USB flash drives, previously known as pen drives, are generally the most commonly adopted portable storage. Nearly every one of us carries one along in our pockets or bags. The tiny but capacious flash drive helps us save documents, photos, movies, and any file for secure and smooth transfer across digital devices. But recently, many users find their flash drive showing the wrong capacity, of which the size is becoming either more or less than actual. This is a strange USB drive size issue that they never met before. How to fix the USB drive size seems to develop into a heated discussion on forums like Tom's Hardware and Reddit.
Why Flash Drive Showing Wrong Capacity
To recover deleted files from a USB flash drive: Step 1. Download and install Disk Drill for Windows or Mac OS X. Connect your USB drive and launch Disk Drill. Click the 'Search for lost data' button next to it. Preview the files you need to restore. This video will demonstrate how to use a USB recovery drive to reset your Lenovo system to its original factory conditions when the PC has problems that prevents Windows from starting. Way 1: Reset Your USB Ports via Device Manager. You can reset your USB ports on Windows 10 through Device Manager. The tutorial is below. Step 1: Open Device Manager. There are many ways to access Device Manager and the most simple way is below. Right-click the Windows icon on the taskbar. Select Device Manager from the list. Step 2: On Device. The recovery drive will include only the recovery tools and a bootable image, but not a recovery image to use for refreshing or resetting your PC. Insert a USB flash drive into your PC that's at least as large as the size indicated on the screen. Select the USB drive you'd. Before you attempt to unlock your USB Drive, you first need to know the reason behind the USB Drive showing locked. There are multiple reasons behind your USB Drive showing locked, sometimes it's intentional, and sometimes it's accidental. Why and How your USB Drive is locked? Some USB drives and SD cards have a security feature called Lock Switch.
As investigated, people's USB flash drive of whatever brand or whatever capacity experiences a frequent loss of capacity like this: instead of seeing an actual 8GB, 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, you'll see something like several hundred MBs available on it. In simple words, your flash drive size is largely reduced, the free space has gone nowhere. Can you restore the original size back? Is the lost space recoverable? Don't panic, when your USB drive size is showing incorrect, your drive still has the initial amount of memory space until you come up with an idea to restore USB stick to full capacity.
First of all, you must figure out when and why you'll see an incorrect USB drive size. The behind reasons vary from case to case, but the typical ones are as follows:
- Your computer was infected with a virus
- There are one more partitions on the flash drive but Windows will only recognize the first one
- You formatted 64GB USB flash drive to FAT32 but the FAT32 file system's max size is 32GB.
- Your flash drive was created to be a bootable disk with a portable Windows operating system on it.
- Unnoticeable space occupies the disk space, such as substantial unallocated space, a hidden recovery partition, invisible shadow files, etc.
Next, what is the best way to fix the USB drive incorrect size problem? Regardless of what leads to the consequence, you got two universally applied ways to restore the flash drive to its original state: [1] Reformatting your USB flash drive; [2] Formatting and recreating USB drive partitions.
How to Fix USB Drive Incorrect Size Problem
Carefully follow the coming two solutions and learn how to fix USB drive incorrect size problem by reformatting via third-party USB formatting tool and Diskpart command. Try reformatting, you can reset incorrect USB drive size and restore the wrong capacity to actual capacity with ease.
#1. Format USB Drive Wrong Capacity Issue with EaseUS Partition Master
Windows provides users with Explorer format and Disk Management format ability to format both the internal hard drive and the removable drive. However, the native tools are too elementary to be able to fix a USB drive size problem. If you've tried Windows formatting once, you should probably fail due to the error messages like 'Windows was unable to complete the format' or 'The format did not complete successfully'.
In this case, you have to turn to an in-depth third-party USB formatting tool promptly. EaseUS Partition Master, the reputable partition magic software, is your second-to-none choice. It's easy-to-use but powerful enough to correct the wrong USB drive size in three simple steps.
To fix USB drive incorrect size problem, follow these steps:
Step 1: Select the USB drive to format.
Connect the USB drive or pen drive to your computer. Download and launch EaseUS partition software. Right-click the USB drive you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: Set the drive letter and file system.
Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Check the warning box.
Click 'OK' if you see the Warning window. If you have important data on it, back up the data in advance.
Step 4: Apply the changes.
Click the 'Execute operation' button first, and then click 'Apply' to format the USB drive.
#2. Fix the Incorrect Size USB Drive Using DiskPart Command
When your flash drive has many partitions on it, you need to remove all partitions, format the drive and then recreate partitions on it. EaseUS Partition Master can delete all partitions and create new partitions, but here we plan to introduce the Command Prompt, which is also an essential tool for Windows users to troubleshoot most computer problems, including your flash drive showing incorrect size.
To fix USB drive incorrect size problem using CMD, follow these steps:
Step 1. In Windows 10/8/7, search command prompt and run as administrator.
Step 2. On the Command Prompt window, type diskpart and hit Enter.
Step 3. Continue typing list disk and then select disk N followed by the Enter. Here N represents the disk number of your flash drive. If your flash drive is disk 2, then type select disk 2.
Step 4. Now type the following commands one by one and hit Enter after each:
- clean
- create partition primary
- format fs=ntfs (To format the flash drive to FAT32, type format fs=fat32 quick instead)
- assign
Step 5. Type exit to close the command prompt.
To Sum up
Regarding the topic 'how to fix USB drive size' and 'how to fix flash drive showing wrong capacity', we composed the tutorial article from possible causes to solutions. EaseUS Partition Master is a third-party partition manager featured with a ton of disk & partition management plans, while the CMD is an advanced Windows program that solves many complex computer problems. The former method is relatively simple-to-use, so it is friendly to both average computer users as well as experienced consumers. Whereas, the command is particularly for professionals who have a good command of computer skills.
According to your own preference, you can try either of the tools to restore your flash drive to its original state, without capacity loss any more.
Hi, for almost a week now, my computer no longer sees devices connected on the USB port. I have attached my phone, camera, drives, etc., but nothing seems to work. Is it a virus? How do I reset the USB of my computer? I can use the other ports, but I need all to work. Thanks.
Today, we will talk about an issue most people have experienced on their computer USB ports (including the USB port for headphones, camera, USB flash drive, etc.), where it suddenly stops recognizing plugged-in devices. The tricky thing about reset USB is that a variety of factors could potentially lead to your USB drive not working, and it can be solved by methods ranging from simply blowing out or removing obstructions from the port or having to reset it completely.
Verbatim drive not working. Here is everything you need to know about this situation and several proven methods of performing a reset on USB ports no matter with or without physically disconnecting/connecting from the PC.
1. Physically Inspect the USB Ports
2. Restart Your Computer
3. Check your Power Management Settings
4. Reset USB Ports through Disabling and Re-enabling the USB Controller
5. Reset USB Ports with Windows Troubleshooter
How to Reset USB Ports That aren't Working
Solution 1. Physically Inspect the USB Ports
Before doing anything technical, you should first confirm that nothing is blocking the USB port. Most times, debris can obstruct the contact between the connector and port. So, your first step here is to shut down the computer and remove any obstruction with a thin object like a toothpick or blow it out.
USB ports may also not work if there is a partial connection in the port. If there is no obstruction, you can put on your computer, connect the USB, and wiggle the connection gently.
Solution 2. Restart Your Computer
On electronics, sometimes a restart fixes minor issues, and this is also true for USB not working. After inspecting the ports, if your computer still does not see your connected USB device, restart the system and hopefully, the PC fixes itself. If it doesn't, continue to the next method.
Solution 3. Check Your Power Management Settings
You might not be aware of this, but Windows disables some unused USB controllers automatically to conserve power. However, you know, no matter how smart the computer is, it's still basically a machine and is prone to errors and miscalculations. Sometimes, these disabled controllers do not come back on when in use, and this could lead to USB not working. If restarting your computer does not work, follow the steps below to prevent Windows from deactivating USB controllers at all:
Step 1. Launch 'Device Manager'.
Step 2. Click the dropdown on 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' to expand the branch.
Step 3. Double-click on the first device in the list and click 'Power Management'.
Step 4. Make sure the 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' check box is left unmarked. Click 'OK'.
Step 5. Repeat step three and four on every USB Root Hub device in the list.
Solution 4. Reset USB Ports through Disabling and Re-enabling the USB Controller
Thanks to some errors, the USB port controller driver may have been corrupted or missing. If the previous solution does not work, try re-enabling your USB controller from Device Manager. I'll show you how.
Windows 10 Usb Drive Reset
Press the Windows key + R, and the Run box will open.
Enter 'devmgmt.msc' and hit Enter to open 'Device Manager'.
On the list, locate 'Universal Serial Bus Controller'.
Click on the little dropdown next to the option to reveal all the controllers.
Right-click on a USB controller on the list and click 'uninstall'. Repeat this for all the USB controllers on the list.
Reboot your computer.
If the driver had a problem, Windows would reinstall it on booting your computer, and your USB will work fine.
Solution 5. Reset USB Ports with Windows Troubleshooter
Step 1. Open 'File Explorer' and enter 'troubleshoot'. Click 'Troubleshooting'.
Step 2. Navigate to 'Hardware and Sound > Hardware and Devices. Next, click 'Advanced' and tick 'Apply repairs automatically'. Hit 'Next'.
Step 3. The program now starts to find and resolve existing issues in your drive. Click 'Apply' and then hit 'Next' to continue.
Step 4. Next, select 'Enable' and close the 'Troubleshooter'.
Step 5. Restart your computer to effect the changes.
Bonus Tip. How to Recover Data from USB Device after Reset USB Ports That Aren't Working
After repairing the USB ports that aren't working on your computer, you can try to plug USB device to your computer to transfer data. If the storage device is still inaccessible, it might be corrupted. And you'll need a special tool to restore data. iMyFone AnyRecover is such a robust software that takes care of your recovery needs.
Features of iMyFone AnyRecover:
Recover lost files from any storage device no matter it was accidentally deleted, formatted in disk, or emptied in recycle bin, etc.
Supports more than 1000 different file formats.
Usb Flash Drive Repair Tool
Completely secure solution with high recovery rate of over 98%.
Easy to use without any configuration needed.
Free trial before purchase, you're able to recover 3 files for free.
Steps to Recover Data from USB Device:
Step 1. Run the program. Connect the USB device to your PC. AnyRecover works well with USB sticks, camcorders, memory cards, music players, digital cameras, etc. Then select the specific drive you want to reset USB from.
Step 2. After selecting the location, hit 'Start' button to start scanning.
How To Completely Reset A Usb Drive
Step 3. After the scanning, you will be shown all the files that can be recovered. Preview them by either using the File View or Tree View. When set, hit 'Recover' and choose where you want to save the files.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you now know 5 easy methods you can use to reset USB ports. Attempt them in the order they appear here in this article, they should resolve your problem. If you fix the issue but the files in the USB device are corrupted, you can turn to the highly recommended tool - AnyRecover to restore data from your corrupted USB device.
