Hey everyone! My dad bought a "3TB" external hard drive a while back, but it only turned out to be 320GB. After I showed him the truth, he returned it and gave the drive to me. I tried to install Linux on it using Balena Etcher for my old secondary laptop, but I decided not to use it. Now, when I try to format it for storage, it only shows up as 7GB. I followed a YouTube tutorial that suggested using CMD and the diskpart clean command, but afterwards, it said the drive wasn't installed. Someone mentioned I should try the computer management app to reinitialize it, but I still can't get it to work. As of now, my computer doesn't even see the drive anymore. Any advice on how I can fix this? Thanks in advance!
2 Answers
It sounds like your external HDD might have some serious issues. Those fake drives are notorious for failing unexpectedly. First off, check the power supply and USB connections. If it powers on and you hear it spinning, that's a good sign, but it might still be malfunctioning. Sometimes, using a different USB port or cable can help. If it's recognized in Disk Management, you might be able to format it from there—if it shows up at all. But if it's only showing as 7GB, there's a chance it has a corrupted partition or has failed altogether. Good luck!
Sounds like the drive is definitely acting up. You might want to try a different computer to see if it's an issue with your current setup. Sometimes, older drives can have compatibility problems with newer systems, or the formatting might be way off. If it still doesn't show up, it could be a hardware problem, especially since it was a questionable purchase to begin with. If there are no important files you need, sometimes it's just easier to take it apart and try using it as a bare drive if you're comfortable with that. Just a thought!
Good idea! Taking it apart can sometimes give you more information about what's wrong. Just be careful with that, though!
Yeah, it's frustrating! I had a similar issue with a drive like that. I had to use specialized software to see if I could recover any data or reformat it. Just be careful—it might not be worth it if it keeps failing.