why is my flash drive only 28 GB when it should be 32GB

GT60

Hi as the tittle says why is my flash drive only 28 GB when it should be 32GB
I have formatted it to make sure its empty
I have seen the answers online but don't fully understand so could someone please explain in simple terms
Thank you

Oblivion

There's actually two things happening as far as I understand it.

Manufacturers of these devices use standard metric values to describe disk space e.g. 1000KB = 1MB, 1000MB = 1GB, and so on. Your computer however measures space using binary such that 1024KB = 1MB, 1024MB = 1GB. So, that means your 32GB drive in decimal is now described as 30.5GB drive in binary by the computer.

The second factor is that because the drive is solid state, the controller in the drive sets aside about 7% of the space in order for it to function properly. So remove 7% from our new figure of 30.5GB and you are left with approximately 28GB.


So there's nothing actually wrong with your flash drive, it's just the way of the world.

GT60

Thank you

John_Gray

Oblivion wrote: »

The second factor is that because the drive is solid state, the controller in the drive sets aside about 7% of the space in order for it to function properly. So remove 7% from our new figure of 30.5GB and you are left with approximately 28GB.

Interesting, and news to me, if we're talking about the usual USB Flash Drive = pen drive, and not an SSD (about which I know nothing).

In my experience your first point covers the situation almost exactly, with only the file-system files (FAT-32, ex-FAT, NTFS) to be subtracted from that calculation.

Additionally, it's always possible that Windows might write system restore points into a folder called System Volume Information, and recycling stuff to $RECYCLE.BIN. The size of these two is entirely arbitrary...

Neil_Jones

John_Gray wrote: »

Interesting, and news to me, if we're talking about the usual USB Flash Drive = pen drive, and not an SSD (about which I know nothing).

In my experience your first point covers the situation almost exactly, with only the file-system files (FAT-32, ex-FAT, NTFS) to be subtracted from that calculation.

Additionally, it's always possible that Windows might write system restore points into a folder called System Volume Information, and recycling stuff to $RECYCLE.BIN. The size of these two is entirely arbitrary...

The recycle bin and System Information work in the same way on an SSD as it does on a mechanical drive. They do not affect the total capacity of a drive but they may affect how much free space it shows. In addition System Restore and Recycle Bin do not apply to USB Flash drives.

[Deleted User]

Actually, it's not so much that the computer works in binary (which it does), but that there are 8 bits in a byte.

As a result, the progression is 8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024.

The other part is correct, ie. many manufacturers define a Gigabyte as 1,000 Megabytes, not, as it should be, 1024 Megabytes.

pappa_golf

35 gig ones are available from (ebay) china , once formatted they show 32 gig

forgotmyname

Once formatted they show 32 GB but its probably a 2GB card anyway.

Or a 64GB card that had so many flawed sectors that it went in the bin until your seller fished it out?

Cycrow

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Actually, it's not so much that the computer works in binary (which it does), but that there are 8 bits in a byte.

As a result, the progression is 8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024.

The other part is correct, ie. many manufacturers define a Gigabyte as 1,000 Megabytes, not, as it should be, 1024 Megabytes.

actually you have that the wrong way round, the correct size for a Gigabyte is 1,000 Megabytes.

the correct term for 1024MB, is gibibyte. But windows, and other OS chose to refer to it as gigabyte instead, which is where the confusion comes from.

Mega and Giga are decimal prefix (power of 10)
whereas Mebi and Gibi are binary prefix (power of 2).

Robisere

No storage medium has the same amount that is written "on the tin". This confuses a lot of people who are not very tech-savvy. I recommend a read of this: -

http://blog.premiumusb.com/2010/11/usb-flash-drive-actual-storage-space-capacity/

20aday

From a fruit flavoured company:

1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less

If companies went around advertising the storage a device has (with the amount left "free") I can imagine the uproar now ("I want my money back. I paid for 16GB, not 12.72GB!!")