2GB external HDD backup is recognized as only 259 mb by my laptop??

The partition table on your external hard drive is corrupted/damaged therefore Windows will fails to read this partition and displays as RAW. Although the data is still there, you'd need a third party program and use the option "Partition Recovery" to fix the problem. The free version of Minitool Partition Wizard will scan the lost partition.However, to recover the lost partition, you'd need to buy the Pro version to recover the lost partiiton.

If the data in this partition is not important then you can delete this partition then re-create and format it.



Another way to fix this problem without using the third party is:
https://html5.litten.com/updated-how-to-fix-external-disk-drive-suddenly-became-raw/
But it is tedious and not guarantee to work.

Hi Provlima,

Tell me about the history of your 2TB external drive. The question is how come your external drive has a 260 MB EFI System Partition. I would suspect that you took out an Internal system drive and put it in an external enclosure. If that is what you did, tell me the reason why you took an internal drive and made it an external drive. If you haven't manipulated this " external drive" in any way, I would suggest that you restore it back as the original system drive and check whether you are able to access the HDD. If accessible copy all the data into another external drive. Afterwards you can take it out and put it in an enclosure and initialise it as an MBR drive and format it.. You will then not have that EFI System partition.

Before you do that, in the present condition , take a screenshot how your present this 2TB external drive looks like in MiniTool Partition Wizard . I would suggest that you download the Minitool Partition Wizard Free Edition v 9.1 - yes old version 9.1 - run it and take a screenshot. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 10.2.2 Download for Windows / Old Versions / FileHorse.com ( Note: Partition Recovery is free in the old version. In the higher versions you need to buy a pro edition. In this case however it is not a Partition lost issue and I would think it is a file system corruption issue or some compatibility problem with your external enclosure unable to read a GPT partition )

It is past midnight here and so do not expect me for the next 6 to 8 hours. I do wake up exactly five hours from now.

Select the 2TB disk then click on Partition Recovery, don't forget to click on "Apply" for each operation. What is the result ?

provlima said:

Thank you for your reply.
The 2TB is a WD My Passport external drive I use to backup my laptop
The problem occurred when I attempted to make a Macrium 7 clone on it
I downloaded minitool 9.1 and made the screenshot you requested...........

OK, my assumptions were wrong :), but my questioning brought out the exact problem. I would just make one comment - the clone you did is not an exact clone of your system drive. You may raise another query on how to make an exact clone with Macrium reflect. (I see you are already on it. I won't enter into it for I had never used Macrium)

Focusing on your problem on how to make the leftout 1645GB accessible, use Partition Wizard to create a new volume in the unallocated space and format it.

As already told, it is not a Partition lost problem and partition recovery as suggested by topgundcp in his last post is irrelevant. Sorry topgundcp.