My 2GB USB drive shows less capacity?

Question

I bought a 2GB USB drive so I could use it to transfer things from one computer to the other, but when I opened up the USB it showed that it only had 1.9GB capacity. I know it's not a huge difference, but I want to know why it's like this.

I tried deleting everything in the drive, even the hidden things, but it's stil 1.9GB.

I also bought this from a very reputable source, so it can't be a scam. It's a Cruzer Micro 2GB USB drive.

HELP!

Answer 1

The problem is that drive manufacturers recognize 1 Gigabyte as being 1,000,000,000 bytes.

But computers recognize 1 Gigabyte as being 1,073,741,824.

You take the difference, 73,741,824 and multiply it by two and you get 147,483,648 or just over .1 Gigabytes.

That is where your .1 Gigabyte is, along with a small amount of space reserved for the File allocation and the partition information.

This is perfectly normal and is just the way it is.

Answer 2

The problem is that Microsoft does not know the standards nor the measure units.

According to the relevant international organizations (BIPM: International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and IEEE), the definitions of the units are:

1 GB (gigabyte) = 1,000,000,000 bytes.
1 GiB (gibibyte) = 1,073,741,824 bytes.

See standard IEEE 1541 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1541).

The memory maker uses the official definition, and is right.
Windows calculates in GiB (gibibytes) but their engineers probably never had a look to the papers from the BIPM nor IEEE, if ever they know they exist, so they print "GB" instead of "GiB".

You have 2GB = 1.86 Gib.

Note that the Linux system correctly uses GB for gigabyte (1,000,000,000) and GiB for gibibyte (1,073,741,824).

PS to previous answer: it is NOT the hard drive manufacturer who define what is a GB, fortunately, it is the international organization such as IEEE and BIPM. Imagine that each shopkeeper define its own definition for kilogram, liter...

Answer 3

For simplicity and consistency, hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes. This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, certain system BIOSs, FDISK and Windows define a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. Mac systems also use these values. These are binary (base 2) measurements.

To Determine Decimal Capacity:
A decimal capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,000,000,000 using base 10).

To Determine Binary Capacity:
A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2).
This is why different utilities will report different capacities for the same drive. The number of bytes is the same, but a different number of bytes is used to make a megabyte and a gigabyte. This is similar to the difference between 0 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the same temperature, but will be reported differently depending on the scale you are using.

Answer 4

Every hard disk or hard drive would need some inbuilt application so that they can arrange the files system internally onto your hard disk the same case for USB, Even when you go to your local system and if you have 80GB it never says 80GB it says like 69 to 72GB as it allots some space for the OS and also some internal applications for the hard drive.

Answer 5

If you read the packaginf it would have said the 2GB was UNFORMATTED capacity, and some of the space is required for file tables / formatting info etc etc etc, kinda like the index in a boox takes a few of the pages up.

Answer 6

I think that is normal. The small amount of space it uses is probably to store any configuration or executable files (drivers etc.) the unit needs when it attempts to connect to different machines. It's the same way with iPods. 8GB is not a full 8GB. It needs some space to hold executables to operate. Hope this helps.

Answer 7

There are some memory sticks that have some stuff default on it to make it work and you can't remove them. Although it says 1.9 GB free it might actually be something like 1.985GB So you should have enough room.

Answer 8

Well all hard drives, Flash drives, Mp3 player's and anything else you can think of uses a bit of space....Think of it as a mini garbage can

Answer 9

u r seeing 1.9 bz the actual memory is around 1.90 to 1.99, ao it is showing a around off value.
don't worry about it

Answer 10

Annoying when all these products are less than what the manufacturer has specified