malmsteenisgod Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 (edited) I have a 4GB LG USB flash drive that I've had for about 3 years. I recently plugged it in and Windows showed that its maximum capacity was 1GB. I confirmed that the capacity was only 1GB by trying to transfer more that 1GB of files to it and it wouldn't let me. So I took a look in the partition manager and this is what I found. The partition manager shows that the volume is only 950MB and there is 2.81GB of unallocated space. So I tried reformatting the drive using the quick and full format methods which didn't solve the problem. I would like to use the "Extend Volume" option, but it's grayed out and won't let me do it. Any ideas? Edited June 1, 2011 by malmsteenisgod Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 Remove the volume so the entire thing is unallocated and create a new volume. $5 says the MFT got corrupted at some point and screwed up the partition size. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
malmsteenisgod Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 Is there any other way to do that besides the partition manager? Because it won't let me do it. Here's another photo of the options it gives me when I right click on it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 That's strange you can't extend it , can you try formatting the unallocated one and maybe connect them? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
malmsteenisgod Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 (edited) That's strange you can't extend it , can you try formatting the unallocated one and maybe connect them? It won't let me do that either. So I just installed Partition Wizard and deleted the volume. Then I created a new volume of what was supposed to be the full 4GB. Partition Wizard says that it's done and that it is about 4GB, but Windows still shows 1GB. I again confirmed that it is indeed only 1GB by trying to transfer more than 1GB of files onto it. Here's another picture of what it shows. I then ran an error scan of the drive using Partition Wizard and it didn't detect any errors. So, I think I've lost all faith in this program. Edited June 1, 2011 by malmsteenisgod Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 you try changing file system to fat32 maybe?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 (edited) Try right clicking on the disk on the left - you should have an option to delete the volume (when you right click on the partition it just gives you partition options). Removing the volume and creating a new one should fix it unless the drive itself is broken. EDIT: I wouldn't use NTFS on a thumb drive - use either exFAT or FAT32. Edited June 1, 2011 by Waco Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 Try right clicking on the disk on the left - you should have an option to delete the volume (when you right click on the partition it just gives you partition options). Removing the volume and creating a new one should fix it unless the drive itself is broken. EDIT: I wouldn't use NTFS on a thumb drive - use either exFAT or FAT32. I use NTFS on my flashdrives with no problem but he doesn't need to run it since it's only a 4GB, mine are over 4GB so I need to run NTFS to be able to store files larger than 4GB Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 I use NTFS on my flashdrives with no problem but he doesn't need to run it since it's only a 4GB, mine are over 4GB so I need to run NTFS to be able to store files larger than 4GB exFAT allows for files larger than 4 GB and it's a lot harder to corrupt since it doesn't journal anything AFAIK. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 exFAT allows for files larger than 4 GB and it's a lot harder to corrupt since it doesn't journal anything AFAIK. oh really now...I may have to reformat my drives then! I thought exFAT=FAT=FAT16 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedCrazy Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 IDK about your problem but i have a 2tb external drive that was partitioned and formatted with one partition for a mac and one for my pc, so 1 mac partitions and 1 windows partition. Disk manager returns the mac partition as un-format-able unallocated space. Did you ever access it on a non windows computer? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
malmsteenisgod Posted June 1, 2011 Posted June 1, 2011 IDK about your problem but i have a 2tb external drive that was partitioned and formatted with one partition for a mac and one for my pc, so 1 mac partitions and 1 windows partition. Disk manager returns the mac partition as un-format-able unallocated space. Did you ever access it on a non windows computer? Actually I did use it to print some stuff from a Mac at my University a few times, which may be what caused it now that you bring that up. But anyways I have solved the problem. I didn't quite understand how Partition Wizard worked at first. I had to restart my computer in order for this program to run in its own little OS without being in Windows. So once I did that it wiped the drive and reformatted it with the full 4GB in a single partition. I'm not sure why the Windows partitioner couldn't do this, but Partition Wizard could. So, as I understand, I should probably format my flash drive into exFAT? What's the difference between using exFAT and FAT32? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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