External drive capacity suddenly changed!

[imer79]

I recently bought a used 160GB 7200RPM USB External. I received it, and it's capacity was shown to be ~160GB. I put about 30GB of files on it. About 2 weeks later, I was trying to copy to it and I got a disk full error. I checked the capacity in My Computer and it only read 30GB! The tooltip that appears when I hover over the drive's icon in My Computer reads, "Total Size: 29.3GB!" I've tried reformatting in both FAT32 and NTFS formats, and it still shows a capacity of only 30GB. I thought, maybe it actually is a 30GB drive in there and I didn't realize it when I first got it. So, I opened the enclosure and verified that it was a Seagate Barracuda 160GB drive. I am stumped. I have never had a problem like this before. Any ideas as to what it might be?

 

[peterhuang913]

There might be a bad sector that the hard drive closed off

 

[bmxfreakrider]

I assume your are running windows xp.

Open the control panel, and switch to classic vieo (if not already done) look for a folder called administrative tools, and look for something called computer management, open it, and look in the lower left pane for something called disk management. print screen and post it here. you can host the photo at imageShack.com - Your Photo and Imaging Portal or Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

 

[peterhuang913]

or you can try Imageshack.

 

[imer79]

Actually, I posted my problem on two forums simultaneously and I found a solution on the other. I thought I'd repeat it here for the benefit of anyone searching for a solution to the same problem. I checked my jumper settings and the capacity limit was apparently set (at 32GB). I removed the jumper and used disk management to re-partition and reformat the drive. Problem solved. Thanks to those who offered help.