB storage device and re-insert it into your computer through the same USB ports to confirm if the device was loosely connected or not. Check for the error and if the error disappears, you can rest easy. If not then go to the next step.

• Disconnect the USB storage device and insert it into your computer through a different USB port. If you are able to access this device then the USB port is creating the problem. If you are unable to access the device then go to the next step.
• Now connect the hard drive to some other PC that reads USB drives to confirm computer or operating system is creating the problem.

Uninstall the USB flash drive/hard drive

• To perform this task, you will have to access the ‘Device Manager’. If you are a Windows 10 user, then right-click on the ‘Start’ menu, select ‘Device Manager’ from the list of featured options.

• However, if you are not a Windows 10 user, then click on the ‘Start’ menu and type ‘Device Manager’ in the search bar and after that hit ‘Enter’ button.

• Thereafter, a Device Manager window will appear on the display, move to ‘Disk drives’ section and click on the arrow button to expand the drives.

• Now, select the USB flash drive/hard drive from the list and then right-click on it. Soon, you will get a few options and from that, select ‘Uninstall device’.

• After completing the task, eject the drive and restart your computer.

Reinstall Device Driver

This error can be caused due to the corrupted, missing or improper installation of Device Driver also. You can try to reinstall the device driver to fix this issue. To reinstall the device driver follow these easy to execute steps:

• Go to the search window and type Device Manager. Or right-click on the Start button and click to open the Device Manager.

• Find out the specific device that is not ready. Just right-click that device and select Uninstall.

• Restart the computer and it will install the required driver automatically once restart.

Disk Management

If the issue still persists after performing the above task, then this method will help you to resolve the issue.

In the beginning, every device is initiated so that they can perform smoothly in the OS. However, if it is not, then a pop-up of ‘Virtual Disk Manager device is not ready’ will appear on the display. So, to resolve such an issue, you will have to initialize the drive and for your convenience, the steps are mentioned below.

• Open ‘Run’ box and for that press ‘Windows key and ‘R’ key together.
• Type ‘diskmgmt.msc’ in the box and click on the ‘OK’ button.

• Thereafter, you will find ‘Disk Management’ page, select the drive from the list which is not yet allocated, and at the bottom, you will get the summarized details of the drive.
• Now, right-click on the selected disk as shown in the image below and then select ‘initialize’ from the drop-down menu.

• That’s it, now follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

The above-mentioned solution will resolve the ‘Virtual Disk Manager device is not ready’ issue. However, if you have not allocated the memory, then choose the device, right-click on it and then select ‘New Simple Volume’. Thereafter, follow the instructions to fix a problem.

Run Windows Hardware and Device Troubleshooter

Bad registry values and controller issues are also the suspects behind this error. It is the best method to check and repair these bad registry values and any controllers that are not working properly. It is an inbuilt auto troubleshooting feature to detect any error in the hardware and will try to fix the issue. To do so please follow these steps:

• Go to the Control Panel and then click Troubleshooting.

• Now click View all, and then click “Configure a device” under the Hardware and Sound tab.

• Follow the on-screen instructions to check problems.
• Lastly, choose “Apply this fix” or “Skip this fix” as per your choice and restart the system to save changes.

Repair hard drive through Windows inbuilt utility

Windows offers multiple inbuilt tools to repair the hard drive and one of such is the ‘check disk’. This tool will repair the hard drive smoothly and will allow you to access the same hard drive effectively.

• You will have to perform this task as an admin on the command prompt. So, click on the ‘Start’ menu and type ‘cmd’.

• Now, select the featured icon, right-click on it and then choose an option ‘Run as administrator’.
• Thereafter, a command window will appear and here you will have to type ‘chkdsk h: /r’. Make sure to remove the inverted comma and in place of “h” type the disk name in which you are having the issue.

• Now, allow the Windows to complete the task and as soon as it finishes, it will show the result with a list of repairing files.

Replace the Faulty Drive

If none of the methods worked for you then there are chances that the drive is faulty. It is always recommended to replace the faulty drive with a new one. After replacing the old drive you can try your best to recover the lost data from the faulty drive if necessary.

Conclusion

You are all done, as these were the utmost solutions to resolve an issue ‘the device is not ready’. Let us know in our comment section which method worked for you? Wanna some more DeviceTricks? Stay tuned to this space to get latest updates on errors related to Windows, Mac and Android.  If you feel this article helpful please like, share and follow our Facebook page.