Pny 256 Flash Drive Question

[ace]

I just bought a PNY 256 Attache Flash Drive.....when plugging it into a WinXP computer it only show the size to be 249,282,560 / 237megs. PNY states the size is always smaller as it contains data of the formating etc. Is this normal for a flash drive to be 'so' much smaller in storage space? (256 verses 237) Does this seem unusaul for a flash drive?

 

Any help would be appreciated!!

 

Thanks

 

[Madmanmcp]

Hi Russell, the calculation for determining space has always been a confusing issue and I would not worry about it. First off is the "overhead" that is used on drives to "format" and reserve the locations for files or data to be stored. Next is the actual numbers used... you would think that "1k" would equal 1000 but actually it is 1024 and these 24 bytes add up when you get into MB anf GB. There are also other factors such as bad sectors that are deducted from the total that are not reported.

 

I would not worry about it.

Edited March 20, 2005 by Madmanmcp

[Guest helpbytes]

Hi Russell, the calculation for determining space has always been a confusing issue and I would not worry about it. First off is the "overhead" that is used on drives to "format" and reserve the locations for files or data to be stored. Next is the actual numbers used... you would think that "1k" would equal 1000 but actually it is 1024 and these 24 bytes add up when you get into MB anf GB. There are also other factors such as bad sectors that are deducted from the total that are not reported.

 

I would not worry about it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have a usb drive, a different brand, and it too has some reserved space that makes it smaller, its normal, its required! (Although why they should be allowed to advertise at 256mb when really you cant store all that, is another question lol).

 

As for what is a kilobyte, usually when you're working with circuits, you think in binary, and think in powers of 8; so 1kb = 1024bytes, and 1mb = 1024kb which is 1 048 576bytes.

 

However, many manufacturers of disks will tell you their measurements are based on 1kb=1000bytes, not 1024.