My 128GB HP USB drive is now showing only about 29.9GB after a formatting or controller-tool issue. The FirstChip MPTool screen appears to have configured the device with a 30,000 MB capacity. Can the original capacity be restored, and what should I check before attempting more repairs? I want to avoid running another Factory Scan, Production, or controller-setting operation until the exact controller and NAND chips are identified, since changing those settings blindly could make recovery more difficult.
3 Answers
If the problem is only a damaged partition table, you can erase and recreate the partition with DiskPart, then format it as exFAT. Be extremely careful to select the USB drive by its size before running clean, because that command destroys the selected disk’s data. This will not restore capacity if the controller itself is configured for 30,000 MB or if the drive is counterfeit or failing.
Some people have had success using an SD Association formatter to repair unusual partition-table problems on USB drives, but it is not a guaranteed fix and it should not be used to rewrite controller settings. First determine whether the device actually reports its full physical capacity and back up anything important before testing it.
The key detail is whether the 29.9GB limit came from normal Windows formatting or from FirstChip MPTool. Repartitioning cannot override a capacity limit programmed into the controller. Check the drive’s reported size with a reliable capacity-testing tool, identify the controller and NAND, and avoid changing production settings until those details are known.
Exactly—formatting tools can fix partitioning, but they cannot turn a controller-configured 30GB device back into a genuine 128GB device.