how do i restore factory capacity on wd external drive?

Hello ucma mate take a look at this if you just want to wipe that drive use the command prompt method - it is lengthy but is final Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Edit I meant to add you just need to format then.

Now the clean or clean all should include the whole disk I just don't know why it didn't. The clean is a little bit different from clean all in that clean all is way more thorough than a plain clean but all the same the clean should have freed up that unusable space.

Now can you send a shot of the drive in Device Manager please?

Another way to see just what is going on is to use Partition Wizard Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free a shot of that drive in that would be helpful too. I am just interested in the content of that unusable space. Also with PW you can actually increase and decrease the partition spaces amongst many other functions - a very handy tool to have installed for many things.
See my pic for a very rough idea of what you will see

Hi ucma,

1. Please furnish full details of your WD external drive. Model No: Model name like My Book, Elements. Passport?

2. 250GB showing 149GB now. Was it showing Full 250GB before?

3. As requested by ICIT2LOL post a screenshot of Device Manager.

4. Also post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management. Follow the guidelines here Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image to present a full screenshot with all the information.

5. Run Partition Wizard and post a screenshot of the first screen that appears when you launch PW.

As for Atola Capacity Restore is concerned it can't be run on external drives. So give up on it. We have to investigate and look into other ways of doing it.

Post all the info requested.

The OP seems to have seen my post but has not responded.

I guess he wrongly reported the drive capacity as 250GB where in fact his drive was only 160 GB. When a 160GB HDD is formatted, it will only be 160X0.93132 = 149 Binary GB. ( When I asked him what is the model No: ( something like WD1600AAJS) and whether he had seen it as a 250 GB drive before, he must have woken up to that fact :))

Anyway for those who have really really lost HDD space mysteriously (???) and no conventional partitioning/formatting tool can retrieve it means, the lost space is actually in a " Host Protected Area" of the HDD,.

No conventional formatting tool can retrieve such "lost" space. No wiping tool/ zero write tool whether diskpart clean all or any third party tool like HDD Lowlevel Format Tool, not even DBAN can retrieve it.

If one suspects some such mishap has taken place, he should run HDAT2/CBL Hard Disk Repair Utility . It can be tried in Demo mode on Windows. If it shows the HPA area - wherein the "lost" space :) is there -he has to boot in DOS and run it. (No execute command will work on Windows. Will work on DOS only.) Using the SET Max Command in DOS mode, will remove the Host Protected Area and annexe the hidden space to the drive, restoring the HDD to full factory capacity.

A success story here: Hard Drive Problem - 500 GB Disk - only 371 GB un-allocated space ??

As stated above you have a 160 GB (decimal) external HDD not a 250 GB. The decimal to binary results in the 149 GB. That is why a WD1600BEV shows in Device manager.

What I suspected was correct. Your WD 1600BEV is only a 160GB drive. So 149GB is the total space. You haven't lost anything.

This is the reason why you should always give the full details of the HDD like Model No , Model Name etc.,

You have simply taken us for a ride. ( excluding me :). I refuse free rides and free lunch. )

Anyway you now know how to retrieve any lost space, - if it is really lost and lies in the Host Protected Area.

Read BigFatBoy's Thread here Hard Drive Problem - 500 GB Disk - only 371 GB un-allocated space ?? where he really lost 129GB space in his HDD, Checked with Windows Version of HDAT2 and then retrieved it by running HDAT2 in DOS mode with Setmax Command. So I have given you the answer how to retrieve any realy really lost space.

You can check your HDD with Windows Version of HDAT2. It won't show any lost space - since nothing has been lost.