One of the most confusing things you might encounter with a high-capacity flash drive is a seemingly false capacity. The casing is clearly marked as 128GB or 64GB, but when you access the drive, it shows a maximum of 32GB. You might start wondering if you got a bad drive or if it was broken somehow.
A 128GB or 64GB flash drive showing a capacity of 32GB is usually due to formatting and partitioning errors. If the drive has been formatted to FAT32, the system cannot make the partition bigger than 32GB and will leave the remainder of the drive unallocated.
It’s usually relatively easy to fix a drive that has been formatted incorrectly, but you might find that you are only able to change the format of the drive to the NTFS format. In some dire cases, you could have an incorrectly labeled or corrupted USB drive, but you’ll be able to rule this out as you try to fix the issue. Read on for more details.
1. The USB Drive Is Formatted Incorrectly
There are a few types of storage formats used for portable and removable drives. The most common is NTFS, which is used by Windows. There’s also FAT32, which belongs to an older group of standards and is still the most widely supported.
To check if your USB drive is formatted correctly, navigate to the drive under the “My Computer” panel in Windows. Right-click on the USB drive and select “Properties.” This window should display the file format, usually NTFS or FAT32.
If your system detected the drive was corrupted when you first connected it and you allowed it to automatically reformat your USB, it might have used FAT32. You can use Windows to reformat the drive to NTFS, but it might appear that some of the capacity has been lost.
How To Fix
To fix a USB that has unallocated space—that is, where only one partition was created with a 32GB capacity—you will need to use a third-party tool to delete that partition and create a new partition table for the USB using its total capacity.
MiniTool Partition Wizard has a free version that will enable you to reformat a USB stick that is showing an incorrect capacity. Follow this official guide to use the tool correctly. You can verify that you have full capacity again once the tool is finished by opening Windows Explorer and checking the Properties windows as described in the previous section.
Be careful to only use the NTFS file system. Some file systems like ext4 are incompatible with Windows and Mac and won’t be recognized or usable unless you are using a program like DiskInternals Linux Reader.
If you plug the USB into some older technologies, they may require the FAT32 format and automatically reformat your USB. Be mindful of this if you find a USB stick that keeps mysteriously reformatting itself and losing capacity.
2. The USB Stick Is Corrupted
Data corruption is a real issue with removable media. You can end up with a corrupted USB by removing it incorrectly (pulling it before ejecting it), especially if the computer is busy reading or writing data on it. Things like heat and static can also cause electronics to degenerate.
A corrupted USB stick can show the wrong capacity, lose data, and require repeated formatting. You can scan the drive by clicking “Check Now” after navigating to the drive’s “Properties” menu and then selecting “Tools.” Windows will scan the drive and attempt to fix it.
If Windows can’t save your USB stick, you can try reformatting it using something like MiniTool Partition Wizard. Still, you might find that Windows displays a formatting error every other time you try to use the device, even if you’ve taken care to eject it properly after a completed data transfer.
How To Fix
Most of the time, running Windows’ built-in diagnostic software will successfully repair your stick. Still, you may need to resort to a third-party solution to expand the partition to full capacity.
If you are experiencing repeated errors, it is probably time to replace the USB stick. A good-quality USB like this SanDisk 128GB Ultra Flair USB 3.0 Flash Drive (available on Amazon.com) is affordable, and you can get them in capacities up to 512GB.
It’s up to you whether it’s worth your time trying to fix a dodgy USB or spending a few dollars on getting a new one. It usually isn’t worth the effort. Be sure to back up whatever data you can if you suspect a corrupt USB and cease using it immediately.
3. The USB Is Actually Only 32GB
Flash storage is so affordable these days, even in capacities far exceeding 32GB, that it’s uncommon to find units that are mislabeled. You still can’t rule out that the markings on the USB are misleading—this could be deliberate or simply a case of someone putting the wrong case on the wrong flash storage.
If you use a partition manager like MiniTool and are only seeing 32GB on the drive in question, it likely only has a capacity of 32GB despite what its enclosure might say. To rule out other hardware issues, confirm using a different computer.
How To Fix
There isn’t anything to fix in this case—a mislabeled 32GB USB drive that shows 32GB is not broken at all. If you’ve verified your USB’s capacity using a partition manager and you need a higher capacity, you will have to go out and buy another flash drive.
Conclusion
It can seem strange when a USB stick doesn’t have the capacity it’s supposed to, but there are only a few things that can cause this. Most commonly, you will find that the drive has been formatted incorrectly, and you may have to use a third-party tool to get it back to full capacity.
In the worst cases, you may have a deceptively labeled or corrupted flash drive. Unfortunately, you will have to replace a corrupted flash drive, but if your mislabeled 32GB USB is in otherwise good health, you can still use it.
