To fix this, we'll just reset the partitions on the drive and 'reallocate' all of the space as a new, single partition. Virus Infected USB Drive: Virus programs can modify or delete the files stored in a USB Drive.

That's likely what happened to your drive. In case if the pen drive is damaged logically then, it might work fine while copying files to it and later show the storage space used but files missing. I'd lost a huge chunk of my drive's storage capacity! Fortunately I found a fix, and if this has happened to you, rest assured that the fix is surprisingly simple.Īs it turns out, the USB drive's partitions had been tampered with, leaving most of the drive 'unallocated' and inaccessible. For example, you can use a USB drive to lock and unlock your computer as well as carry around portable apps everywhere you go.Īs for me, I mostly use them as bootable drives for ISO files, which comes in handy when I want to try new flavors of Linux or turn a bricked laptop back into a Windows machine.īut I recently ran into a weird problem: I'm not sure how, but my 4 GB USB drive was suddenly showing up as a 100 MB USB drive. I don’t know why my pen drive showing empty although it has data in it. But, when I tried to access my data, it is not showing any files and folders. They're useful for so many things beyond just transferring files between devices. When I inserted it into my computer today morning, it got detected and showing the occupied space. I play around a lot with my USB flash drives.