Portable HDD showing wrong amount of space left

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

So I have a 500 GB portable HDD and it’s saying that there’s only like 40 GB left. When I go into the files on it, highlight them all, and click properties, it says they only take up 90 GB. I’ve shown all folders and there still doesn’t seem to be anything that would take up the other ~350 GB worth of usable space. I checked if it somehow got partitioned as well and still no idea what could be causing this. I ran CheckDisk within Windows and it seemed to have made it worse or not changed anything at all. I could format it but I’d prefer to do something else if possible.

Edit: Just a few more things about the hidden files. So I backed up my laptop’s stuff awhile ago and I’m not sure if they’re part of the backup or not. There are three of them: $RECYCLE.BIN, RECYCLER, and System Volume Information. The first two allow me to open them but all the files within them won’t allow me to open them. The first one has a link to my main HDD’s recycle bin. The third folder won’t let me open it at all.

#2

Try defragmenting it, or copy all your files onto a bunch of floppy discs, format it, then transfer them back.

[color=’#171717’]I’m just going to keep offering advice on things I’m completely unqualified for until someone asks me to stop.

#3

I don’t know if I have enough space left (that it’s showing at least) to defragment. I’ll try though before I try the formatting. I should have space on my main HDD to copy the files over, so no need for 1000 floppy discs :stuck_out_tongue: .

And I don’t know if it might be related to this issue but I’ve had it like 75% filled for years and just got around to deleting all but the 90 GB (actually more because I downloaded some files to it) that’s on it now.

Edit: According to the Windows defrag tool the drive has no fragmentation. I’m currently moving the files over to my primary HDD to format the portable one.

#4

Sometimes the space left thing fluctuates by several GB. It’s really weird.

#5

It shouldn’t be hundreds of gigs worth of discrepancy though. I’m currently moving my stuff off the HDD and am going to format it. I found that there was a folder that wasn’t being counted before that was part of the backup that was 100 GB. That still doesn’t account for all of it though.

#6

Try this- https://lmgtfy.com/?q=Portable+HDD+showing+wrong+amount+of+space+left

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

#7

Yep, I fixed it earlier today by formatting the drive. Not sure exactly what went wrong but the format fixed it.

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