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I have Windows 7 64 bits on a new Lenovo Thinkpad E530 laptop (previously I had Windows 8 with the exact same problem). I connect an external hard disk drive via a SATA-USB interface. The hdd was previously the primary disk in a PC and also has a Windows 7 64 bits installation. I need to copy a few files from it. The device manager finds the disk drive and says that the device is working properly and that the latest driver is installed. But I have no access to it in the file manager. Even in the command prompt I cannot do "cd D:" but then get the reply that the drive is not ready. Device manager / Ext Hard Disk properties / Volume says that its status is "Not Initialized". Would it help to "initialize" the disk? How do I do it? Would an "initialization" remove the content of the disk? Is there another way? Thank you for any advice! Best regards to you all