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General discussion

Flash Drive Way Under Capacity?

Dec 6, 2006 3:24AM PST

I have a 1 GB USB 2.0 flash drive that returns a "the disk in the detination drive is full" message even though there's less than 450 MB of data on it. I'm only trying to add a 200 KB file.

I've tried to reformat and properties indicate that there should be 500 MB of available space on the drive.

Am I missing something?

Discussion is locked

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This happens when...
Dec 6, 2006 5:18AM PST

You put all the files in the top directory. Hint? It only holds so many files.

Fix? Make a sub directory and put things there.

Bob

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(NT) My 2 Gig doesn't have that problem.
Dec 6, 2006 8:26AM PST
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(NT) The root directory is limited. Keep at it.
Dec 6, 2006 9:22AM PST
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Ah ha, I see what you mean. . .!
Dec 6, 2006 9:12PM PST

But.

Mine came formatted with a couple of partitions and some lame software. On digging into the directories, I found a little secret utility. It removed all formatting and partitions. I now have a full 2 Gig drive. It's FAT32, and I may reformat it to NTFS since I have no FAT32 PCs.

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Hmmmmm, maybe I won't reformat it. . .
Dec 6, 2006 9:14PM PST

Format option isn't available.

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(NT) Ooops, yes it is, can't read.
Dec 6, 2006 9:15PM PST
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Last post. . .
Dec 6, 2006 9:32PM PST

It was formatted as FAT. Reformat option is FAT32, no NTFS. Oh well.

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Thanks!
Dec 6, 2006 10:26PM PST

Creating subdirectories solved the problem. Is this endemic of all flash drives?

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Not only flash drives, diskettes, hard disks, etc.
Dec 6, 2006 10:28PM PST

It's a limitation of most file systems. Not a bug.

Bob