Lost space on external harddrive

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sn0zb0z

Honorable
Oct 29, 2013
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I have an external harddrive and I think the original space on it was 120GB. I got a Windows 8 laptop that said about using an harddrive/memory stick for the backup. So I used the harddrive.

I now don't need the backup so deleted the files on there and the harddrive now states it has just 31.9GB.

How do I get the rest of the space back that it originally had?

Thanks.
 
Solution
M
Hi

If there is nothing required on the external hard drive look at it in 'Disk Management'
[Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/Computer Management/....]

is there one partition of about 113GB or a partition and free space not being used or a hidden partition ?
[120GB hard drive shows up as about 7% less due to difference between decimal & binary arithmetic k =1000 or 1024 )


once you have a partition which fills the hard disk then format it
preferrably using NTFS format

That way you will get as much free space as you can have

there may be hidden folders on the hard drive which as you can not see them you did not delete them
(showing hidden files & folders is off by default)

regards
Mike Barnes

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mbarnes86

Splendid
Sep 16, 2010
3,839
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26,965
Hi

If there is nothing required on the external hard drive look at it in 'Disk Management'
[Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/Computer Management/....]

is there one partition of about 113GB or a partition and free space not being used or a hidden partition ?
[120GB hard drive shows up as about 7% less due to difference between decimal & binary arithmetic k =1000 or 1024 )


once you have a partition which fills the hard disk then format it
preferrably using NTFS format

That way you will get as much free space as you can have

there may be hidden folders on the hard drive which as you can not see them you did not delete them
(showing hidden files & folders is off by default)

regards
Mike Barnes

 
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Solution
S

sn0zb0z

Honorable
Oct 29, 2013
80
0
10,640
To double check, do I need to right click and delete the 31.9GB? Only options on the other part is new simple volume, properties and help. I assume I then click new simple volume to recreate it as one and then format?
 
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