How to fix “Please insert a disk into NEW VOLUME” on Windows 10
Formatting a drive is easy enough and most end users know what a quick format, or a full format does to a disk. On Windows 10 you can format a drive from File Explorer. All you have to do is right-click the drive you want to format, and select Format from the context menu. The format options’ window lets you select the file system for the drive, and give it a name. If you’re trying to use a drive and you keep seeing theĀ Please insert a disk into NEW VOLUMEĀ error then a format isn’t going to fix it.
There may be several reasons you’re seeing the error so before you apply the fix check the following;
- The drive can/cannot be accessed on other systems
- If the drive can be accessed on other systems, can you save or copy files to/from it
If the drive can be accessed on other systems, it’s likely there’s a problem on your system that is preventing it from accessing the drive. Perhaps there’s a security measure in place that prevents users from connecting or accessing external drives. If you get the same message on other systems, it’s possible the drive is just unallocated space. This is something that’s easy to fix however, you should know that data on the drive will most likely be lost through this method.
Unallocated space
Connect your drive to your system. Close any and all prompts that File Explorer shows you. In Windows search, look for the Disk Management utility and open it. You will see all the drives that are connected to your system, including the one that you’re unable to access.
The drive will show up with a block labelled Unallcoated space. Right-click the block and from the context menu, select New Simple Volume. Click Next on the window that opens. You don’t need to change anything because the default presets for creating a volume are fine however, if you want to, you can intervene and change the letter, name, and the file system that the volume is created on.
Creating a new volume doesn’t take a very long time and once the volume is created, you will be able to access the disk in File Explorer.
If you previously had data on the disk, you can look for file recovery apps/software to see if any of it can be recovered. It’s also a good idea to check the health of the drive. If the drive is in poor health, your data is at risk.
