How can I restore USB drive back to full capacity in Windows 11/10?

Why does the 256GB flash drive only showing 32GB in Windows file explorer? For Windows 11 and Windows 10 OS, it's likely due to one of the following reasons:

Drive formatted with FAT32

FAT32 has a size limitation of 32GB when formatted using Windows tools, even though the file system supports up to 2TB. Some formatting utilities will cap it at 32GB.

Hidden or unallocated space

The drive may have remaining space that's not allocated or hidden, which doesn’t appear in File Explorer.

Drive was partitioned incorrectly

Some tools or OS installations may have created a small partition and left the rest unallocated.

Fake USB drive (counterfeit)

Sadly, some low-quality or counterfeit drives report a higher capacity than they actually have. These often show 256GB but only have 32GB of real storage.

You need an advanced disk partition tool in order to restore USB drive back to full capacity in Windows 11.