Summary :

Hard Drive Showing Wrong Free Space Windows 10 Can you imagine this situation? When you want to install a new application, the disk in your system shows there is high space utilization. But after checking the actual volume occupied by the apps and files inside the hard drive, you find there are not much-used space. Select disk management from the left tab. You will see on the right side list of disk and partition.Your external disk will be somewhere below the cd drive.If you can see more than 1 partition there, then right click the other partition apart from 3 GB partition and right click to create another partition and then assign a drive letter. Hope it helps some.

Sometimes, you might find that some files are not showing up in the external hard drive. In the following contents, we will discuss about the possible causes and solutions, as well as an effective and reliable way to recover data for the external hard drive.

Problem – Files Not Showing in External Hard Drive

Although external hard drives have brought as great convenience in daily life and work, there are chances that they might fail to display some of their files or even seem to have lost them completely, despite the disk capacity in disk properties being shown as utilized.

You will be able to tell that it is indeed your files utilizing that space in the external drive if you have a general impression of how much space your data occupies.

But here is the problem - people sometimes find their files not showing in external hard drive and get anxious; they are afraid of losing the important files forever. What is really happening when this issue is present? Can you fix it or rescue the missing data here?

I will answer those questions for you. Now, let's start with rescuing files missing from external hard drive with MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

When data recovery is done, I will explain the possible causes for files not showing problem and then give corresponding solutions. In the last section, I am going to help you know more about the external hard drive you use.

Recover Data from External Hard Drive

When you finally discover that some files are missing from external hard drive or even a partition in it is damaged/lost, you must conduct data recovery on external hard drive right away.

In this case, please stop writing any new data into the external hard drive and then follow the operations below to recover data with MiniTool Power Data Recovery easily. This software will light the hope of data recovery as long as the external hard drive is not physically damaged.

3 Steps to Recover Data from External Hard Drive

When you find that some useful files not showing in external hard drive are actually lost, please adopt MiniTool Power Data Recovery immediately.

Then, follow this tutorial to recover data.

Step 1: connect the external hard drive to computer. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then choose Hard Disk Drive.

Step 2: select the target external hard drive from the right side and click on the Scan button.

Step 3: during the scan, you can see more and more files being found by the software. Now, you can browse them one by one to check the ones you need and then choose a safe location to store them by pressing the “Save” button. After that, click on the OK button to confirm your selection. Soon, the data you choose will be recovered to the appointed location.

Please note that if you’re using the trial edition, you’ll see the following interface that prevents you from saving any of the found files.

When you can confirm that all data you need are recovered successfully to another device and all the existing files have been backed up, you can choose to format the external hard drive in order to use it again. Additionally, you may follow the methods given below to try to fix the current external drive.

How to fix when external hard drive stops working?

A relatively comprehensive analysis & fix plan about external hard drive not working issue are given here to help people get out of trouble.

Why Can't See Files in External Hard Drive & How to Solve

I find files missing from external hard drive become a frequently discussed issue in many forums. So there must be some ideas that catch the point.

Based on this, I decide to make a list of the possible reasons and useful suggestions for users to refer to. Here, I have summarized 4 main causes as well as the solutions in Windows 7 through internet searching and actual operations.

4 Causes That Can Be Fixed Directly in Windows

1. The files are hidden.
2. There are file system errors.
3. The “CheckedValue” is suffering from virus infection.
4. The mirror image in memory is damaged.

Possible cause 1 – the files are hidden.

Sometimes, the files are not really missing from external hard drive; they’re just hidden and not being shown. Here are 4 solutions to unhide them.

Solution 1:

1. Type cmd to the search box and press Enter.
2. Right click on the exe and select Run as administrator.
3. Input DIR/A x:-s (x refers to the drive letter of your external hard drive). The meaning of this command is: list the non-system files in x: drive.
4. If this command returns nothing, it means your folder has been marked as protected system files, and then you can refer to the second solution.

Solution 2: check whether the files are endowed with system property.

1. Run control folders, or go to Control Panel and Appearance and Personalization.
2. You can see the window Folder Options.
3. In view tab, check show hidden files, folders, and drives and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
4. Then check whether the files/folders are there.

Solution 3:

1. If your files keep missing from the external hard d drive, run cmd and press Enter key.
2. Then, if the hard drive letter is O:, you should enter this command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d o:*.*.
3. Finally, check if the real files will be showed.

Solution 4:

If all solutions above failed, try the following process which is most complex:

1. Run cmd.
2. Type the location of the external hard drive. Example: 'd:', 'e:', 'f:', etc.
3. Type dir /ah. You will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes.
4. Type attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h.
5. You should repeatedly type dir /ah after un-hiding some files/folders so you know if the files/folders are now appearing or hiding.
6. Finally check your external hard drives, all data should be there.

Please note:

• If you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the expanded-name. Example for file named party: attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h.
• If you have folder names with 6 characters or more, type the first 6 characters followed by '~1'. Example for folder named birthday: attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h.

Possible cause 2 – there are file system errors.

In some cases, the files may be not showing in external hard drive because the file system is corrupted or because it doesn't contain a recognized file system. At this time, you had better recover data from external hard drive firstly.

Here's how to confirm:

1. Right click on the external hard drive.
2. Choose Properties.
3. Select Tools tab and click on the Check now button.
4. Check Automatically fix file system errors from the pop-up window.
5. Click on the Start button to begin and wait for the process.

Possible cause 3 – “CheckedValue” is suffering from virus infection.

Here’s how to fix:

1. Run Regedit.
2. Then, follow this route in Registry Editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvancedFolderHiddenSHOWAL.
3. Check whether the data value of CheckedValue is 1.
4. If NOT, delete CheckedValue, create a new DWOR in the blank and rename it as CheckedValue. After that, modify the value data as 1.

Possible cause 4 – the mirror image in memory is damaged.

Sometimes the mirror image in memory is damaged and the operating system does not respond a timely refresh, which happens by chance.

How to fix: restart the computer and then reconnect the external hard drive to check if the actual files are shown.

That's all for the solutions. In fact, each solution has helped many users get rid of files not showing in external hard drive problem, and I also hope they are helpful for you.

2 Cases for Missing Files from External Hard Drive

But what's the real story? How exactly did they disappear? These kinds of questions are all over the internet. The following mentioned examples are just a drop in the bucket.

Case 1:

I have a problem with my external hard disk. I saved some school documents on my drive. When I got to the school computer to copy my home task, then I noticed all my folders went missing, except ones that are not in folder. I still have my used memory, but can't see my folders. Please help me!shegzy4 from Makeuseof

Case 2:

Hey guys I have a problem with my external hard drive ... 2 days ago I've bought a new laptop and when I plugged my hard drive into it to install some games I found that it doesn't contain anything except 2 files. Also it shows 900 GB used space and this means that my old files are still there. So please help me return them back because I need them. By the way I've tried showing hidden folders and everything in folder options.Sarooo from Tomshardware

Faced with such confusion, most users behave like ants on hot bricks, while some users skillfully find that if they try to type the path or address of a specific folder, it opens. However, typically you have stored large numbers of files and folders in the external hard drive and you cannot remember all names of folders…So any better idea?

Learn More about External Hard Drive

Different from internal hard drive, an external hard drive is a portable storage device that can be attached to a computer via USB, eSATA, or Firewire. External hard drives typically have high storage capacities and are often used to back up computers.

Having our videos, pictures and other large files copied to an external hard drive is a safe way to back up things. Besides, external hard drive is always acting as a data storage medium and transmission medium, thus you don't have to carry on computers with you everywhere.

External Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity Drive

External Hard Drive Becomes a Necessity in Modern Life

External hard drive enjoys many advantages when compared to other storage devices, so they are getting more and more closely to our daily life. Today people are accustomed to bring an external hard drive with us in case of data transmission, such as to deal with working paper between office and home.

By using external hard drive, you can avoid the network requirement, the uploading and downloading process, and time. But, if your families share one computer with you at home, there will be a big risk of data loss. So backing up important data to external hard drive becomes a wise choice.

During the process of using external hard drives, you will inevitably encounter some difficulties, 'external hard drive doesn’t appear in My Computer' and 'files not shown in external hard drive'. I have laid my emphasis on the second issue in this post.

Characteristics That Make External Hard Drive Popular

External hard drives usually have the following advantages in common:

• Small volume: an external hard drive is usually several inches in size, such as 2.5 inches, 3.5 inches in common.
• Large capacity: external hard drives always adopt large capacity and the unit is always Terabyte.
• High speed: external hard drive connected via Firewire usually works at high speed, which makes it rather easy to transfer data between computer and external hard drives.
• Portability: since external hard drives have small volume, it is available to carry them everywhere.
• Easy to use: external hard drive is very easy to handle. It can be applied in both Windows & Mac and will be automatically detected in a few seconds. Then you can use it like internal hard drive.
• Lower cost per GB: the price of external hard drive is getting lower and lower due to proven technique. Normally you only spend several cents per GB on an external hard drive.

Bottom Line

I have noticed 'files not showing in external hard drive' is a frequently asked question in many forums. Therefore, in this post I have summarized almost all feasible solutions for users who have got a headache on this issue.

Remember, external hard drives today have become indispensable medium for us to deal with data backup, privacy protection, data transmission, and so on, so you need to pay more attention to the operations you have made during the usage to avoid unnecessary trouble.

What's more? Once something unlucky happens and leads to serious data loss, you should stop all operations and turn to reliable solutions quickly, so as to ensure the largest possibility for data recovery.

Files Not Showing in External Hard Drive FAQ

1. Open File Explorer the way you like.
2. Select View from the menu bar.
3. Click Options and choose Change folder and search options.
4. Go to the View tab and look for the Advanced settings area.
5. Check Show hidden files, folders, and drives and click OK.

5+ Effective Fixes for Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity

It's very common to be faced with similar disk problems such as SD card reporting the wrong size, USB drives getting incorrect size. If you are one of the victims of the hard drive showing the wrong capacity, you can deal with them with these effective solutions. Just read on, the content below will clear all your doubts.

Hard Drive Showing Wrong Free Space Problem

What demonstrated below is a real story of a user telling his 1TB hard drive showing only 0.18TB of free space.

'My WD external hard drive gets a strange problem. It's 1TB advertised, and I only use it as a backup hard drive. But today, I surprisingly find that the free space is only 0.18TB. That's impossible because the used space can't be more than 200GB. What happened? Why is the hard drive showing the wrong free space? Can I restore the full size? And how?'

A newly bought 500 GB HDD might display only 465 GB even with no data on it. Some external hard disks and USB flash drives may show another incorrect capacity issue that the free space size hugely decreases. Is your hard drive corrupted when it shows the wrong capacity? Not really. There are quite a few reasons that lead to a hard drive showing less space than it should.

Why Hard Drive Not Showing Full Capacity

Excluding that you have bought a fake hard drive from an unscrupulous merchant, there are several reasons Windows could display the wrong amount of available space. Like hidden files, formatting overhead, virus attack, recovery partitions occupancy, a hard drive issue, etc. In addition to what just mentioned, we list other common causes to help you understand why your (external) hard drive is showing the wrong capacity or free space.

• The hard drive driver is out of date. In this case, the hard drive might show the wrong capacity in the Windows computer.
• Format the hard drive using an inappropriate tool, or the formatting process is incomplete.
• The hard drive has been initialized to a wrong partition table. If it is larger than 2TB, but initialized to be MBR, the space over 2TB will be shown as 'Unallocated' in Disk Management and you can't see it in File Explorer. That's because the MBR partition table cannot address the space that exceeds 2TB.
• Master Boot Record or EFI information area (GPT header) corrupts due to accidental insertion and removal.
• Errors caused by bad sectors.

As you can tell, not all the events require fixes. Many hard drives are with an OEM partition or recovery partition for factory restore purpose, and it's usually invisible in My Computer. So, when you find a new hard drive showing less disk space than it advertised, go to 'My Computer' (in Windows 7 and 8) or 'This PC' (in Windows 8.1 and 10) > 'Manage' > 'Disk Management' and check the real space taking by the recovery partition.

For other simple causes, you can troubleshoot quickly. For instance, show hidden files and perform anti-virus to check whether the hard drive shows full capacity or not. If the problem is not solved, continue applying the corresponding solutions below. I hope they can help you.

Solution 1. Update Hard Drive Driver

Step 1. Click 'Start', type Device Manager, and press 'Enter'.

Step 2. Click and expand 'Disk drives'. Right-click on the hard drive shows the wrong capacity and select 'Update driver'.

Step 3. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software'. If this fails, you can manually search for and install the updated driver software on the official website.

If the hard drive driver is the latest one, but things still go wrong, you can try to uninstall and reinstall the driver.

Solution 2. Reformat the External or Internal Hard Drive

The following two methods teach you how to format the hard drive with the command prompt and a partition management tool. The former requires particular computer technology. So if you are not familiar with CMD, to ensure safety, you'd better use the easy-to-use formatting tool in Method 2 to do it.

Method 1. Format Hard Drive via Command Prompt

Step 1. Click 'Start', type cmd in the search box. Right-click on the Command Prompt and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 2. Type diskpart and press 'Enter'. Then, input and execute the following commands in order.

Step 3. Type list disk and press 'Enter'. All the disk drives will be listed, including your external drives that connected to the computer.

Step 4. Check the number of the hard drive showing the wrong capacity. Type select disk + disk number, and press enter. For example, select disk 1. You're telling diskpart to format disk 1.

Step 5. Go on to type clean. This step starts to clean up all files and folders on the selected hard disk.

Step 6. Type create partition primary and press 'Enter'.

Step 7. Type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press 'Enter'. You're telling diskpart to format the drive with a file system, let it be NTFS, exFAT, etc.

Step 8. Type assign to set a drive letter to the newly created partition.

That's a complete guide of formatting hard disk via diskpart format commands. Is this method complicated for you? If so, format your hard drive with the following easier way. Watch the video tutorial and see how to make it.

Method 2. Format Hard Drive with an Easy Formatting Tool

If you are not familiar with Command Prompt, you can turn to a professional and easy-to-use hard drive formatting tool. My recommendation is EaseUS Partition Master. Download it and format your HDD, SSD, SD card or USB drive easily.

Solution 3. Convert Hard Drive from MBR to GPT

If the (external) hard drive shows less space than it should because of MBR style, you can fix this problem by converting MBR to GPT and then extend the partition though adding the unallocated space.

The following video shows you to convert MBR to GPT with Windows Disk Management and EaseUS Partition Master. The Disk Management demands you to delete all existing partitions first. If you persist in this way, remember to back up your hard drive at the beginning. Or you can download the partition manager to convert disk between GPT and MBR directly and keep partitions as well as data intact.

After you have succeeded in converting MBR to GPT, continue to expand your disk as follows.

Step 1. Locate the Target Partition

To start extending partition, you should first launch EaseUS Partition Master and locate the target partition which you would like to extend.

Step 2. Extend the Target Partition

1. Right-click on the target partition which you would like to extend and select 'Resize/Move'.

2. Drag the partition panel rightward or leftward to add unallocated space into your current partition and click 'OK' to confirm.

External Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity Of One

3. If there is no or not enough unallocated space on your disk, use the advanced partition resizing function to directly allocate free space from other partitions to the target drive without deleting or formatting.

Find the 'Allocate XX space from' option, then click 'Select partition'. Choose the partition from which you want to allocate space. Drag the partition panel rightward or leftward to resize the partition you want to extend. Then click 'OK' to confirm.

Step 3. Execute Operations to Extend Partition

Click the 'Execute Operation' button and click 'Apply' to keep all the changes.

Solution 4. Back Up Data and Initialize the Hard Drive

GPT header or MBR errors cause most disk size errors. Under these circumstances, initialization can resolve these problems.

• Disk initialization will wipe all the data. Export essential files at first.
• If your hard drive is a new one, you can initialize it directly in two ways given below. If it's in use, you need to delete all the partitions before initializing it.

Method 1. Using Disk Management

Step 1. In Windows 10/8, press 'Windows + R' key, type diskmgmt.msc and click OK to launch Disk Management. In Windows 7, right-click Computer and then select Manage option to run Disk Management.

Step 2. Find and right-click the hard drive or SSD you want to initialize, and then click 'Initialize Disk'. If the disk is listed as Offline, first right-click it and select Online.

Step 3. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the correct disk to initialize. And then click OK to accept the default partition style, or you can change the partition style (GPT or MBR) as you want.

Method 2. Using EaseUS Partition Manager

Step 1: Download the software

Download EaseUS Partition Master. Connect the hard drive or SSD to PC.

Step 2: Initialize your HDD/SSD

Right-click the target HDD or SSD and select 'Initialize to MBR' or 'Initialize to GPT' accordingly.

Fig 1. Initialize to MBR:

Fig 2. Initialize to GPT:

Step 3: Apply the operation

A pending operation of initializing disk to MBR or GPT disk will be added. Execute the operation and click 'Apply'.

Solution 5. Check for Physical Bad Sectors or Replace the Disk

Too many bad sectors can make the disk unable to read and write correctly and show the wrong capacity. Thus, you should check and repair partition errors to rectify the problem. If the situation is terrible, and your hard disk has too many physical bad sectors, you have to consider replacing the new file after backing up data.

Final words

These methods are available for you to address internal or external hard drives showing a wrong capacity issue in Windows 10/8/7. EaseUS Partition Manager is very helpful when formatting, initializing, converting, and resizing hard drive. Besides, it's also good at merging/creating/deleting partitions, recovering lost partitions, migrating OS to SSD, and so on. Try it anyway.

External Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity FAQs

With these useful tips, you can solve your wrong capacity problem easily and quickly. If you have other related questions about hard drive only shows half capacity or other wrong capacities, you can read the following questions and answers.

Why do hard drives show the wrong capacity in Windows?

There are several reasons Windows could display the wrong amount of available space. They are:

• Invisible shadow files
• Formatting overhead
• Hidden recovery partitions
• Misleading storage capacities advertised by hard drive manufacturers and more.

How do I restore my hard drive to full capacity?

There are five effective ways to restore the hard drive to full capacity:

1. Update Hard Drive Driver
2. Reformat the Hard Drive
3. Convert MBR to GPT
4. Initialize the Hard Drive
5. Check Physical Errors

External Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity Loss

How do I fix USB incorrect size?

The best way to restore a USB drive to its full capacity is to format it. There is more than one way to do this job: you can format a USB flash drive using File Explorer, Command Prompt, Disk Management, or third-party partition manager - EaseUS Partition Master.

How do I check the capacity of my external hard drive?

To check the capacity of the external hard drive:

Step 1. Open File Explorer. Right-click on your external hard drive.

Largest Capacity External Hard Drive

Step 2. Select Properties.

Step 3. You can see the capacity of your flash drive including the capacity, used space, and free space.