My 1TB External Hard Disk Drive has been reduced to 31.9 GB after I downloaded the Win 10 Media Creation Tool

This is a big problem!

Recently I downloaded the Media Creation Tool for Windows 10 and I have inadvertently downloaded it to my 1 TB External Hard Drive.
The 1 TB content was missing from this Hard Disk Drive and it showed Drive now reads as ESD-USB (F Drive) and shows only 31.9 GB
I decided to Format this Drive.

However, even after Formatting this Drive, it reads as ESD-USB (on F Drive) and shows only 31.9 GB
Below is the Screenshot

Image

I Right-Clicked the Drive and went to Properties and in Properties I find that it shows that the Drive is named ‘Imation Apollo M300’ and also shows that it has a volume of almost 1 TB.
Below are two Screenshots

 Image

The same screenshot with details inked-in

Image

How do I bring this Drive back to its original state?

Thanking You

Answer
Answer
Use diskpart to clean the entire drive - this will mean you’ll lose everything on the drive.
Open cmd prompt/powershell with admin & type:
Diskpart & press enter
List disk then press enter
Select disc x where x is the number of the external hard drive you wish to clean.
Type Clean & click enter
Once completed type exit & click enter.
Then go to disk management under control panel & it should pop up stating the drive needs initialising/formatting, Choose to do so & it should then show the full capacity.
If not then try a third party software: EaseUS partition manager:
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.
Virginia - Time Lady.

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Answer
Answer

Hi Imtiaz,

Since you have formatted your hard disk it may have lost its allocation properties and would be no longer visible with the other Hard Disk Drives in 'This PC'.

To make it visible you will have to follow the below mentioned steps: (make sure your external hard disk is connected)

1. Open Start

2. Type - Create and format hard disk partitions

3. Open it

4. At the bottom of the open program you should be seeing your external hard disk with a long black colored line

5. Right Click on it and Select 'New Simple Volume'

6. Thereafter a Dialog box should appear asking what kind of setting you would like to apply to your external hard disk, select accordingly (make sure to keep the File System to NTFS).

7. After clicking apply you should be able to see your external hard disk along with other hard drives in 'This PC'

Thank You

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Last updated March 24, 2025 Views 16,876 Applies to: