Unaccounted memory on USB stick???

[neorichieb1971]

I have a corsair USB with 16gb capacity, yet I've cleared down all the data from it and only have 11gb of space to use. There is about 200mb worth of data on it.

I've just copied that 218mb to my computer and reformatted, now its got the normal 15.2GB available. So where did 4gb go? I am confused.

I know sometimes the space is not freed on a deletion until you empty the recycle bin, but there wasn't one on it to empty.

I suppose its ok now since I have the full 15.2GB available.

[StarCreator]

It's possible there was a hidden partition with extra data or other junk on it.

[Ex-Cyber]

I know sometimes the space is not freed on a deletion until you empty the recycle bin, but there wasn't one on it to empty.

I don't routinely use Windows anymore, but I think Recycle Bin stuff for removable storage is just shown in the system Recycle Bin, not as something that exists on that specific drive.

[Vexorg]

It's possible there could have been a hidden directory on it somewhere. Quickest way to check on this is to open a command prompt, go to the drive and type "dir /a:h /s". This will show you if there are any hidden files on the drive.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

There are probably two factors at work here.

1. When stores sell memory they sell it as 1000 MB = 1 GB when really it should be 1024 MB = 1 GB. They stick to the notion of "giga" meaning 1000 when in computerland it means 1024. This means they probably shorted you 24 x 16 or 384 MB of data. They screw you in this way.


2. Second depending on the file system (maybe FAT32 in this case) part of the file system on the drive is used to maintain where the different data locations are. This is a sort of table that holds the file structure together, it consumes part of the drive memory to maintain. In FAT systems there is a "File Allocation Table" that maintains locations of files on the drive, bigger the drive, bigger the file allocation table.

Also
Depending on the file system, as it goes bad it may show less memory I'm not sure about flash memory but many types of drives actually block off bad sections of space when they are no longer stable to write to.

To see in Windows:
Right click "My Computer" then choose Manage, you should see the drive info there and you might be able to format it.

Ubuntu Linux:
Use "Disk Utility", much more powerful than Windows.

[Slump]

Depends on the system here. If your on Windows check the previous posts, if you however removed the items on a Linux OS most likely a .Trash file was created with everything you deleted still in it. You can always try formating it to make sure, that should free up all mem.

[Shelcoof]

did you buy the memory from a chinese distributor? I know a lot of memory being sold on ebay from Hong Kong or China are fake.

I remember one transaction I had where I purchased an 8GB that turned out to only have only 1GB of usable memory. But when I put it into the PC it always told me I had 8GB available. Every time I would try to upload data onto the card it would max out at 1GB. The data would also get corrupted too so the SD card was very unreliable.

Anyways it's a common scam that happens quit frequently, you can google it for more info

[TransatlanticFoe]

OP: you reformatted the drive and got the full capacity back, so chances are that missing 4 GB was corrupted through general use (it happens, especially with cheaper USB drives) - a defragment might have helped, with reformatting being the nuclear option. Although reformatting isn't exactly troublesome for such a small amount of storage.