Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity? Top 6 fixes

Why Does My Hard Drive Show Wrong Capacity?

When you plug in your drive expecting plenty of storage, only to find that Windows reports far less capacity than it should. This is a common frustration many users face. Sometimes, this happens after formatting, partitioning errors, or even malware attacks. This guide will explore the common reasons behind this issue and help you easily restore your hard drive to its right capacity and maintain optimal performance.

Reasons Why Hard Drive Shows Wrong Capacity

When your hard drive shows a smaller capacity than advertised, it doesn’t always mean your data is lost or the drive is defective. In most cases, the issue stems from hidden partitions or formatting inconsistencies. Here are the most common causes explained:

🧿Hidden or Unallocated Space

Sometimes, a portion of the drive remains unallocated, meaning it hasn’t been assigned to any partition. Windows can’t display this space in File Explorer, making your drive appear smaller than it really is.

📢Incorrect Partition Table or Formatting

Formatting a drive using an incompatible file system (e.g., FAT32 instead of NTFS or exFAT) or converting between MBR and GPT can lead to inaccurate capacity reporting, especially on large drives over 2 TB.

💽Hidden Recovery or System Partitions

Manufacturers or system tools may reserve hidden partitions for recovery or system management. These partitions don’t show up in File Explorer but occupy real space on the disk.

📀Outdated or Corrupted Firmware

If your drive’s firmware is outdated or corrupted, it may misreport available storage to your system. This is more common with SSDs and external drives.

🛠️Disk Errors or Bad Sectors

Physical damage or logical corruption can also cause capacity discrepancies. In severe cases, Windows may fail to read certain sectors, reducing the total detected size.

How to Recover Data from the Hard Drive Before Fixing

When a drive displays incorrect capacity, it might cause data loss on the drive. Attempting to reformat or reinitialize it could make data recovery more difficult. Therefore, the first step should always be to extract your files safely. MyRecover is a professional tool that excels at recovering files from hard drives with corrupted partitions, missing sectors, or incorrect capacity reports.

 MyRecover

Easy & Powerful Data Recovery Software

• Intuitive interface requiring no technical expertise.
• Faster scanning compared to command-line tools.
• Work on HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, memory card, etc.
• Compatible with all Windows operating systems and Server.

Download Freeware
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

100% Secure

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from Microsoft Store, avoid installing it on the drive with wrong capacity.

Step 2. Launch it and select the drive showing wrong capacity, then click "Scan".

Step 3. Choose the files you attempt to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover". If you don’t have any data to recover, you can select the "Existing files" folders under the "Path" tab to extract files directly from the hard drive.

Step 4. Select a location different from the original one to save the recovered files.

When the process is completed, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop up. You can check the recovered files in the destination folder path by clicking on the "Browse" button.

How to Fix the "Hard Drive Showing Wrong Capacity" Error

Once your data is safely recovered, you can proceed to fix the hard drive without worrying about losing anything. Try the methods below step by step until the hard drive shows the correct capacity.

Fix 1. Check for Bad Sectors

A corrupted disk structure may also cause inaccurate reading hard drive capacity. Run CHKDSK command to check for bad sectors or file system errors.

Step 1. Open Command Prompt and run it as administrator.

Step 2. Enter the following command "chkdsk G: /f /r" and press "Enter" key. Replace the drive letter "G" with your actual hard drive letter.

Step 3. Wait for the process to complete and then restart your system to check if the hard drive shows correct capacity.

Fix 2. Update Hard Drive

Outdated or incompatible drivers can cause storage misreporting. Update the drivers so that Windows can recognize the correct storage capacity of the hard drive.

Step 1. Press "Win" + "X" and choose "Device Manager" to open it.

Step 2. Expand "Disk drives" and right click on the hard drive, then select "Update driver".

Step 3. Click "Search automatically for updated driver software" to continue the process.

Step 4. Restart your computer and check the drive capacity again.

Fix 3. Delete the Recycle Bin Folder

A corrupted Recycle Bin folder can also lead to incorrect free space readings on your hard drive. To fix this, you can delete the Recycle Bin folder on the hard drive.

Step 1. Open Command Prompt and run it as administrator.

Step 2. Type the following command "rd /S "$RECYCLE.BIN" and hit "Enter" key.

Notes:✎...

This command deletes the Recycle Bin folder on the C: drive by default. If the D drive shows incorrect capacity (using D: as an example), enter "D:" to switch to the D: drive before inputting this command.

Step 3. Press "y" to confirm the deletion and start the process.

★Tips:

The system will automatically recreate the Recycle Bin when you next delete a file from that drive.

Fix 4. Delete the Restore Points on the Drive

If the issue occurs on the system drive, it may be because Windows Restore Points sometimes store shadow copies that occupy large hidden space. Deleting all restore points on the drive will free up the occupied space.

Step 1. Type "Create a restore point" in the Start menu and open it.

Step 2. Under the "System Protection" tab, select your system drive and click "Configure".

Step 3. Click "Delete" to delete all the restore point on the drive.

Fix 5. Convert from MBR to GPT

The MBR partition table can only handle hard drives under 2GB. Converting MBR to GPT may resolve the issue of incorrect hard drive capacity display. However, it’s important to note that changing the partition table using Disk Management or DiskPart will erase all data on the hard drive. If you haven’t recovered your data beforehand, it’s recommended to use AOMEI Partition Assistant to convert the partition table without losing any data.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant and right click the hard drive with wrong capacity, then choose "Convert to GPT".

Step 2. Then a small window will appear, just click "OK" to confirm to convert the disk to GPT.

Step 3. Click "Apply" in the upper left corner to start the conversion.

Then, you can check if the external hard drive showing wrong capacity issue disappear.

Fix 6. Format the Hard Drive

If none of the above methods resolve the issue of the hard drive showing incorrect capacity, formatting the drive will be the last resort. However, formatting will completely erase all data on the drive, regardless of the method used. Therefore, it’s best to first extract the data in advance using professional data recovery software like MyRecover.

Step 1. Press "Win" + "X" and choose "Disk Management" to open it.

Step 2. Right click on the hard drive and choose "Format".

Step 3. Set a file system based on your needs and check the "Perform a quick format" option, then click "Start" to begin the process.

Summary

When your hard drive shows the wrong capacity, it’s often due to partition table errors, outdated firmware, or corrupted sectors. Before applying any fixes, recover your files first with MyRecover to avoid losing valuable data. The MyRecover Professional edition even provides retrieve data from unbootable system. In the end, keeping regular backups and updating driver are the best ways to prevent similar storage issues in the future.