does My Computer>properties>Capacity 'really always' tell how big a flash drive is?

Question

Bought on Ebay very cheaply an 8gb flash drive. 1. it came with 2 viruses/trojans attached. Ok I reformatted/ ran again Norton Anti Virus. It appears it is gone. My ques: I go to My Computer>Properties>Capacity. It says 7.98. Fine I understand that all is not exact. But,a friend who also bought from someone else on Ebay an 8gb is saying that you can only find out the true capacity by actually placing files/folders on this flash drive because for some reason these do not register truthfully. Could this be? Could I have been "had'? (don't advise me to contact Ebay or Paypal..I am a grandmother and it is all too confusing!First the viruses/and now this..i am probably not the first to have been 'taken'..how come Ebay and paypal don't throw these guys off!..they go by different names) but MY ? is could it be that this is not an 8gb if My Computer>Properties>Capacity says it is? Then why? is my friend's showing 540mg but it registers as an 8gb?

Answer 1

That sounds about right, a small amount of space is needed for the write tables so that it can be used with your operating system.

If you want to double check the size of the drive and if it has any partitions follow this procedure assuming you are using windows XP

Right click My Computer,
Select manage,
Look for and double click disk management its under storage in the lower section of the window.

This will give you the properties of every drive attached to your computer. You will be able to see if there was a second partition added to the drive there.

If you need any more help you can email me though my profile and Ill do what I can,

Answer 2

For an 8gb drive to show as 7.98 is right. A small amount of space is used by the file system of the drive. So it sounds like you got what you thought you were buying.

Why your friends is showing as only 540 I am not sure, unless he has some files on it and it is not showing the full capacity of the drive, but only the remaining capacity (the free space) on the drive.

Or he may have the flash drive "partitioned" (that is divided into two section). Some come that way. One section is for regular file storage and the other for "secure" file that you need a password to see. Mine is that way. It has a small section that you see normally, and a larger section that you have to enter a password to access.

(PS - Glad to see I am not the only grandparent on Answers)

Answer 3

The inconsistency comes from the way storage is measured and handled in computers.

One big thing is the conversion from GB to MB; there are more than 1000MB in 1GB, but most storage device manufacturers round this. 1GB is actually 1024MB. So if someone has a 8GB flash drive, what they actually have is an 8000MB flash drive, so when you do the math properly (8000 divided by 1024), you come out with 7.8ishGB.

On something that small, it doesn't really matter, but as storage gets bigger, the difference is noticeable. For example, my 200GB hard drive is actually only 189GB, a loss of 11GB because of the way manufacturers round down.

So really, you weren't cheated by the seller or anything, and you don't have to fill every bit of the drive to find out the true capacity either.

Answer 4

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