Partitioning USB drive with one partition still leaves an extra 2GB free. Please Help

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Hi,

I have an 8GB usb flash drive but when i format it using one partition the partition is only 7.67GB. It says i still have 2.27GB left and the total capacity of my drive is 8.02GB. I have partitioned the drive over and over again and each time i get the same result. How can i get my partition to take a the full capacity of my drive.

(See attached picture for details.)

Thanks for any help.

Dave

Screen shot 2010-10-25 at 18.16.30.png
 
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Try formatting in a different format, i.e FAT and see if it gives the same result, if it formats it correctly then format with Mac OS extended again, should clear the problem

- Simon
 
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Try formatting in a different format, i.e FAT and see if it gives the same result, if it formats it correctly then format with Mac OS extended again, should clear the problem

- Simon

I'ved already formatted in FAT and the result is still the same.
 
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Sound like the memory module has become damaged, the system sees how big it should be but is only formatting what it can access and blocking the rest off hence only seeing a smaller protion available

- Simon
 
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Sound like the memory module has become damaged, the system sees how big it should be but is only formatting what it can access and blocking the rest off hence only seeing a smaller protion available

- Simon

Any idea how it can be fixed?

Thanks for your help.
 

chscag

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What I don't understand is why you formatted it to begin with? The drive was pre-formatted from the factory as FAT or FAT-32. Re-formatting flash drives usually spells trouble. Search the forums for the fix. Basically, you have to remove the partitions (clean the drive) first.
 
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To be honest if its a memory stick / dongle, its not worth trying to unless there is something of real importance on there it'll cost the same if not more than to just buy a new one!

- Simon
 
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So pretty much we're saying theres no way to fix the issue. What i also don't understand is why should reformatting mean that i should loose some space on my drive as reformatting should delete everything anyway. Is there anything i can do to avoid this?
 

chscag

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Because reformatting a flash drive is almost never necessary. And as I stated above, reformatting usually causes problems - especially when using Disk Utility.

See the following LINK for a remedy. After cleaning the drive with the procedure I linked you to, you'll need to create a partition on the drive and then format it. Do not use Disk Utility, use Disk Manager from Windows instead.
 
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Because reformatting a flash drive is almost never necessary. And as I stated above, reformatting usually causes problems - especially when using Disk Utility.

See the following LINK for a remedy. After cleaning the drive with the procedure I linked you to, you'll need to create a partition on the drive and then format it. Do not use Disk Utility, use Disk Manager from Windows instead.

That didn't work earthier. After cleaning the disk in windows it still says it's only 7.46GB, this is even before i've partitioned it, this is just unallocated space. When i partition that is obviously the only space i get.

So i take it there is not much more i can do. But for future reference what program would you recommend for partitioning disks so i can try and avoid this problem again.

Thanks for all your help.
 
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But for future reference what program would you recommend for partitioning disks so i can try and avoid this problem again.

If by "disks" you mean USB flash drives, chscag already gave you the answer...

Do not use Disk Utility, use Disk Manager from Windows instead.
 

dtravis7


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Is this a U3 drive by chance? What brand is it? What version of OSX is on your Mac? If it's not 10.6 an 8GB drive will never show up as 8GB but 7 and some change.

A U3 drive (Sandisk for one) has U3 partition that no disk utility will ever remove. You have to get a tool from Sandisk to remove it and get the full size of the drive.
 

chscag

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I forgot to mention the U3 part, so thanks to dtravis7 for that. He's right, if it's a U3 type, there is no way that Disk Manager can remove it.

Also, another thing we may be forgetting is that an 8 GB flash drive in reality (real measurement) only has around 7.5 GB of usable space.
 

dtravis7


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This is why I was asking if he was running 10.6 or 10.5 or before. 10.6 reports drive size in Base-10 and older OS's including Windows use Base-2.

So in 10.6 it should show around 8GB.

Here is my 16GB Sandisk that I removed the U3 partition on using the San Disk utility. In 10.6 it shows up at 16.01 GB but in 10.5 shows 14.91 GB.

Screen shot 2010-10-26 at 11.49.54 AM.png

Picture 1.jpg
 
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Thank you everyone for your help.

I am not using a U3 and my mac is running 10.6.4.

The other thing is i know that i can use disk manager for windows if i wanted to format it to a format that windows recognises. But if for instance i wanted to format it to a mac format such as Mac OS Extended is there a way that i can be safe so that this won't happen again.

Thanks again everyone for all your help i do appreciate it.
 

dtravis7


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In your pic of Disk Utility it shows a lot of blue meaning used space. Is that after you partition it? If so there is some partition there that Disk Utility is not allowing you to erase.
 
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In your pic of Disk Utility it shows a lot of blue meaning used space. Is that after you partition it? If so there is some partition there that Disk Utility is not allowing you to erase.

Yeah thats correct i partition it and that space is left no matter what i do.
 

dtravis7


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Just curious, which drive is it? Brand? Model? That might help us to figure out what is going on.
 

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