Summary : An internal or external hard disk that is showing 0 bytes of free space can become RAW and data inside it can get trapped. If you try to open or access such hard drive, you get an 'Access is denied' error. When you check the properties of the disk, it shows you 0 bytes of used space, 0 bytes of free space, and File System as RAW.If you have encountered a similar situation, continue reading to learn how to solve this issue and recover the data from a hard drive showing 0 bytes.
Your hard drive's actual dimensions will determine its classification. 3.5 inch drives are 146 mm long, 101.6 mm wide, and either 19 or 25.4 mm tall. 2.5 inch drives are 100 mm long, 69.85 mm wide, and either 5, 7, 9.5 (the most common), 12.5, 15, or 19 mm tall. The first production IBM hard disk drive, the 350 disk storage, shipped in 1957 as a component of the IBM 305 RAMAC system.It was approximately the size of two medium-sized refrigerators and stored five million six-bit characters (3.75 megabytes) on a stack of 52 disks (100 surfaces used). The 350 had a single arm with two read/write heads, one up and one down, that moved both horizontally. Size here means capacity: how much data the device can hold. One unpleasant historic fact is that HD vendors market disks using a power-of-ten notation, which is unlike all other computer-related measurements (which use binary, power-of-two).
Possible Causes
The error could be caused by several reasons and some of the common factors are listed below:
In such a situation, try connecting the hard drive to another PC. If the hard drive still shows 0 bytes and RAW file system, you can try the following solutions.
- Rename the Hard Drive Letter
To rename the hard drive letter, follow these steps:
- Press ‘Windows+R' and type diskmgmt.msc and hit ‘Enter'. The Disk Management window appears.
- Right-click on the hard drive that shows 0 bytes free space and choose ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths…'
- Click the ‘Change…' button and choose a drive letter from the drop-down list.
- Click ‘OK' and then click ‘Yes' when prompted. Click ‘OK' to confirm and close the box.
Restart the system. You should be able to access the drive and files stored on the drive.
- Run the CHKDSK Utility
CHKDSK can help in repairing the File System that is corrupted due to development of bad sectors in the drive. This can help you fix the hard drive showing 0 bytes issue and you might be able to access the drive data. To execute CHKDSK utility on the hard drive, follow these steps:
- Press ‘Windows+S' and type cmd.
- Right-click on Command Prompt and select ‘Run as administrator'. The Command Prompt window appears.
- Type chkdsk X: /r /f where X is the hard drive letter that shows 0 bytes; /r & /f are the chkdsk parameters. Hit the ‘Enter' key to execute chkdsk.
Wait until it's finished. This should probably fix your hard drive. Restart your system and try accessing the hard drive.
- Use Microsoft Safety Scanner
Microsoft Safety Scanner helps get rid of viruses, spyware, and other malicious software and applications installed on your system that might be causing this issue. It's a freely downloadable security scanner tool from Microsoft that works with your existing antivirus or anti-malware software.
CHKDSK can help in repairing the File System that is corrupted due to development of bad sectors in the drive. This can help you fix the hard drive showing 0 bytes issue and you might be able to access the drive data. To execute CHKDSK utility on the hard drive, follow these steps:
- Press ‘Windows+S' and type cmd.
- Right-click on Command Prompt and select ‘Run as administrator'. The Command Prompt window appears.
- Type chkdsk X: /r /f where X is the hard drive letter that shows 0 bytes; /r & /f are the chkdsk parameters. Hit the ‘Enter' key to execute chkdsk.
Wait until it's finished. This should probably fix your hard drive. Restart your system and try accessing the hard drive.
- Use Microsoft Safety Scanner
Microsoft Safety Scanner helps get rid of viruses, spyware, and other malicious software and applications installed on your system that might be causing this issue. It's a freely downloadable security scanner tool from Microsoft that works with your existing antivirus or anti-malware software.
However, while scanning if this tool finds any bad sector, it repairs that sector which ultimately might cause data loss. So use this at your own risk.
- Hard Drive Recovery with the help of a Data Recovery Tool
This is the most secure and safe way to access the data from a hard drive that shows 0 bytes. A tool like Stellar Data Recovery- Standard can help you recover lost or deleted files and folders from inaccessible hard drives and its deleted partitions.
Player unknown battleground spec. Time machine ssd or hdd. Follow these steps for hard drive recovery where the hard drive shows 0 bytes.
External Hard Disk Not Detected
- Download and install Stellar Data Recovery- Standard for Windows.
- Connect the hard drive to the PC and launch the program.
- Select what file types and folders you want to recover. Click ‘All Data' to recover all file types from the corrupt hard drive.
- Click the ‘Next' button and then click the ‘hard drive' under ‘Connected Drives' that shows 0 bytes.
- A Deep Scan toggle switch appears at the bottom-left corner of the software window. Turn it ON and click ‘Scan'. Deep Scan helps in RAW data recovery. Wait until the scan is finished.
- After the scan, all folders are listed in the left-pane. Click on any folder to preview files inside them.
- Select the Files and Folders that you want to recover by clicking on the checkboxes.
- Click the ‘Recover' button. A dialog box appears.
- Click ‘Browse' and then navigate to a location where you want to save the recovered data. Make sure the selected location is not on the same drive.
- Click ‘Save' and wait till the software saves your recovered data at your desired location.
Now that you have successfully recovered your data from a hard drive showing 0 bytes, it's time to format the hard drive. You can use Disk Management tool or Disk Part to format the hard drive and then move your recovered data in it. You may also choose to low-level format the hard drive as it will repair most issues with the hard drive as it remaps all defective (bad) sectors and removes virus and malware that can't be removed otherwise. However, it takes a lot of time, especially when you use free tools for low-level formatting (LLF).
External Hard Disk Size
Conclusion
Keep an eye on your hard drive health by using S.M.A.R.T. – disk monitoring system that is included in all modern hard disk, SSD, and eMMC drives. This system detects and reports various hard drive health indicators that can help you take appropriate measures on time to avoid any data loss situation due to hardware failure or bad sectors. Also keep a reliable data recovery tool like Stellar Data Recovery- Standard for Windows that recovers data from NTFS, FAT (FAT16, FAT32), and exFAT drives even if they are severely corrupt, inaccessible, or formatted.