windows - WD Passport reformatted from Mac to PC (NTFS) capacity reduced from >100GB to 126MB

I just had to move files from a Mac to a PC.

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  I copied all my files off of my WD passport, reformatted it for Mac & copied about 100 GB of photos from the Mac.

  
  


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  Then I used HTFSExpress to pulled those photos off the Mac formatted drive onto my computer.

  
  


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  Now I want to restore the drive to it's original state (Windows formatted & with the old contents).

  
  


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  I've reformatted the drive as NTFS but the capacity (under properties) only says 126MB.

  
  

Where did the rest of the storage go? I just pulled 104GB of photos off of this, why can't I put a similar amount of files back onto it?

I've tried reformatting it as all the options (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS) and I'm running Windows 10. I have no other computer to test this with.

Answer

There might be some hidden partitions on the drive. I don't know what exactly happened while you were formatting it for Mac (which caused them to be hidden) but you can recover all the space in a few seconds.

1. Plug in the drive on a Windows PC.


2. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.


3. Type diskpart to open the utility.


4. Type list disk to list the connected physical drives.


5. The first listed disk (disk 0) is often the computer's hard drive. You can identify all the disks by their storage size. Identify the WD drive by it's storage (it would be around 1000 GB or whatever the capacity is).


6. Type select disk 1 (I'm assuming the WD drive is disk 1).


7. Type clean to erase the entire drive including the partition table.


8. Type create partition primary to create a single partition as large as the capacity.


9. Exit the utility and open This PC or My Computer. You will see an unformatted partition as large as the drive capacity. Double click and you'll be asked to format it. Choose whatever formatting you desire. I recommend FAT32 or exFAT since it will be compatible with both Windows and Mac.

diskpart is a very robust utility and FAT32/exFAT partitions created under Windows will work on Macs without any issues.

If you can't decide between FAT32 and exFAT, it's simple:

FAT32:

Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, and practically anything with a USB port.

Limits: 4 GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size.

Ideal Use: Use it on removable drives for maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you don’t have any files 4 GB or larger in size.

exFAT:

Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X, but requires additional software on Linux. More devices support exFAT than support NTFS, but some — particularly older ones — may only support FAT32.

Limits: No realistic file-size or partition-size limits.

Ideal Use: Use it for USB flash drives and other external drives, especially if you need files of over 4 GB in size. Assuming every device you want to use the drive with supports exFAT, you should format your device with exFAT instead of FAT32.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/235596/whats-the-difference-between-fat32-exfat-and-ntfs/

Note: I'm assuming you have already backed up your data. If not, do that beforehand. This procedure will wipe out the entire drive.

Hope this helps!