Formatting new SSD

[Tom]

I've been putting off upgrading a 1TB HDD to a 1TB SSD in a laptop. My process was to format the new SSD and create an image of the HDD (via US, then swap the drives. However, formatting the new SSD results in a capacity of only 25GB. I've researched online and found many folks reporting a similar issue. I tried multiple 'fixes', as have many of the folks reporting online, but can't seem to get more than 25GB capacity.

Suggested fixes I haven't tried include plugging the SSD into a Linux machine, which I don't have.

Anyone had success with a resolution for this?

PC laptop running Win 11.

 

[gwinger]

If you have a Windows computer, you will have to format the drive using NTFS, not FAT32.

 

[Tom]

If you have a Windows computer, you will have to format the drive using NTFS, not FAT32.

Thanks, I formatted with NTFS.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Did the drive come pre-partitioned? You might be formatting a partition of that size. I've seen that with SD cards.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Where did you buy the SSD?

 

[workinonit]

My 3 TB drive came pre-formatted. I would have thought it would be plug and go.

Send that one back and get one formatted.

 

[rvlifer]

I bailed on windows at win 10 cause they keep taking away the ability to do things so this might not apply to win 11.

Look for the disk management utility that comes with windows. That gives you some ability to change partition sizes. It used to allow you to extend existing partitions into unused space but if there was another partition in the way it wouldnt help with that. There are partition utilities out there but im hesitant to name a suggestion cause i dont know it it will work with win 11.

If you are swapping the oem drive they may there may be a partitiin on that drive that storws an oem image of the computer that is used to restore the computer if something got corrupted. There may be utilities that will copy that to the new hdd. Disk management used to display those but may or may not in win 11

 

[rvlifer]

If disk management lets you extend the existing partition you will prob need to reformat the drive again

 

[rvlifer]

Here are the partitions on my win 10 laptop. There are 2 partitions without drive letters that you only see in disk management. I used to have another partition assigned with a drive letter so i could separate data from the operating system. I swapped to an external hdd and needed a 3rd party utility to get rid of that and extend my c drive partition

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Well, on that note in the last 20+ years I don't think I've ever used anything except GParted when setting up partitions, filesystems and formatting. One and done disk management. Windoze always tries to "help" too much hiding options and ignoring non MS configurations.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[rvlifer]

Yeah. They keep taking stuff away. Cant even troubleshoot network stack issues anymore

I swapped to a mac but should have gone linux. Windows is far easier to use than the mac these days

 

[Tom]

Did the drive come pre-partitioned? You might be formatting a partition of that size. I've seen that with SD cards.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

Thanks, I didn't think of that. But, best I can tell in Win 11 Disk Management and Samsung's 'Magician', there are no other partitions on the drive.

For the heck of it, I just followed one of the online suggestions - I fired up an old Win laptop and plugged in the SSD (via US, but it still says 25G, and doesn't let me reformat to anything bigger.

 

[Tom]

Where did you buy the SSD?

Amazon, but that was some time ago (I procrastinated for a loong time).

 

[Tom]

If disk management lets you extend the existing partition you will prob need to reformat the drive again

That's what I remembered, but now it only allows me to extend by using space on another drive.

 

[rvlifer]

Here is a fairly comprehensive guide on partition management in win 11. I didnt see anything about using 3rd party utilities though

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-storage-devices-windows-11

 

[Tom]

I swapped to a mac but should have gone linux. Windows is far easier to use than the mac these days

One of the suggested options that I might try is to install Linux Lite on the old Win laptop.

I get frustrated every time my other half asks for help on her Apple stuff. Same thing last week when one of our friends asked me to show her how to use Uber on her iPhone for an upcoming trip. The "same app" is different on iPhone v my Android phone.

 

[Tom]

Here is a fairly comprehensive guide on partition management in win 11. I didnt see anything about using 3rd party utilities though

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-storage-devices-windows-11

Thanks. Not sure if that's one of the many articles I've read online, but I'll take a look/re-look.

 

[rvlifer]

That's what I remembered, but now it only allows me to extend by using space on another drive.

Unless the new drive is damaged you should be able to do what you want to do. Ntfs partitions can be larger than your new drive. There are some other factors such as the os but that doesnt apply here.

You probably need a 3rd party utility.

Here is some info about partition size limitations. The block size tidbit might be useful. I assune the laptop isnt very old and the bios limitation doesnt apply

Basically there are 3 factors that limit the maximum partition size in Windows NTFS (or any other OS):

operating system type 32-bit OS supports up to 2.1 Tb disks (so virtually you can create a partition of that size)
the block size used during partition creation (64 KB limits it to 16 T
type of "system firmware": BIOS supports up to 2Tb, while UEFI works with 3Tb HDDs and even more
So 32-bit XP or Vista are limited by 2Tb per partition size.

 

[rvlifer]

It is intersting to me how complex this stuff is. They havent made things simpler but they have done a good job covering up the complexity and stuff usually just works. The downside is that when it doesnt you quickly find out how complex it still is.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Go to Amazon page and read the reviews of that SSD. Did anybody else have that same problem?