Summary: This blog describes the possibilities of getting ‘external hard disk showing 0 bytes’ error in Windows 10, 8, and 7. It further highlights how one can fix this issue and recover the data from a hard drive showing 0 bytes easily using the manual as well as professional Hard Disk Recovery tool.
Have you ever faced a situation when you try to connect your external hard disk to your computer and it shows 0 bytes error shown in the picture below?
Sometimes, when users try to open or access their external hard drive on the computer, they get an “Access is denied” error which means you cannot access your essential data stored in it.
Why does Hard Disk show 0 bytes size?
However, to cater such issue, you can try connecting your external hard drive to another computer. If your hard drive still displays 0 bytes, you can follow any of the given methods to fix “External hard disk showing 0 bytes” error.
Manual methods to fix ‘External Hard Disk showing 0 bytes’ error
Connect Hard Disk to another computer
While accessing the external hard disk, if it shows 0 bytes error, you can try to connect it to another computer or laptop to see if the error is still showing.
Run chkdsk command
chkdsk command helps users to repair File System that is corrupted due to bad sectors on the hard disk. It is also helpful to repair and fix 0 bytes error. To run chkdsk command, you need to follow the steps mentioned below:
- Go to Search bar by pressing Windows+S and type cmd to open Command Prompt.
- Here you need to right-click on Command Prompt and click on Run as administrator. It will open a dialogue box. Click Yes to proceed further.
- Now type Chkdsk E: /r /f command and press Enter to run the chkdsk.
Note: In the above command, E is the hard disk letter that is showing 0 bytes error, /r and /f is the chkdsk parameters.
Change or Rename the hard disk letter
If any of the above methods don’t work properly, you can move on to 3rd To change the hard disk letter, follow below steps:
- Go to Run by pressing Windows+R key and type msc and click OK to proceed.
- In the Disk Management window, right-click on the affected hard disk and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
- Now click on Change option and select a drive letter shown in the screenshot below:
- Finally, click on OK button and restart the computer to access the data stored on the affected hard disk.
What if, manual methods don’t work?
You can choose any of the above-mentioned methods to fix “External hard disk showing 0 bytes” error absolutely free. Though, manual methods are less reliable in terms of repairing hard disk from 0 bytes error. Hence, one can go for safe and secure professional Hard Disk Recovery tool to fix 0 bytes error.
The Bottom Line
In this blog, we have provided a manual as well as a professional solution to fix “External hard disk showing 0 bytes” error. However, if you aren’t a tech-savvy guy, you can opt for a professional solution to get rid of such issue.
