If you encounter “hard drive appears empty but isn't” error, you can follow our guide to recover all files first and even get to know the causes and solutions to effective fix the issue.
A few days ago my drive was bugging out ant wouldn't allow any data transfer. So I formatted it clearing all the files inside. I tested it again and sure enough it can transfer data now. I installed some applications into it and despite using up around 10gbs of storage, whenever I check This PC it shows that I still have all of my space free like it's empty. What seems to be the problem. Should I not use this drive for anything important?
- Question from Reddit
No matter whether you are using an internal or external hard drive, it stores your data. However, sometimes you may encounter issues such as the hard drive not recognized, detected, or not showing in Disk Management. Besides, it's possible to face a situation where the hard drive appears empty but isn't. Why does the situation appear? There are some possible causes:
When your hard drive appears empty but isn't, there is a possibility that your data has been deleted. You'd better recover the lost data as soon as possible because once the data is overwritten, you will lose it forever.
It is best to use professional data recovery tools like AOMEI FastRecovery to get back the files on that hard drive if you still need to use them. This will keep your data from being overwritten or erased by accident while you're trying to figure out the problem.
You can get back pictures, videos, music, documents, and other over 1000+ file types. Some of the places it can get back files are hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, and more. This software can be used on Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server.
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI FastRecovery. Choose the exact partition or disk where your data is lost and click Scan.
Step 2. Then, the recovery tool start to scan and search. lt will execute the “Quickly Scan" first to find your deleted data fast, and then execute the “Deep Scan" for searching other lost data.
Step 3. Once the scan is completed, all deleted files, recycle bins and other missing files will be displayed. Please select the file you would like to recover and then click "Recover".
Step 4. Then, select a folder path to save your recovered files.
Step 5. Wait patiently for this process of recovering ends.
After recovering your important data, here are several reliable and effective ways to fix hard drive appears empty but isn't. Keep reading to find the solution that works best for you.
Your files might not be showing up on an external hard drive like a SD card, HDD, external SSD, and USB if they are still taking up room, but they might not be seeing them because the connection is wrong. It's safe to take out your external hard drive first and then try to plug it back in. If you don't know how to safely reconnect the internal hard drive, this article about how to replace hard drive may help you.
For external hard drives, please try a different port if you only have one computer with you. You can also connect your hard drive to a different computer to see if the problem that says "hard drive empty but shows full or occupied" still has it.
To be sure that the problem where the "my hard drive shows empty but its not" isn't caused by a virus, you should immediately run your security software to find and get rid of the virus. In this way, viruses won't be able to damage files on other hard drives on your computer. You can choose a free PC scanner and cleaner to remove virus and malware from your computer or go to Windows Settings like below.
Step 1. Press "Windows + I" at the same time to open Settings window and click "Update & Security".
Step 2. Select "Windows Security" on the left panel and choose "Open Windows Security".
Step 3. In Windows Security window, go to "Virus & threat protection" > "Scan options".
Step 4. Select "Microsoft Defender Offline scan", and then click "Scan now".
The Microsoft Defender Offline scan takes about 15 minutes to run, and then your PC will restart.
You might have hidden files and folders on that hard drive, but now you can't find them. At this time, you can't see files on external hard drive or local disk. If so, it's not hard to get your files to show up. You can make File Explorer show files and groups that are hidden.
Step 1. Open File Explorer from the taskbar, and select the “Layout and view options” icon. It’s the second icon from the right in the top menu.
Step 2. Press “Show.” And then choose “Hidden items”.
Then, the hidden files will now become visible in File Explorer.
If the files not showing in external hard drive or local disk, your drive may encounter some errors. At this time, we suggest that you format your hard drive to a format that Windows can read in Disk Management so that the hard drive or external hard drive works properly and without any problems. For a hard drive, NTFS generally is the best choice. If you can’t format drive in Disk Management, you can click to get solutions.
Follow the steps below to get your gadget working again:
Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your PC, or directly open Disk Management if you are using an internal disk.
Step 2. Right-click "This PC" > Select "Manage" > "Disk Management". Right-click on the target drive or partition and click on "Format".
Step 3. Select the file system as "NTFS", click "Quick Format" and click "OK" to format the drive.
You can now save data to your device, and you can save the files you found back to your internal or external hard drive.
Here are 4 solutions to the "hard drive appears empty but isn't" issue that we compiled for your convenience. To ensure that the files are shown correctly, you can try each one individually. It is strongly recommended to save your data first with AOMEI FastRecovery and then try the solutions.