Lost 70GB to "USED" After Format

[halfbodyguy]

I have an External HD I use for MS backups. I noticed it was FAT32, and
the file sizes were restricted, So i grabbed the backup off the disk,
reformatted it (quick format) NTFS. When it finished, the 70GB that
were used when it was FAT32 were still considered used. So now windows
shows the drive as a "232GB" drive instead of a "300GB" Drive... Any
ideas on how to free the space that it seems to have simply not grabbed
back?

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

I have an External HD I use for MS backups. I noticed it was
FAT32, and the file sizes were restricted, So i grabbed the
backup off the disk, reformatted it (quick format) NTFS.
When it finished, the 70GB that were used when it was FAT32
were still considered used. So now windows shows the drive
as a "232GB" drive instead of a "300GB" Drive... Any ideas
on how to free the space that it seems to have simply not
grabbed back?

Look in Disk Management (Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc).

Check how your external HD is configured. You may have ended up
with two partitions or one partition along with some
unallocated space. You may have to delete any existing
partitions and create one partition to cover the entire drive.
You can then format the drive NTFS.

Good luck

Nepatsfan