SanDisk USB Drive Shows Wrong Capacity

USB Flash Drives Dual Drives
1

Hi everyone,

I have a SanDisk USB flash drive that I’ve been using for a while, and recently I noticed something very strange when I plugged it into my computer.
When I insert the USB drive and go to File Explorer, it shows the drive but the capacity is completely wrong. Here’s what I’m seeing:

  • My drive is supposed to be 64GB but Windows shows it as 32GB (or sometimes only 8GB, or even 0GB)

  • In Disk Management, it shows a large chunk of unallocated space

  • Sometimes the drive shows up as “RAW” instead of FAT32/NTFS/exFAT

  • When I try to open the drive, Windows asks me to format it

  • I have important files on this drive that I need to recover before formatting

2

@bonirl

Have you checked our knowledge base articles?
( Get Support for Your SSDs and Flash Products | Sandisk )

Try this one.

3

Malware and viruses can both cause USB drive memory errors. You can try using the command prompt or follow the steps below to resolve the issue.

https://forums.sandisk.com/t/missing-capacity-or-wrong-displayed-size-or-number-of-sectors-on-usb-sandisk-ultraflair-128gb-stick/33985/3

4

When you see the RAW label in Disk Management, that means the file system of your USB flash drive has become corrupted. This often happens if the drive is unplugged from the computer while transferring data.

If you care about the old files on the USB drive and do not want to lose them, do not format the drive, as this could delete all your data. Follow the steps:

Step 1: Recover Your Files As Soon As Possible
Because Windows cannot read the “RAW” file system, you need to install specialized software on your computer, select your SanDisk flash drive and run a Deep Scan, then preview the found files to ensure they aren’t corrupted, finally, save the recovered files to a different drive (like your desktop) to avoid overwriting. Do not store them on your USB drive.

Tip: CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives. You won’t succeed in repairing the USB drive using CHKDSK command lines if the filesystem is RAW.

Step 2. Restore Full Capacity After Data Recovery
Once your files are safe, you can fix the wrong capacity issue by resetting the flash drive:

  1. Right-click Start > select Disk Management.
  2. Locate your SanDisk USB flash drive. Right-click the existing partitions and select Delete Volume. ( Now the drive will become an entire “Unallocated” space)
  3. Right-click the “Unallocated” space and select New Simple Volume. Then follow the wizard to format the drive to either exFAT or NTFS.
    A relevant guide - How to Recover Data from RAW USB Drive and Fix It?