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Restore Lost Capacity Of Your USB Flash Drive (How to)

Some malware can hide full capacity of your USB flash drive. For example, a 4GB pen drive sometimes shows only 500kb or less. An interesting part of this situation is that, even after removing the malware or formatting the USB flash drive, you will not get back its original capacity. Therefore, the question here is how to restore a USB flash drive to its full capacity.

To help you, there is a tiny tool called BootIce. It is a standalone application for Windows and does not require installation. Here is how to use it to restore lost space of your USB disk.

Download the Bootice RAR file and unzip it. Insert the affected USB drive in your PC and then run the BootIce (as BootIce needs formatting permissions, you may require administrative privilege to run it).


Select the destination disk (affected USB disk) and click on the Parts Manage button. A new window will open up, there you can see different portions and parameters.


Click on the ReFormat USB Disk option and select USB-HDD Mode (Single Partition) option (see screenshot below) from the list. Keep the ‘Align to cylinder’ option checked and then click the Next button.


Now a small window will pop-up. Choose the formatting option (FAT32 or FAT16) and click Ok to proceed. Note: Most of the USB disks usually come with FAT16, so you may choose FAT16.

If everything goes fine, you will get a congratulations message. Now check the USB disk capacity in the Windows Explorer. It should be restored back to the original full capacity.

Comments

  1. Thank you SO much. I've been trying to figure out how to get my storage-capacity back to normal, but no success. This was so easy! Thanks! :D

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  2. Great little program , thank you so much - it helped me great deal

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  3. i appreciate bro. thanks for your share

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  4. Thanks! My 16GB Sandisk Cruzer USB stick was completely unusable before trying this little gem. Not 1byte was accessible, showing as used or free, and wasnt usable/formatable by windows. I used FDD mode rather than USB HDD

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  5. Really awesome tool. It's working and I regain my 4GB Sandisk. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. didnt help for me after clicking Parts Manager didnt show up anything there !

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  7. @Dear Anonymous, I think space of your USB drive has lost because of unsuccessful burning of ISO file, especially Linux OS.
    However, if you did not find anything after clicking ‘Parts Manage’ button, still you can proceed with clicking ‘Reformat USB Disk’ option. It will regain lost capacity of your disk.

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  8. BitDefender do not allow to do all explained above. It says: Program was terminated, because of virus.

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  9. I was about to give up on 3 thumb drives that are all back to normal thanks to your advice!

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  10. it still doesn't helps my imation thumbdrive which went from 4 GB to 4MB

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  11. at last this post solbed my problem, thank you so much
    Laurence

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  12. I didn't know you and now, after such a positive experience, I must:
    -- Express you my admiration and gratitude;
    -- Try to know you better, and keep in touch.
    Yours,
    - P.M.

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  13. Thanksalot!

    gorwell

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  14. "hp usb disk storage format tool" also works

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  15. try using "HP USB STORAGE FORMAT TOOL".. google it..

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  16. Thanks A LOT bro!!!!
    you saved my 4GB kingston pendrive!
    thank you once again :)

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  17. Great program,1GB restored to 4GB in no time.. Thank you for this!

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  18. BAM! This little utility rocks! What would we who don't know how do without those that do know how? Thanks a lot for your great help.

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  19. thankyou so much!

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  20. i lab u man.. it helps me a lot~!!!

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  21. thank's a lot it really works...

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  22. I could not be more grateful! Also, I can vouch for the results when fixing an unsuccessful iso burning, for anyone else coming across the problem.

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  23. Worked awesome- thank you very much!

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  24. thank you very much..worked awesome..my usb flash drive is going down to 2GB..and it restore to original capacity at 8GB..thank you so much..

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  25. greatful!!!!thank you so much...my usb flash drive is going down to 2GB,restored to original capacity 8GB..thank very much...!!

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  26. I followed your directions and my 8 GB drive still reads 494MB.
    Any suggestions?

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  27. worked on imaton swivel pro restored the 2 gig. well done.

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  28. Couldn't get the lost space back. Sandisk 4GB pendrive shows 64MB! HELP

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  29. I followed your directions and my 32 GB drive still reads 476.
    Any suggestions?

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  30. THnx brother or sister U help me overcoming such a hard problem
    Regards

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  31. my flash drive is not showing any icon on the computer screen.any help...

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  32. Thanks a lot man, there was a different way that I tried to do but it was complicated and didnt work, thanks again restored my usb from 4GB to 8GB.

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  33. The program fixed my space problem but windows said that i needed to format it befoe it would be able to use. Though when i did that i got the error "The Disk Is Write Protected". Any ideas how to fix this? I went to the registry place and changed the value to zero as many guides said would work. Though it didn't work for me so...

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  34. Thank you so much - it helped me. Nice post JK.

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  35. thank you so much God Bless and More Power.........

    slayer_468@yahoo.com

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  36. WOW! I had my doubts but it worked...Thanks!

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  37. My amkette pendrive still shows only 1.85 gb instead of 3.85gb of 4Gb drive

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  38. Thanks a lot ! and unlike most of the articles you read on line all of the attachments work, the instructions worked and yes it actually did work !

    Thanks again !!!

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  39. it didn't help, i got the following message:
    SetVolumeMountPoint failed: The parameter is incorrect.

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  40. Thank you a lot. I didn`t know what to do else. God Bless you

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  41. Thank you so much! It restored my 16gb sandisk, it had been reduced to ridiculous 517mb! You are great!!!

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  42. thank you It worked for me too....

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  43. Really nice soft, it works!!! =)

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  44. Pls help guys...its not worked for me..its same as 64mb....

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  45. It dint work My pendrive still shows 4MB of available space
    Any Suggestion ?
    regards Tomesh Jain

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  46. Works great but format NTFS if bigger than 4 GB

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  47. thank you very much!

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  48. my flash drive is not showing any icon on the computer screen.can u plzz help me

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  49. I think it is very effective post for us. Thanks for this nice and Helpful post. There is exciting moderately nice about the "Restore Lost Capacity Of Your USB Flash Drive". I like the suggestion.
    I think,
    I want to share some information about it.

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  50. awesome....it worked

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  51. I used this simple tips and then got zero result. unfortunately, the capacity dropped, from 1,63 GB to 1,47 GB,

    My flash disk is Transcend with 4 GB. Someday, the capacity dropped to be 0,7 MB.

    1) With USBView software, I took code of VID and SID to got a recomendation tool from flashboot.RU. From the site, I downloaded and used a alcor version. Not bad, I got the capacity to be 1,32 GB.

    2) With a software of Low Format, the capacity to be 1,45 GB

    3) With HDD Regenerator, be 1,49 GB

    Latest time, I used a software from flashboot.ru again and again (repeat formating using one software/plug-replug method). in this moment, the capacity to be 1,65 GB.

    Note: I used some tools on Windows:
    0) Generally Format
    1) Bootice.
    2) Diskpart. : Run > Diskpart > Detail Disk > Select Disk > Clean......
    3) Disk Management : via Explorer window
    4) HP USB Tool Format
    5) Partion manager software. in this case, I used EASEUS

    solution for me, maybe, not same your solution. So, someone can try it. and good luck!

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  52. Dude you saved my life. Great job!

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  53. o my good this really works. Thanx. The 5.7 gb restore to 15 thx

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  54. nice! i like this software.thanks! its a big help .:D

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  55. Thank you, it worked very happy now :)

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  56. i did as instructed it says congratulations! but still the size is 4MB. my drive is toshiba 8GB..so what seems to be the problem? HELP!

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  57. Thank u very much ... i really mean it..... i tried a lot with this problem and finally sloved by ur suggestion....

    ReplyDelete

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