yo all,

i just bought a thumb drive...4GB wan...at windows...wen i tried to copy some files over around 3.8GB size...cannot work....disk full..
after i check..found out that it's only 3.75GB...

is this normal? or should i send back the thumb drive for warranty claim/replacement to get a 4GB replacement?

thanks.

Can you tell how many bytes instead of how many "GB"? What is the total of the file sizes, in bytes? You should always look at the bytes, not other things.

Edit: In short, when looking at Properties in Windows XP, read the number of bytes, not KB MB GB. To make things clear, I mean read the big number bytes. It is actually a bug with the display routine, it will not affect anything other than displaying the wrong value.

This post has been edited by xenon: Dec 26 2007, 08:11 AM

it's normal.. it doesn't matter what type of drives you buy.. even if you buy a 500GB hdd.. u also won't get 500GB.. you'll get around 475GB only.. it's measured in bytes..

I remembered that i did explained on some of the threads whereby the standards use in storage manufacturing and the standards used in windows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte

When the companies sell these storage items, like HDD or USB drives, the storage capacity is counted like this.

4GB = 4,000,000,000 bytes
500GB = 500,000,000,000 bytes.
..etc. etc.

But, when in reality

1024 bytes = 1KB
1024KB = 1MB
1024MB = 1 GB
etc. etc.

So, a 4gb thumb drive is actually

4,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 /1024 = 3.725290298GB

There you go. =D

this is a very good and simple explaination.
i always knew that we can't never see the exact GB storage whenever we buy the HD or thumbdrive but i never knew the real reason behind it. one of my friends say the reason is some thumbdrive and HD is preloaded with some basic drivers/software that is why you can never see the exact storage. can anyone confirm this?

and why does manufacturer does not just wrote 3.72GB instead of 4GB to avoid confusion?

465gb here with my 500gb

nvm lo. ppl didn't study IT gua...

Manufacturer will always display the capacity they made instead on the one shown in Windows. They create that much, they display that much. No more no less. Besides, you think 3.7GB sounds nicer compared to 4GB?

hmmmm when u say its 4GB, thats actually 1GB(1024MB) X 4 = 4096MB

so 4096MB = 4GB

now 4GB = 4096MB in actual MBs

4096MB = 4096MB X 1024KB (because 1MB = 1024KB) =

and please dont forget 1byte = 8bits

so that makes ur calculation wrong ...

in actual 4Gb is 4294967296 kB

1GB = 1024 MB = 1048576kB = 1073741824 bytes (then multiply 8 if u wan the bits ...

in actual fact why u seem to be losing storage space is that the file system, the file system will take up space on ur drive to create all the file allocation table and this file system will be more if ur drive cap is more ...

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Added on December 26, 2007, 12:44 pmno basic thumb drive without any preloaded software will still lose out some space

the ones u are talking about would be like those Sandisk Micro Cruzer U3 with preloaded and u can install it urself also this U3 softwares ...

This post has been edited by earl-ku: Dec 26 2007, 01:13 PM

it's normal lor. go to the device properties and beside the 3.75gb, you will se 400...........bytes which is equivalent to 4GB.

o blind me....
dang.... should have counted myself... i know it's suppose to be less...but so much less? haha..anyway...it's correct... thanks bro....

besides that, if u have a U3 enabled thumb drive,
the U3 software suite occupies some space too.

it's for marketing purposes. seller wont sell it at 3.455532gb instead of 4gb

hey u only rugi 250mb from ur 4gb.

i bought a kingston datatraveler 8gb with jus 6.57gb usable capacity . i did the math it shud be 7.4gb left correct me if im wrong....


Attached image(s)

If u still unsatisfied, try this Flashtester

Please backup your data inside your flash drive before process begin.

You may be the latest victim of the "GB" fraud.

When we say "Giga" in computer, we mean 1024 X 1024 X 1024.

However, a lot of storage manufacturers, both HD and thumbdrive, are re-defining GB as 1,000,000,000

As if that's not deceptive enough, they mean it as the RAW figure, ie., the RAW capacity of the storage _BEFORE_ they are formatted !

That is what happening to your 4GB thumb drive.

4,000,000,000 bytes is definitely smaller than 4GB (in computer parlance), and after you formatted the thumb drives, the data area is even smaller !!

Hope this helps.