5 Fixes for Hard Drive Only Showing Half Capacity in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7  

5 Fixes for Hard Drive Only Showing Half Capacity in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7


Table of Contents
  1. "Hard drive only showing half capacity"
  2. Why hard drive not showing full capacity?
  3. How to fix "hard drive only showing half capacity"? (5 Solutions)
    1. ▌Solution 1. Update hard drive driver
    2. ▌Solution 2. Reformat the hard drive
    3. ▌Solution 3. Wipe the hard drive to its full capacity
    4. ▌Solution 4. Convert the large hard drive from MBR to GPT
    5. ▌Solution 5. Recover deleted partition on the hard drive
  4. Summary

"Hard drive only showing half capacity"

Your SanDisk SSD is only showing half its capacity, which is 500GB, in your system. This issue could be due to a corrupted file system, incorrect disk configuration, or a firmware problem. To resolve this, you can try running a disk check using the built-in Check Disk utility in Windows or the Disk Utility app in macOS. If that doesn't work, you might need to reformat the drive, which will erase all data. It's recommended to back up your data before attempting any fixes. If you're still unsure, consider consulting the manufacturer's support or a professional data recovery service.

- Question from tom's hardware forum.

I'm not aware of any specific information about a widespread issue with SSDs reporting the wrong size or hard drives only showing half capacity. However, I can provide some general information about disk capacity and formatting. Disk capacity refers to the total amount of data that a disk can store.

Here are some common situations where a hard drive may not show its full capacity:

The hard drive is only displaying half its actual capacity, such as a 4TB drive showing only 2TB.
A 500GB hard drive is showing only 130GB of available space, which is less than half of its total capacity.
The hard drive's capacity has been reduced from 64GB to 32GB, and it's now showing a misleading 500MB of free space, when in reality it's almost full.

You might be wondering why these situations occur and how to deal with them, just like the person seeking help on forums. If you encounter these situations, the content below will provide clarity and help clear up any doubts.

Why hard drive not showing full capacity?

The hard drive showing the wrong size in Windows 10/8/7 can be attributed to several reasons, including incorrect disk size reported by the BIOS or UEFI firmware, incorrect disk size reported by the disk management software, incorrect partition table, incorrect disk geometry, or incorrect disk size reported by the operating system itself. These issues can be caused by various factors such as faulty hardware, corrupted system files, or incorrect configuration settings.

►When your hard drive is infected with a virus or malware that's taken up some storage space, you can use anti-virus software to clean and protect your device, which may resolve the issue of it only showing half its actual capacity.

►When the hard drive driver is outdated, it may also cause the hard drive to display an incorrect capacity in the Windows computer.

►If you improperly format your hard drive using the wrong tool or if the formatting process is interrupted by a sudden power failure or removal, it may become damaged and display the wrong capacity.

►If a disk larger than 2TB is initialized as MBR, the space over 2TB will be shown as "Unallocated" in Disk Management and cannot be accessed in File Explorer, as MBR only supports disks up to 2TB.

►When one or more partitions on a disk are deleted and show up as unallocated in Disk Management, it's no longer visible and accessible in Windows File Explorer.

We will share how to fix these problems separately. Or you can click the Table of Contents on the left side to go to the specific part.

How to fix "hard drive only showing half capacity"? (5 Solutions)

To restore a hard drive to its full capacity in Windows 10/8/7, several solutions have been proven effective. Users can try these methods one by one until the issue is resolved.

Warning: To ensure your data remains safe during the issue-fix process, create a backup before proceeding.

Solution 1. Update hard drive driver

To update hard drive driver, do as follow:

Step 1. To open the Device Manager, click on the "Start" button and type "Device Manager" in the search box, then press "Enter" to open the window.

Step 2. To resolve the issue of a hard drive showing the wrong capacity, click on the "Disk drives" category to expand it. Then, right-click on the hard drive in question and select the option to "Update driver".

Step 3. Select "Search automatically for updated driver software."

Update Driver

Step 4. If Windows can't find a new driver, you can try searching for one on the hard drive manufacturer's website and follow their instructions.

To resolve the issue, you can try reinstalling the driver by selecting "Uninstall" in the step 2, restarting your PC, and letting Windows attempt to reinstall the driver.

Solution 2. Reformat the hard drive

You can try using Windows' built-in tools to format a disk instead of unknown tools. For example, you can format the hard drive in Disk Management, and if there's no option to format the drive, you can use Diskpart. This approach can help you avoid potential risks associated with using unknown tools.

To format a disk using Diskpart, start by clicking the "Start" button, typing "cmd" in the search field, and pressing "Enter" to open Command Prompt. Then, right-click the Command Prompt icon and select "Run as administrator". In the Command Prompt window, type "Diskpart" and press "Enter" to launch the utility.

Then, input the following commands in order and hit Enter after each.

Format Drive CMD

If the hard disk shows full capacity, you can check the disk space usage by running the command `df -h` in the terminal, and then delete unnecessary files to free up space. If the hard disk does not show full capacity, you can try to install the necessary software or drivers that you need, and then check if the problem persists.

Solution 3. Wipe the hard drive to its full capacity

If formatting doesn't resolve the issue, you can try wiping the hard drive to see if the partitions show up with full capacity. You can use Qiling Disk Master, a free software that can wipe a hard disk or specific partition using the zero filling method.

Download the freeware, install and launch it on your Windows PC (Windows 11/10/8/7, both 32-bit and 64-bit supported), and follow the specific steps below.

Qiling Disk Master

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

Step 1. In Qiling Disk Master Standard, right-click the partially displayed hard drive and choose "Wipe Hard Drive" from the context menu.

Wipe Hard Drive 3tb

Step 2. The first wiping method is a simple wipe with a cloth. It is the most basic method of cleaning the screen and is effective for most users. The cloth is gently wiped across the screen in a circular motion, removing any dirt, dust, or smudges.

Fill Sectors With Zero 3tb

Step 3. You will see the wiping effect after clicking the "Proceed" button. Then, you need to click on the "Proceed" button to execute this change.

Apply 3tb

To free up space on your computer, you can delete any unnecessary files or programs, and then shrink the existing partition to create unallocated space. You can then create a new partition on the unallocated space.

Solution 4. Convert the large hard drive from MBR to GPT

If you have a large hard drive with MBR style that exceeds 2 TB, you can convert it to GPT to display its full capacity, but this process will erase all existing data on the disk.

The free Qiling Disk Master Standard can convert a data disk from MBR to GPT while preserving partitions and data, making it a useful tool for upgrading to Windows 11, which only supports GPT system disks.

Step 1. Right-click the disk and select "Convert to GPT".

Convert 4TB To GPT

Step 2. The script will convert the disk to GPT by first waiting for a while before executing the command `sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdb && sgdisk --resize 1 /dev/sdb`, which will wipe all partition tables and resize the first partition to fill the entire disk. This process will take some time, depending on the size of the disk.

If your internal hard drive is showing half its capacity and needs to be converted from MBR to GPT, you can upgrade to Qiling Disk Master Professional, which can convert the boot disk between MBR and GPT without losing data or removing partitions.

Solution 5. Recover deleted partition on the hard drive

If a partition on your hard drive is accidentally deleted, it may display an incorrect capacity. Recovering the deleted partition can resolve this issue. You can use Qiling Disk Master Professional to achieve this.

Step 1. Click "Recover" on in the top toolbar, and choose "Partition Recovery". Select the disk that contains the deleted partition, click "Next", and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the recovery process.

Partition Recovery

Step 2. Choose a search method based on your specific needs and click "Proceed" to continue.

Search Methods

Step 3. The user needs to select the deleted partition they want to recover from the given list and then click "Recover".

Proceed

Step 4. When you see the "Congratulations" message, it means that the partition recovery process was completed successfully.

You can even recover lost data if you've accidentally deleted them.

Summary

If your hard drive is only showing half its capacity, don't worry! There are several methods to fix this issue. You can try formatting the drive, checking for disk errors, updating the drive's firmware, using a disk management tool, or even using a specialized software like Qiling Disk Master Standard to resolve the problem. This versatile tool can also help with other disk-related issues, such as formatting a 2TB hard drive to FAT32 or dealing with SD cards that don't show their full capacity.

Besides its Pro edition, which comes with many attractive functions, including quickly creating multiple partitions, migrating OS to SSD, cloning GPT disk to GPT disk, and more.

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