SanDisk USB stick showing 114gb instead of 128gb

[EvanDavis]

I have THIS 128gb SanDisk USB stick bought from Currys. I'm a little confused. In properties it is only showing up as 114gb. Where has the other 14gb gone ?

 

[TriplexDread]

You do usually lose a certain percentage during the formatting process. I think about 7-8%
You seem to have lost about 11%

 

[muckshifter]

... because, Manufacturers use the 'format' that a 128GB SanDisk USB flash drive has a total capacity of 128,000,000,000 bytes at the unformatted level (where 1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes). But, the OS uses a different 'format' of 1,073,741,824 bytes.

Oh, and it's been that way since time began, and no, the figures still won't add up.

Sandisk explains

 

[steve6375]

Your screenshot is showing the size of the NTFS formatted volume - not the size of the drive.
There could be more than one partition on the drive or not all sectors may have been used in that partition.

Use a utility like RMPrepUSB - Drive Info to see the true number of drive sectors available ('Reported size').
Windows says 'GB' when it really should say 'GiB'.

If RMPrepUSB.exe - Drive Info does not report a size of 128,000,000 bytes or more, then SanDisk are contravening the Trades Description Act

11Goods to be as described
(1)Every contract to supply goods by description is to be treated as including a term that the goods will match the description.

 

[robertguy]

Why are there 1024 bytes in a kilobyte?​

Answer: Many people think that there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte. After all, "kilo" means 1000. In most cases, this approximation is fine for determining how much space a file takes up or how much disk space you have.
But there are really 1024 bytes in a kilobyte. The reason for this is because computers are based on the binary system. That means hard drives and memory are measured in powers of 2. For example,

• 2^0 = 1
• 2^1 = 2
• 2^2 = 4
• 2^3 = 8
• 2^4 = 16
• 2^5 = 32
• 2^6 = 64
• 2^7 = 128
• 2^8 = 256
• 2^9 = 512
• 2^10 = 1024

Notice how 2^10 is 1024. Therefore, 2^10, or 1024 bytes compose one kilobyte. Furthermore, 1024 kilobytes compose one megabyte, and 1024 megabytes compose one gigabyte. For most practical purposes, you can estimate 1024 to 1000. But correcting someone who says there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte is a great way to impress your friends.

See :- https://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/why_1024_bytes

 

[steve6375]

There are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, there are 1024 bytes in a kibibyte
See

Byte - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Kilobyte - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In December 1998, the IEC addressed such multiple usages and definitions by creating prefixes such as kibi, mebi, gibi, etc., to unambiguously denote powers of 1024.[10] Thus the kibibyte, symbol KiB, represents 210 bytes = 1024 bytes. These prefixes are now part of the International System of Quantities. The IEC further specified that the kilobyte should only be used to refer to 1000 bytes.

 

[senseless_sensei]

Greetings here. I was looking for the answer to the same question I was having. I understand all the explanations you have all given. But the numbers just...do not add up. Is there an explanation to that. I am losing my mind.

 

[steve6375]

114Gib = 122Gb but that is the capacity of the formatted PARTITION not the whole drive.

You need to use RMPrepUSB to find the reported size of the whole drive.

Here is SanDisk 128GB USB drive as reported by RMPrepUSB - Drive Info

Partition 1 SIZE=98420.658MiB Type: 07 NTFS\exFAT *ACTIVE*
START POS = CYL:0 HD:32 SEC:33 END POS = CYL:1023 HD:254 SEC:63
START (LBA) = 2,048 (00000800) SIZE (LBA) = 201,565,507 (0C03A543) [End=201,567,554]

Partition 2 SIZE=18551.621MiB Type: 0C FAT32LBA (2047GB max)
START POS = CYL:1023 HD:254 SEC:63 END POS = CYL:1023 HD:254 SEC:63
START (LBA) = 201,567,560 (0C03AD48) SIZE (LBA) = 37,993,720 (0243BCF8) [End=239,561,279]

Partition 3 SIZE=5129.413MiB Type: 0B FAT32 (2047GB max)
START POS = CYL:1023 HD:254 SEC:63 END POS = CYL:1023 HD:254 SEC:63
START (LBA) = 239,562,752 (0E477000) SIZE (LBA) = 10,505,038 (00A04B4E) [End=250,067,789]

Partition 4 SIZE=0MiB Type: 00
START POS = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0 END POS = CYL:0 HD:0 SEC:0
START (LBA) = 0 (00000000) SIZE (LBA) = 0 (00000000)

P1 Start=2,048 (1,048,576 bytes) End=201,567,554 (103,202,587,648 bytes)
P2 Start=201,567,560 (103,202,590,720 bytes) End=239,561,279 (122,655,374,848 bytes)
P3 Start=239,562,752 (122,656,129,024 bytes) End=250,067,789 (128,034,707,968 bytes)

Drive 4 SanDisk Extreme Pro F/W Rev.=0 Serial No.= [ bytes = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ]
Reported size 128,043,712,512 bytes (119.25GiB) Last LBA 250,085,375
RMPrepUSB Max 128,034,708,480 bytes (119.2416GiB) Last LBA 250,067,789

Notice the Reported Size = 128,043,712,512 bytes

 

[Peru Bob]

But the numbers just...do not add up. Is there an explanation to that. I am losing my mind.

Sometimes it's just best to accept the reality and not worry about the details.