500GB HDD only shows as 90GB ?

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Vortechs

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I have a WD 500GB HDD plugged into my PC via USB, the drive was brand new and had a 90GB partition and a 410GB partition on it, I formatted the larger partition with Partition Wizard and now in disk management the drive only shows as 90GB, there is no unallocated space where the partition was before. I've run 5 different partition recovery tools (Partition Wizard, Acronis True Image WD, Easus Partition Recovery, Partition Table doctor, Active Partition Recovery) but none of them can see anything more than 90GB, what's happened to the rest of it and how can I recover it?
Thanks
 

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I've made and deleted that volume several times, always the same.

500gbhdd.jpg
 

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Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
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Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
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8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
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Sound Card
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2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
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BeQuiet 350w
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Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember
Mmm.....did you format as NTFS in Partition Wizard?

Can you upload another image, but this time from Partition Wizard?

Regards,
Golden
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64Intel i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz O/C'ed to 4.0GHz16GB Corsair Vengance DDR3 @ 661 MHz Dual Cha...EVGA NVidia GTX 560 1024MB
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Golden Mk. I.4
OS
Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
CPU
Intel i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz O/C'ed to 4.0GHz
Motherboard
Gigabyte P55A-UD3R Rev.1. Award BIOS F13
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengance DDR3 @ 661 MHz Dual Channel (9-9-9-24)
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA NVidia GTX 560 1024MB
Sound Card
Realtek Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
Dual Samsung SyncMaster 2494HS
Screen Resolution
1920*1080 and 1920*1080
Hard Drives
1*Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD;
1*OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD;
2*Samsung F3 SpinPoint 1TB in RAID0;
1*Samsung F1 SpinPoint 1TB;
2*Western Digital 1TB External USB 3.0
1*Western Digital 500GB External USB 3.0
1*Seagate 500GB External USB 2.0
PSU
Thermaltake ToughPower QFan 750W
Case
Thermaltake Element S VK60001W2Z
Cooling
Corsair H60 Water Cooling, 2*230mm and 2*80mm case fans
Keyboard
Logitech G110
Mouse
Logitech MX518
You must have formatted the 410GB partition into an unknown format (unknown to Win7). If it is not NTFS or Fat32, it will not show.
 

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I formatted it to NTFS but even if I had accidentally made it in some other format surely one of the 5 partition recovery programs would have spotted it?

ptwizhdd.jpg
 

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Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
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Windows 7 pro x64
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Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
On board
Sound Card
On board
Hard Drives
2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
PSU
BeQuiet 350w
Case
Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember
I see that the J partition is in NTFS. But what about the rest. Maybe you should reformat the whole drive.
 

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from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
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2x HP w2207
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5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
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with trackball - no mices
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I've done that half a dozen times already, always comes back as 91GB.
What tells the drive it's capacity size, is it stored in the partition table, MBR or firmaware?
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Me
OS
Windows 7 pro x64
CPU
Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
On board
Sound Card
On board
Hard Drives
2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
PSU
BeQuiet 350w
Case
Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GhzKingston 4 GB DDR3 1333 mhzAMD Radeon HD6670
Computer type
PC/Desktop
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Custom Build
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Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
CPU
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Socket H2 ATX
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Kingston 4 GB DDR3 1333 mhz
Graphics Card(s)
AMD Radeon HD6670
Sound Card
Sound Blaster Audigy SE 24-Bit
Monitor(s) Displays
Asus VE228
Screen Resolution
1440 X 900
Hard Drives
OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB Sata 3 SSD ==
Kingston SH103/S3 120 G Hyper X 120 GB SSD ==
Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Green 7200 RPM ==
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Corsair CX600M == 600 Watt
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NZXT Apollo - Silver with Clear Side Panel
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Three 120 mm Fans
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Microsoft Natural 4000
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Microsoft Custom Optical 3000
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AT&T Fiber Optic Wireless Network
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Microsoft Security Essentials
Browser
Chrome
Other Info
120 mm Blue LED Fan -- Three Blue LED Lazer Light Sticks
The other drives are nothing to do with this problem. This problem exists on this 500GB/91GB drive on multiple PC's.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Me
OS
Windows 7 pro x64
CPU
Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
On board
Sound Card
On board
Hard Drives
2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
PSU
BeQuiet 350w
Case
Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember
The only other thing I can think of is that there is something wrong with the HDD controller. Can you RMA the disk.
 

My Computer My Computer

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from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
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2x HP w2207
Hard Drives
5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000
Vortechs said:
The other drives are nothing to do with this problem. This problem exists on this 500GB/91GB drive on multiple PC's.
Click to expand...

OK, if you think that your C: drive being Dynamic is no problem. That is fine.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GhzKingston 4 GB DDR3 1333 mhzAMD Radeon HD6670
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom Build
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
CPU
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Socket H2 ATX
Memory
Kingston 4 GB DDR3 1333 mhz
Graphics Card(s)
AMD Radeon HD6670
Sound Card
Sound Blaster Audigy SE 24-Bit
Monitor(s) Displays
Asus VE228
Screen Resolution
1440 X 900
Hard Drives
OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB Sata 3 SSD ==
Kingston SH103/S3 120 G Hyper X 120 GB SSD ==
Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Green 7200 RPM ==
PSU
Corsair CX600M == 600 Watt
Case
NZXT Apollo - Silver with Clear Side Panel
Cooling
Three 120 mm Fans
Keyboard
Microsoft Natural 4000
Mouse
Microsoft Custom Optical 3000
Internet Speed
AT&T Fiber Optic Wireless Network
Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Browser
Chrome
Other Info
120 mm Blue LED Fan -- Three Blue LED Lazer Light Sticks
Looks like an RMA is the only option left, I'll get onto them Monday, thanks for the help.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Me
OS
Windows 7 pro x64
CPU
Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
On board
Sound Card
On board
Hard Drives
2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
PSU
BeQuiet 350w
Case
Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember
Try these two before giving up.

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - CNET Download.com ( Run as administrator on your HDD)

HDD Low Level Format Tool ( Windows executable - no installation needed) HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool

Again run it as Administrator. Be patient till it completes writing zeros to all sectors and reinitialises your hard drive to the factory condition, which may take quite sometime.
 
Last edited:

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
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Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
Thanks for the suggestion,Jumanji, unfortunately it didn't make any difference.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 pro x64Intel 3.3Ghz8 GBOn board
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Me
OS
Windows 7 pro x64
CPU
Intel 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
On board
Sound Card
On board
Hard Drives
2 Samsung 256gb SSD
2 Seagate 3TB HDD
PSU
BeQuiet 350w
Case
Lian Li
Cooling
Err.. cant remember
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