Does your WD, Seagate, Toshiba or LaCie external hard drive only show 32GB on your computer? When your 1TB, 2TB or 750GB external hard drive shows only 32 GB capacity on the computer, don’t worry. Here on this page, you’ll find reliable methods provided by EaseUS software to help you out of external hard drive shows only 32GB error and even restore the drive to full capacity without losing any data now.

Don't worry when your external hard drive shows only 32GB. We have a complete fix for you. All you need is to follow through provided methods in the below and you will get your drive full capacity back:

“Hi guys, do you know how to restore a 1TB external hard drive which shows only 32GB on Windows 10 PC back to its original space without losing any data on it? I have a 1TB Seagate external hard drive which saves about 200GB of useful data. Last week, I installed Windows 10 on my computer with the external hard drive, creating an installation tool on it.

After the Windows installation, I connected the external hard drive to my computer, and it turns out that my computer can only read 32GB files which are just about Windows installation. Where are my old data? Is it possible to access the lost data back and restore the 32GB external hard drive to its full capacity again? How?”

According to the online searching result, it seems that many ordinary people have encountered the external hard drive or hard drive, USB, etc. not showing the right capacity issue. And external hard drive showing 32GB is a top issue that has confused many ordinary users. So what makes 1TB or even 2TB external hard drive shows only 32GB?

1. Nov 12, 2020 What demonstrated below is a real story of a user telling his 1TB hard drive showing only 0.18TB of free space. 'My WD external hard drive gets a strange problem. It's 1TB advertised, and I only use it as a backup hard drive. But today, I surprisingly find that the free space is only 0.18TB.
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Here is a list of reasons why external hard drive or USB shows only 32GB:

1. Creating WinPE bootable disk
2. Creating a Windows installation or Windows backup image disk
3. External hard drive storage error

So how to fix this issue and restore the full capacity to your external hard drive or USB, hard drive? Here this page has gathered reliable methods for you to try and you can follow the two parts below to fix this issue right now:

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Part 1. Fix and restore external hard drive which shows only 32GB to full capacity

As we’ve mentioned in the above paragraphs, the reasons why external hard drive, hard drive or USB with huge capacity becomes only 32GB available are varied. So the ways to fix this issue and restore full capacity to the storage device are also multiple. Here you’ll find three recommended methods, and you can follow and follow one to fix and restore your device to its original full capacity now:

Method 1. Update external hard drive driver

Step 1. Connect the not working USB flash drive to PC, right-click on This PC/My Computer and choose Properties.

Step 2. Click 'device manager' on the left taskbar > Expand USB Serial Bus controller, then you'll see a yellow exclamation mark, and right-click on it and select 'Update driver' or 'update driver software'.

Step 3. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'...

Method 2. Update the firmware of an external hard drive

To do this, you’ll have 3 steps to take and follow to see the detail operation steps now:

Step 1. Check the firmware version of your external hard drive/hard drive/USB

1. Connect your external hard drive to the PC.

2. Right-click on Windows icon and select Device Manager.

3. Select Disk Drivers, expand it, then find and right-click on your external hard drive, select Properties.

4. Click Details and then select Hardware IDs from the Properties drop-down menu.The manufacturer and firmware version information will appear in the Value box.

Step 2. Download the firmware update of your external hard drive/device

1. Go to the website of your external hard drive’s manufacturer and enter the support page of the company or searching for download drivers on the website.

2. Click Support, Download or Drivers.

3. Then enter the model number of your external hard drive or hard drive in Search Knowledgebase, Search Downloads or Model / Parts ID to find the right one.

4. Check for update firmware.

1. If the new firmware of your drive is available, click Download, Install or Download Firmware to download and install it to a portable USB drive.

Step 3. Burn downloaded ISO and upgrade the firmware

1. Open the portable USB which saves your firmware ISO of the external hard drive and right-click on the ISO file, select Burn Disk Image.

2. Insert a writable disk or USB to your PC and select the optical drive from the Drive Burner and click Burn.

3. Restart your PC and the burned disk or USB drive, press F2, F10, F12 or Esc to bring up BIOS.

4. Select your optical or USB drive using the arrow keys and hit Enter.

5. Follow the firmware upgrade instructions and when you complete the upgrade process, you’ll get a working external hard drive with full capacity by then.

You can now check whether it’s recognized by the computer with its right capacity or not. If not, try Method 3 and it’ll help you to solve this issue.

Method 3. Delete 32GB partition and create new partition to restore full capacity on the external hard drive

When the computer only recognizes the 32GB partition on your external or internal hard drive, the best way to restore it to full capacity is to delete the 32GB partition and create a whole new partition on it:

1. Connect the external hard drive to PC and right-click on Device Manager, select Disk Management.

2. Locate and right-click on a 32GB partition on your external hard drive, and select Delete Volume.

Note: If you have important data saved on the drive, you can now follow Part 2 to restore all lost data with the help of powerful data recovery software now.

3. When Disk Management shows you a whole unallocated space on the external hard drive, right-click on it and select the New simple volume to create a new partition with all space on it.

4. Rename the drive and set the file system to NTFS.

After this, you should be able to use the external hard drive with the full capacity to save data again.

Part 2. Restore data from an external hard drive which shows only 32GB

If you have important data saved on the external hard drive which used to show you with only 32GB space, you can apply the best hard drive data recovery software provided by EaseUS to fully scan and find all lost data with ease now:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and under the External Devices tab, choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

1tb External Drives

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

After this, you should be able to use your 1TB or 1TB WD, Seagate, Toshiba or Lecia etc external hard drive for saving data again.

1tb External Drive Seagate

Summary :

It’s a good choice to use a 1TB external SSD as the added storage for better performance. But how to choose the right one for yourself? How the use a 1TB SSD external drive effectively? You can get the answers in this post provided by MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Why do You Need an External SSD

An external SSD is a portable storage device which can be connected to a computer wirelessly or through a USB FireWire connection. It is popular nowadays as it can be used for expanding the storage space or backing up important data.

It’s portable and it can be connected to almost all computers. Therefore, you can easily take it anywhere. Compared with HDDs, external SSDs are coming with the following advantages:

• Higher data transfer rate: SSDs usually run faster. So, the data on SSDs can be accessed far more quickly.
• Better durability: As external SSDs are designed with fewer moving parts, greater shock resistance and less heat generation, they are less likely to be destroyed after being banged around or treated roughly. But in case, you’d better put it to a safe place.
• Higher security: Some SSDs are produced with high-tech encryption protocols which prevent against data loss or information leakage.

However, SSDs are usually more expensive than HDDs. For common users, the SSD with 500GB or 1TB capacity is quite enough. But if you have a large number of files and videos, you can choose a larger SSD or HDD.

This post introduces some popular 1TB SSD external drives and you can choose one according to your needs.

Recommended 1TB SSD External Drives

To choose the right one for yourself, you need to take both performance and price into consideration. Here are 7 recommended external SSDs with some features listed. Remember to contact with the vender for more information about the portable SSD which you want to buy.

#1. Samsung T5 Portable SSD

• Hardware Interface: USB 3.0
• Read/write Speed: up to 540/520 MB/s
• Price: $199.99 on Amazon
• Secure encryption: optional password protection and AES 256-bit hardware encryption
• Warranty: 3-year limited warranty

This one is a great SSD you can take into consideration if you want to move or carry incredibly large amounts of data. It has a fast data transfer rate and the 3-year warranty.

You need to pay attention that it requires Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.9, Android 4.4 or higher version. Operating system of older versions may not be supported by this SSD.

#2. Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD

• Hardware Interface: USB 3.1 Type C
• Read/write Speed: up to 1050/1000 MB/s
• Price: $199.99 on Amazon
• Secure encryption: with fingerprint and password security

This portable SSD comes with high data transfer speed and reliable security solutions. If you’re worried about data leakage, you can consider this one.

#3. LaCie Portable High Performance External SSD 1TB

• Hardware Interface: USB 3.0
• Data transfer Speed: up to 540 MB/s
• Price: $179.99 on Amazon
• Warranty: 3-year limited warranty, including 3-year rescue data recovery services

This one comes with light weight and shock resistance, which is travel-friendly. And it is compatible with USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3. It can be recognized by both macOS and Windows.

#4. Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD

• Hardware Interface: USB 3.0
• Read/write Speed: up to 540/500 MB/s
• Price: $169.99 on Amazon
• Warranty: 3-year warranty

Seagate Fast SSD is cheaper and relatively smaller. If you are looking for a portable SSD with low price, this one might be suitable for you. Besides, it is also can be used for Xbox and PS4.

#5. SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD

• Hardware Interface: USB 3.0
• Read Speed: up to 550 MB/s
• Price: $167.99 on Amazon
• Secure encryption: AES 128-bit hardware encryption
• Warranty: 3-year warranty

The price of SanDisk 1TB extreme portable external SSD is similar to that of Seagate Fast SSD, but the read speed could be faster. And this one is ruggedized, and water and dust resistant.

#6. Samsung X5 Portable SSD

• Hardware Interface: Thunderbolt 3
• Read/write Speed: up to 2800/2300 MB/s
• Price: $388.82 on Amazon
• Secure encryption: optional password protection and AES 256-bit hardware encryption
• Warranty: 3-year limited warranty

If you prioritize data transfer speed instead of the price, Samsung X5 portable SSD is what you need. It’s the first NVMe-based portable SSD with a Thunderbolt 3 connection. With this drive, you can transfer a 100 GB video in 2 minutes. And it’s also a wonderful external SSD for gaming.

But it is quite expensive, and the physical size is larger than usual 1TB external SSDs (about 150g, triple the weight of the Samsung T5). If you don’t want to cost much, you can choose a 500 GB Samsung X5 portable SSD which is $199.99 on Amazon.

#7. Western Digital My Passport Wireless External SSD 1TB

• Capacity: 1TB
• Hardware Interface: USB 3.0
• Read/write Speed: up to 350/285 MB/s
• Price: $399.99 on Amazon
• With built-in card reader and one-touch copy button
• Warranty: 3-year limited warranty

This wireless SSD is a wonderful choice for photographers. It has a built-in card reader which allows you back up images and videos from your memory card without a PC during a shoot. Besides, the built-in battery can be used for up to 10 hours. But the transfer speed of this SSD might be relatively slower.

After buying a new external SSD, you might want to use it as an added storage or a backup device. But before you use it, here are two things you need to do: initialize the SSD, and create partitions on the SSD

In the following contents, they will be explained one by one.

How to Initialize the 1TB External SSD

When you get a new hard drive or SSD, you have to initialize it to MBR or GPT disk in order to use it for data storage. When you’re planning to initialize a hard drive, you might notice that you need to choose MBR or GPT for it. Which one should you choose?

In short, you can use either MBR or GPT for the disk smaller than 2TB, but you need to know that there are some principles to create partitions on an MBR disk which GPT disk doesn’t have. For the disk lager than 2TB, you’d better initialize it to GPT to take full advantages of it.

How to initialize your 1TB external SSD? Let’s see the steps.

Step 1: Connected your external SSD to PC.

Step 2: Right-click Start button and select Disk Management.

Step 3: There will be a pop-up window that tells you that you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can select. Choose MBR or GPT and then click OK.

After initializing your 1TB SSD external drive, you can create partitions according to your needs and start to use the disk.

How to Partition Your 1TB external SSD

If you want to use your new portable SSD as a storage device, you need to create partitions before that. Otherwise, you can’t find your new SSD in File Explorer.

Generally, there are three methods you can use: Disk Management, Diskpart and third-party tools. Diskpart is relatively complicated and not suitable for common users. Here I recommended a reliable third-party partition manager, MiniTool Partition Wizard. With this tool, you can create multiple partitions within a few clicks.

Download and install the free edition to have a try. Then follow the steps below to partition your 1TB SSD external drive.

Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Step 2: Select the unallocated space on your new SSD and click Create Partition from the left action panel. Alternatively, you can right-click the unallocated space and select Create.

Step 3: Configure Partition Label, Drive Letter, File System and Cluster Size. The new partition is set as primary partition by default. If you’re using an MBR disk, you can also set it to a logical one. Then drag the slider to change size and location for the new partition.

Step 4: Click OK to continue. When you go back to the main interface, you can repeat the above steps to create more partitions. Then click Apply to apply the changes you have made.

After partitioning the disk, you can use it as a new storage device with high performance.

How to Back up Your PC to the External SSD

It’s a good habit to back up important files regularly considering that the computer might break down or be attacked. However, copying them one by one will cost a lot of time if you have a large number of files. In this case, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to copy the partition or even the entire disk at one time.

Now, let’s see more detailed steps.

Step 1: Upgrade MiniTool Partition Wizard to a paid edition if you need to copy partitions from the system disk.

Step 2: Right-click the target partition and select Copy.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, select an unallocated space on your external SSD and click Next to continue.

Step 4: Configure the size and location for the copied partition and click Finish.

Step 5: When you go back to the main interface, click Apply to execute the pending operations.

Now you don’t need to worry about data loss. Besides, you can take the portable SSD out and check the data in it anywhere and anytime.

Bottom Line

With the development of technology, users are requiring faster storage devices now, and SSDs are more and more popular with the falling price. This post introduces some external SSDs with different features as well as some methods to manage them effectively.

You can leave a message in the following comment zone if you have any ideas or suggestions. For any problems about MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can contact us via [email protected].

1TB SSD External FAQ

Compared with external HDDs, SSDs come with a faster speed and better durability. It would be a wonderful choice if you need to take the external storage out. But they are more expensive.

In short, if you want higher performance, you can buy an external SSD. If you want to save money, you should buy an HDD.

SSDs are based on NAND Flash. Commonly, SSD read and write speeds are asymmetric, and the write speed is slower than the read speed.

How fast does SSD transfer data? Actually, different SSDs have different data transfer speed. A standard SSD can read sequential data at a speed of about 550 MB/s and the write speed is about 520 MB/s. The SSDs with Thunderbolt interface run even much faster. For example, the read/write speed of Samsung X5 Portable SSD 1TB is up to 2800/2300 MB/s.