Bringing the USB used for Windows 10 boot back to it's normal state

Hi guys

I shall explain what I mean in the title of this post. While making a Windows 10 boot USB I made an error and selected my external USB disk instead of a USB stick. After Media Tool was done with creating the boot USB, the system shows the USB disk as bootable one, which was expected, but also showing it's max capacity at 30GB instead of original 500GB.

Two questions:
1) Is there anyway to revert and/or get back the data from the disk from before making it a bootable USB
2) If the above is not possible, how to format it to it's original form. Currently when going to format tool it only shows me an options to formt as 30GB drive

Thanks in advance for help

I believe that the MCT (media creation tool) formatted the disk as FAT32. It's possible to make a FAT32 drive larger than 32GB, but apparently the MCT went for the oldest, most compatible form.

If you lost data on the external HD, you may be able to recover some of it. I've never used it, but people seem to like the free version of Recuva:



If you wish to format the external drive and recover its capacity, format it as NTFS.

I had the same issue when I had to a 64GB drive [didn't have a 32GB] and the issue I had was I couldn't create a new partition in the remaining 32GB. I believe the FAT32 is necessary to assure being able to boot to it. After I got a 32GB I booted to a GPARTED LiveCD and deleted everything from the Thumb drive then reformatted the whole thing as FAT32.

Looks like @bobkn and @Berton have conflicting answers I believe the correct answer to restore it to 500GB is to format it to NTFS

Recuva may be able to recover your files, but I have found that it is only good for Deleted files not formatted drives that have been overwritten. You can try the free TestDiskprogram. I have had the best luck with GetDataBack. You will need another drive of the same size or larger to restore your files to. Since the data was overwritten, I am not sure you will be able to recover much
Once you have recovered, then go to Start/Search and type diskmgmt.msc, right click the diskmgmt results and Run As Administrator,in the Elevated Disk Managementwindow Right click the Partition (Volume) and choose to Delete Volume, in the Unallocated Space,Right click and choose to Create a New Simple Volume. Make it the full 500GB. Format it NTFS.
In the future, unplug all USB device except the flash drive when creating bootable USB media.

Looks like @bobkn and @Berton have conflicting answers I believe the correct answer to restore it to 500GB is to format it to NTFS

The mention of 500GB certainly puts a different slant on the issue, thought it was about a 64GB drive.

Looks like @bobkn and @Berton have conflicting answers I believe the correct answer to restore it to 500GB is to format it to NTFS

No conflict at all. Read the posts again.

For Berton, the MCT created a 32GB partition (shows as 30GB for the usual reason) on a 64GB flash drive.

It's possible to format a drive larger than 32GB using FAT32, at least in newer versions of Windows. (I'm not sure that the default formatter will do it, but it's possible by other means.)