External hard drive half the size after formatting

[ste1981]

Hello,
i`ve just tried to reformat my 1TB WD passport external hard drive using swissknife v3, after reformatting to FAT32 its now showing up as only 429gb free space with 502 gb as unallocated??? how do i retreive the 502gb, thanks

 

[phil22]

Format it NTFS, not FAT32. And why use a third-party tool for formatting when Windows has one built in?

 

[danny2000]

Use Windows' Disk Management to extend the partition to the unallocated space as long as that unallocated space is to the right of your C:\ drive.

 

[ste1981]

hi, thanks for the replies, i`m really new to this and the reason why i was trying to format to fat32 is so that my ps3 will recognize my WD passport hard drive as it wont read NTFS. i was following instructions how to do it and thats when ive messed up. How do i extend the partion using disk mamager as i cant find the option to do that?? cheers

 

[getochkn]

ste: Try deleteing it and reforming using swissarmy knife again, making sure to delete all the partitions. I've used that to format 1tb - 2tb FAT32 drives all the time.

To danny and phil, windows won't format FAT32 drives that big, so you have to use 3rd party tools and devices like the 360 or PS3 don't have native NTFS support, so you have to use FAT32.

If you can't get it with swiss, try EaseUS Partition Master 9.1.1 Home Edition. its free.

 

[Satchel]

This happened to me. Go to your start menu and type in disk management, look for your drive in there, it's probably split into other partiotions/unallocated space.

Alternatively if that doesn't work you can plug in your windows cd, go to install, custom, and then use the formatting tools there, then restart and make sure you DONT go through with the installation.

Hope this helps

 

[ste1981]

thanks alot for the replies, ive finally done it, i went onto swiffknife and found the unallocated 500gb, i had to delete the partition and then then move the bar which shows how much i wanted formatting to to fat32 to the full 1tb, thanks for the help guys

 

[Hawkeye22]

Also, remember that the FAT32 file size limit is 4gig, so don't try to copy files larger than this to the drive as it will fail.

 

[getochkn]

Glad swiss worked, I've used that for many customers who want their external drive to use for their 360/PS3. Pick a best answer and mark it as solved if you got it going.

 

[ste1981]

Glad swiss worked, I've used that for many customers who want their external drive to use for their 360/PS3. Pick a best answer and mark it as solved if you got it going.

how do i pick a best answer and mark it as solved?? i`m new to this ya se