How to Quickly Restore USB Drive Back to Full Capacity on Windows 10/11

Help: my USB drive not showing full capacity

"I purchased a 128GB USB drive from the internet and downloaded the Window creation tool and put a brand new Windows 10 Pro on this USB drive, doing so to reinstall Windows 10 on another laptop. But when I finished the installation and formatted the USB drive, the original 128GB size USB drive became 32GB.

Does anyone know what happened and what to do now? I need to restore USB drive back to full capacity as soon as possible. Thanks a lot!"

USB drive is the most common storage device that can help you store operating system files, applications, personal files, etc. One of the biggest limitation is capacity, so more and more users are choosing large USB flash drives, or copy USB to larger USB to upgrade capacity.

However, some of these users find that the USB drive does not show the full capacity in Windows 10 and it seriously affects the usage, as aforementioned user.

Possible reasons for flash drive showing wrong capacity on Windows

The following are the common causes of this problem. Learning the reasons would help you better understand the close following solutions.

• The USB drive is a bootable disc
• The flash drive has multiple partitions (only the first partition would be recognized by Windows file explorer)
• The USB drive’s capacity is over 32GB and in FAT32 format (file system limitation)
• The USB drive is being frequently formatted recently
• The USB drive may corrupted
• There is unallocated space in the USB stick

If the USB flash drive is used as WinPE or installation or other types of bootable media, the capacity may be affected by the bootable file’s size. If you still need that type of USB drive, please keep it in this status. However, if you have other purposes for this stick, try following ways to restore USB drive back to full capacity on Windows.

How to quick restore USB flash drive back to full capacity accordingly

Typically, you’ll need to reformat the USB flash drive to regain the full capacity. That is to solve the files system issue or unallocated space issue. You may need to know the difference between FAT32 and NTFS file system. If the flash drive has bad sectors or been damaged, you may scan the damaged sectors and fix it. There are four simple ways to help you achieve the goal.

Note: the following operations will erase the USB drive, i.e. all data will be wiped. Please backup USB drive in advance if necessary.

Format USB flash drive to gain full capacity

• Method 1. Restore USB drive back to full capacity via CMD

The Command Prompt (CMD) tool, diskpart.exe, is a traditional yet helpful command line tool to manage drives, partitions, volumes and virtual disks via command prompt characters.

Step 1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type cmd and select Run as System Administrator.

Step 2. In the command prompt window, type the following commands in sequence and press Enter after each.

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk 1 (make sure the disk number you select is a USB drive, otherwise data may be lost on other disks)
• clean
• create partition primary
• format fs=ntfs quick

Step 3. Type exit twice to exit the diskpart tool and the command prompt character in turn.

All data will be cleaned and the new partition will be created with full capacity in NTFS file system.

Finally, use Windows + E to open the Windows Explorer and find the USB drive to see if it has been restored to full capacity.

• Method 2. Restore USB drive back to full capacity on Windows 10

Disk Management is a built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps you to better manage hard drive and partitions, including create new partitions, expand partitions, delete partitions and so on.

Step 1. Use Windows + R to open the Run window, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

Step 2. Select the partition of the USB drive, right-click on it, and select Format from the expanded menu.

Step 3. Modify the volume label and change the file system (NTFS is recommended for general use). And uncheck the Perform quick format box.

Tips:

• Unchecking the Perform a quick format option will let Windows fully format the flash drive, which will automatically fully scan flash drive to fix bad sectors.
• If you’ll need to use the USB drive on media like XBOX, PS 4/5 or Android, please keep it in FAT32 file system.

Check and fix the USB flash drive

• Method 3. Check and fix bad sectors on USB stick

The bad track or bad sector on the USB drive may also cause the problem of USB drive not showing full capacity in Windows 10. You may check and fix the error to recover USB storage.

1. Use Windows + E to open the Windows Explorer and select the USB drive.

2. Right-click the disk and select Properties. Switch to the Tools tab and click the Check button.

3. Tick the option Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, and then click Start.

4. If errors found, you may choose Repair drive to automatically fix it.

5. Finally, restart your computer (if necessary) to check if the USB capacity if correct.

Tip: If the flash drive won’t show up in File Explorer, you may need to first create a new partition in Disk Management or refer to the Method 1 to create in command prompt.

• Method 4. Scan and remove virus from USB drive

According to feedback, when there is a virus on the USB drive, it may also cause the problem of not displaying the full capacity. Therefore, you’ll need to first scan and remove the virus.

Step 1. Use Windows + S to open the search box, type Windows Security, and tap the appropriate setting.

Step 2. In the Windows Security window, click Virus & threat protection.

Step 3. In the Current threats section, tap on the Scan options, select Full scan and tap on the Scan now button and wait for the scan to complete.

Tip: also you may need to create a partition to let it showing in File Explorer.

Then, you should be able to restore USB drive back to full capacity now with the four methods.

Better protect or manage USB drive after restoring to full capacity

Sure you’ll have other purposes after restoring flash drive back to full storage, like transferring files, making bootable media, or creating recovery USB disk, etc. Here a useful yet free USB backup software – AOMEI Backupper Standard is recommended for you.

With AOMEI Backupper Standard, you can fully backup all files on the USB drive, as well as clone the entire flash drive to another. If upgraded to its Professional edition, you may sync files or backup flash drive automatically when it is connected to computer. Save you time and effort.

This freeware can also help you make bootable USB drive just in case the operating system fails to boot one day. If system refuses to boot, you may boot from the bootable flash drive to enter into WinPE mode to backup important files or directly restore system image. Quite helpful in disaster recovery.

This software is specially designed for Windows operating system and totally compatible with latest Windows 11. It is famous for simple and user-friendly interface, gaining users’ reputation around the world. You may want to download and have a try now.

Conclusion

That’s all for solving USB not showing full capacity and how to restore to the full storage on Windows 11/10. USB drive is connected frequently and often carried everywhere. It is more vulnerable to computer virus and has high risk in get lost. That’s why it should be protected more than general disks.