Question : WD USB 2.0 Portable HD 40 GB becomes 4.86 GB ??

Hi Expert,

A couple years ago I bought a 40 gb portable HD with FAT32 format. I believe it is 40 gb since it is clearly labeled with 40 gb on it. When I plugged into my XP pc, it shows the portable HD is with only 4.86 gb.  Again it is a WD USB portable hard drive, not a thumb drive. The model is WD400U017-RTN

Actually, I didn't notice that until I tried to copy about 5 gb picture files to it and got a 'not enought space' error. I was shocked to find it is only 4.86 gb. How could it be ??

Can you figure what is wrong? How to get 40 gb back ?

Answer : WD USB 2.0 Portable HD 40 GB becomes 4.86 GB ??

Since it is currently formatted as FAT32, I would use the Western Digital tools to start from a clean slate by reformatting to NTFS. I believe that will cure your drive size problem.