usb not showing full capacity windows 10

Method 1. Restore USB drive to Full Capacity Using CMD
You can try the Command Prompt on your Windows to restore USB Drive to its full capacity. All you need to do is to follow the commands carefully.

Step 1. You can search "CMD" from the search panel on your Taskbar, or you can go to "Start" and navigate to the "Command Prompt (Admin)" option depending on the version of windows you are using i.e. 7/8/10.

Step 2. Once the Command Prompt window is open, you need to process a few commands. Type "diskpart" and press Enter. After the given command is processed, type "list disk" and process it by pressing Enter. The latest command should list all the drives and disks connected to your System, including the USB Drive you want to restore to full capacity.

Step 3. After all the drives are listed, you need to Enter the command "select disk #" to select the disk you want to restore to full capacity. ("#" in the command "select disk #" should be replaced with the Number or Letter of the Disk you want to restore.)

Step 4. After the selection of the disk, give in the command "clean" to wipe the disk. Once it's cleaned successfully type the command "create partition primary" and hit Enter. This will form a new partition on your USB Drive.

Step 5. Once the partition is created, you need to Enter the command "format fs=fat32 quick" to format your newly created partition to the FAT32 file system.

format usb drive using command prompt

Method 2: Format USB Drive to Original State with Disk Management
Disk Management is another integrated feature of your Windows system that lets you restore your USB drive if you are unable to format USB stick to full capacity to its original state. Restoring your USB Drive to the original state will also restore it to its full capacity.

Step 1. Go to the search panel on the Task Bar of your home screen on Windows, and search for "Disk Management" or "diskmgmt.msc". Click on the topmost result to go to the "Disk Management" window.

Step 2. On the "Disk Management" window, locate the USB Drive that you want to restore to full capacity. Right-click on it, and click on the "Format" option from the context menu.

Step 3. You will see a pop-up window. Configure the parameters for formatting, choose FAT32 or exFAT file system, uncheck the "Quick Format" option and click "OK". This will initiate the formatting process including the treatment of Bad Sectors on your Drive.

format usb drive with disk management

Wait for the formatting process to reach 100%. Once completed, your USB Drive will be formatted to the original state. This will restore USB Drive to full capacity on Windows, but you will lose all of your data.

Part 3: How to Recover Lost Files from USB after Restoring it to Full Capacity?
Both the above-mentioned methods to restore your USB Drive to its full capacity will erase all of your data from the Drive. In such a case, where all of your important data is deleted, all you can do is to try to recover it from the USB Drive. The only way to successfully recover your data is to use the Recoverit Data Recovery tool.

With the help of the Recoverit data recovery tool, you can recover all the data from your USB Drive very easily. It's minimalistic and user-friendly UI makes it easy to use for everyone. And, its powerful set of features makes it one of the most reliable data recovery tools out there.