How To Fix A Hard Drive That Shows Wrong Capacity?

Hard drives are always a convenient way of transferring data between two devices. We always prefer them to back up our photos, videos, files, etc. In some instances, users end up with a strange problem with these hard drives – “My hard drive is showing the wrong capacity.” If you encounter the same trouble with your hard drive, a few techniques can help you handle this issue efficiently. Try out the solutions listed on this web page and fix your problem like an expert on How To Fix A Hard Drive That Shows Wrong Capacity.

In some cases, Windows doesn’t display the right amount of available space. The most common reason behind this issue is hidden files, virus attack, outdated hard drive driver, etc.

Initializing your hard drive with the wrong partition table can also lead to this kind of error. For instance, if you initialize a 4TB hard drive with the MBR partition, you can only use 2TB of the available space, and the rest of the storage space will be shown as Unallocated. The reason behind this problem is that MBR cannot address the space that exceeds 2 TB. Therefore, if your hard drive is larger than 2TB, use GPT instead of MBR.

Now, let us learn the solutions to fix the hard drive that shows a wrong capacity.

Update The Hard Drive Driver

Click Start on your Windows computer and search for Device Manager.
When it shows you the search results, locate the right option and click on it.
In the Device Manager window, expand Disk drives. Then, right-click on your hard drive and select the Update driver option.

Now, click on Search automatically for updated driver software. Then, follow the prompts to update the driver.
In case the driver is already up-to-date, uninstall the existing driver from your computer and reinstall it. This can probably fix the hard drive that shows a wrong capacity.

Reformat Your Hard Drive Via Command Prompt

You might have formatted your hard drive several times to fix the wrong capacity issue. But to handle the hard drive that shows a wrong capacity, you need to format it using the Command Prompt. The following instructions will guide you in that regard.

Click Start and type “cmd” in the search area.

From the search results, right-click on Command Prompt and select the Run as administrator option.

In the Command Prompt window, type diskpart and press Enter. Type list disk and press Enter.

When it shows you a list of drives connected to your computer, select the hard drive’s number that shows the wrong capacity.

Type select disk + disk number and press Enter. For instance, if your hard drive’s number is 1, type “select disk 1.”

Now, type clean; this command will clean up all the files and folders on the selected hard disk.

Type create partition primary and press Enter.

Type format fs=ntfs and press Enter (if you want to format your hard drive with exFAT, type format fs=exFAT).

Type “assign” to set a new drive letter to the partition you have created.

This procedure will work for sure, and your hard drive will show the exact available space in the future. In case you still cannot fix the problem, see if your hard drive is physically damaged. In that case, you don’t have any other option other than replacing it with a new one. If your hard drive is under the warranty period, you can claim for replacement.

We hope these troubleshooting solutions have helped you on How To Fix A Hard Drive That Shows Wrong Capacity. If you still cannot get rid of the issue, get in touch with our technical experts for remote assistance. Go ahead and use the call option to contact our experts.