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How to Restore a USB Flash Drive to Full Capacity

Trisha
Toshiba Pendrive

Malware infections can sometimes alter the storage capacity of USB flash drives, making them appear significantly smaller than their actual size. For example, a 16 GB USB drive may only show 2 GB of available space in Windows. Even after removing the malware or formatting the drive, the reduced capacity often persists. Fortunately, a small yet powerful tool called BootIce can help restore your USB drive to its original full capacity.

What is BootIce?

BootIce is a free, portable Windows utility that allows you to manage, partition, and format USB drives. Since it is a standalone executable, no installation is required – just download and run the file. BootIce can be downloaded from https://archive.org/download/BOOTICEx64_1.3.3.2 since its original website is no longer working.

Steps to Restore USB Capacity Using BootIce

1. Launch BootIce

  1. Insert the affected USB flash drive into your computer.
  2. Run BootIcex64.exe by double-clicking it.
  3. If prompted by User Account Control (UAC), grant administrator permissions to proceed.

2. Select the USB Drive

  1. In the BootIce window, select your USB drive from the Destination Disk dropdown menu.
  2. Click Parts Manage to open the partition management window.

3. Repartition and Format the USB Drive

  1. In the partition management window, click Re-Partitioning.
  2. In the Removable disk repartitioning window, select USB-HDD Mode (Single Partition).
  3. Select the filesystem to be FAT32 and select Optimize internal structure.
  4. Click OK to proceed.

4. Final Confirmation and Formatting

A confirmation dialog will appear—double-check that you have backed up your data. Click OK to begin the repartitioning and formatting process. Wait a few seconds for the process to complete.

5. Verify the Restored Capacity

Once the process is finished, a success message will appear. Now remove the USB drive from your computer’s USB port and then re-attach it back. Open Windows Explorer and check your USB drive’s capacity – it should now be restored to its full size. You can reformat the USB drive using Windows’ built-in formatting tool or start using it right away.

By following these steps, you can successfully recover your USB flash drive’s full storage capacity and ensure it functions properly again.

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