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How can I restore USB drive back to full capacity in Windows 11/10?
My SanDisk USB flash drive is 256 GB bought from Best Buy but it only shows 32GB in Windows 11 or Windows 10 file explorer. I don't what my wife did with the USB drive but the size was dramatically d...
File Explorer in Windows does show the free space available on a USB drive — but it only shows this within the currently formatted partition.
✅ What You See in File Explorer
When you plug in a USB drive and open File Explorer, it shows:
- Used space
- Free space
- Total capacity (of the current partition only)
You can view this by:
Right-clicking the USB drive in File Explorer > Properties.
❗ What It Doesn't Show
File Explorer won't show:
- Unallocated space (space not part of any partition)
- Hidden partitions
- Multiple partitions on removable USB drives (Windows usually shows only the first partition)
To see the full physical size of the USB drive, including unallocated or hidden space, you must use Disk Management or a third-party partition tool. They can restore restore USB drive back to full capacity by merging or creating new partition on unallocated free space.