Hard Drive Lost Space After Format to Fat32

[steviebhoy66]

i formated my 160 gig external hdd to fat32 and its only seeing 32g, i have tried to restore to original size by formating back to ntfs but its still the same 32g, any tips how to get full drive back

 

[Hawkeye22]

You need to delete the 32g partition and create a new partion that is the full size of the drive, then format it as NTFS. Windows only allows a maximum 32g partition for FAT32. If you need a larger FAT32 partition, you will need a 3rd party tool to do it.

I've used this before with success.

http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/

 

[steviebhoy66]

You need to delete the 32g partition and create a new partion that is the full size of the drive, then format it as NTFS. Windows only allows a maximum 32g partition for FAT32. If you need a larger FAT32 partition, you will need a 3rd party tool to do it.

I've used this before with success.

http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/

 

[steviebhoy66]

i dont know if the problem is windows 7, i have deleted the partition formated it too NTFS but it wont recognise the lost space it says 31.4gig and should be 160 gig drive. ive used that tool fat32 formatter, ease us partiton manager, Partition Wizard Professional 8.1 and even windows 7 disk management & none of them see the lost space or unallocated space & only the drive with 31.4 gig. im either not doing the format correct or these cant bring back the drive. i would appreciate any ideas on this windows 7 problem

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Starting with Windows 2000 you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32GB within Windows. However, you can use third party, or earlier versions of Windows, to create and format a FAT32 volume out to the limits of the format and all versions of Windows will be able to use it. The reason for this limitation is that at 32GB and larger NTFS outperforms FAT32.

 

[Hawkeye22]

So, you are saying that after deleting the partition you tried to create a new partition, yet it couldn't see the full size of the drive? I don't know your level of experience, but you have to create a partition in order to be able to format it.

Some drives have a jumper to drop the size limit to 32gig. Are you sure you don't have a jumper set that shouldn't be.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

....Some drives have a jumper to drop the size limit to 32gig. Are you sure you don't have a jumper set that shouldn't be.

Haven't seen such a jumper for years. They're only found on old legacy IDE drives.

 

[Hawkeye22]

....Some drives have a jumper to drop the size limit to 32gig. Are you sure you don't have a jumper set that shouldn't be.

Haven't seen such a jumper for years. They're only found on old legacy IDE drives.

Yeah, just trying to cover all the bases. The OP didn't specify his drive other than it's 160g and it seemed odd that it was stuck at 32 gig.

 

[steviebhoy66]

its a old ide drive amn the jumper is set to master am sure as its in my pc, a will rip it out to check but am sure the pin is set to master

 

[steviebhoy66]

Checked its a IDE set as master, Seagate DB35.3 harddrive, as i said i formated it to fat32 & lost all the space on drive except 32 gig. Ive formated it back to NTFS but still only 32 gig. the unallocated space does not show up on any programme ive installed or on windows disk management, easeus is the same nothing except the 32gig is showing. the unallocated space is supposed to show up on the side of ur drive in these programmes but as ive said its not there

 

[ex_bubblehead]

It's not the master/slave jumper you need to be concerned with, set it to master and leave it alone. On some old IDE drives there is an additional jumper/s that will limit the drive to only 32GB. Post the exact model number of the drive.

 

[steviebhoy66]

ST3160215ACE

 

[ex_bubblehead]

There are no additional jumpers on that model drive. You may have a failed drive on your hands.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Does your bios report the correct size? Also, can you try using another computer to delete the partition and create a new one?