2TB external HDD shows as only 50GB

[Cohacq]

I'm trying to help a friends son with his computer. They bought him a 2 TB Seagate external HDD for christmas and it worked fine after I set it up for them. But now it only shows as 50GB. I've checked in Disk Management and it only shows 50GB and no extra partitions or unallocated space, and Diskpart also only shows 50GB. Crystaldiskinfo shows the HDD condition as "good" and they say it hasnt been dropped, so I don't think it's broken. Anyone got any idea what the issue might be? They really don't know anything about computers so they're completely reliant on me to fix issues like this.

[TheEthanMaverick]

You could install GParted on a flash drive, then boot from it and check. GParted tends to be much more reliable than Disk Management. If it still shows only 50 GB, you probably got scammed lol.

[Alex Atkin UK]

What model number is Crystaldiskinfo saying it is?  Was the drive brand new?

 

I'd tend to agree with using GParted as then you could also try creating a new GPT partition table on it and see if the space comes back.  Obviously backup all the files off the drive first.

[Cohacq]

@Alex Atkin UK  @TheEthanMaverickHere's a screencap of Crystaldiskinfo and Disk Management:  
As you can see, the disk model number says ST2000LM007, and googling the model number brings up a Seagate 2TB 2.5" drive. They also bought it in a physical store here in Sweden so I doubt they got scammed. I'm going over to their place tomorrow with GParted to check with it as well.

 

[ictdude1]

If you dont mind erasing the drive do the following:

Open CMD as administrator

Type the following commands, press enter after each line

 

Diskpart

List disk

you should now see the drive capacities, (hopefully here it shows as 2TB)

now to select that disk type : Select disk X (x being the drive number that shows on screen)

Type : clean

 

Once cleaned go into disk management and initialise the disk ( i normally do it as GPT)

Then you should be able to right click on it an format is as a new volume.

 

I hope this helps!

 

[Cohacq]

@ictdude1 I fiddled around with Diskpart yesterday and it only showed up as a 50 gig disk there too. But I'll try it again when I go over to their place today and report back.

[Cohacq]

@ictdude1 im at their place now and the disk is still only showing up as 50 gigs in Diskpart and something went wrong when I put Gparted on my usb drive (it starts but then throws up a bunch of error messages) so I cant check with that. I also tested the drive in a laptop and it only shows 50 gigs there as well.

 

Guess its time to return it to the store. 

[ictdude1]

18 hours ago, Cohacq said:

@ictdude1 im at their place now and the disk is still only showing up as 50 gigs in Diskpart and something went wrong when I put Gparted on my usb drive (it starts but then throws up a bunch of error messages) so I cant check with that. I also tested the drive in a laptop and it only shows 50 gigs there as well.

 

Guess its time to return it to the store. 

Yea it sounds like there is something massively wrong with that drive!

[Cohacq]

8 hours ago, ictdude1 said:

Yea it sounds like there is something massively wrong with that drive!

They will be digging up the reciept and will go to the store (probably) during this week. I will come along and make sure they get an internal one and assist them in putting it in. That way they wont have to worry about a loose drive on top of the desktop.

Also, their kid (who is the primary user of the computer) appearently gets very angry playing Fortnite and bangs his desk with his fists and kicks the back of it when he loses. Those shocks are enough to kill a HDD, right?

[ictdude1]

1 hour ago, Cohacq said:

They will be digging up the reciept and will go to the store (probably) during this week. I will come along and make sure they get an internal one and assist them in putting it in. That way they wont have to worry about a loose drive on top of the desktop.

Also, their kid (who is the primary user of the computer) appearently gets very angry playing Fortnite and bangs his desk with his fists and kicks the back of it when he loses. Those shocks are enough to kill a HDD, right?

Yea haha thats plenty to kill a hard drive when its running!