1) The driver for the USB drive may be on there (and hidden) so that is some space.
2) A file never takes up the space it says it does, it takes minimum number of blocks that are needed for the file. So if your block size is 32K and you have a file that is 32K + 1 byte, then it will still show as 32769 bytes, but take up 64K. So if you have a large block size, but numerous small files (each one getting a block), you run out of space when the listed file size is low.
3) Could be that some of the USB memory has gone bad/gotten corrupted.
Bad blocks, record-keeping (file allocation table). It is possible to store an incredibly small amount of actual data on a 1GB partition if the formatting uses 32K minimum block sizes, a dynamic file record, and there's a bunch of small files.
It's also possible that the filesystem is FAT, which limits the number of file/directory entries in the root of the filesystem to 256. You might be ble to store more stuff in subfolders and if so - your likely culprit is the 256 file FAT limit.
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1) The driver for the USB drive may be on there (and hidden) so that is some space.
2) A file never takes up the space it says it does, it takes minimum number of blocks that are needed for the file. So if your block size is 32K and you have a file that is 32K + 1 byte, then it will still show as 32769 bytes, but take up 64K. So if you have a large block size, but numerous small files (each one getting a block), you run out of space when the listed file size is low.
3) Could be that some of the USB memory has gone bad/gotten corrupted.
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Of course, so is #2, because I'm using this to hold mp3s so I can have some music at work.
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It's also possible that the filesystem is FAT, which limits the number of file/directory entries in the root of the filesystem to 256. You might be ble to store more stuff in subfolders and if so - your likely culprit is the 256 file FAT limit.
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Anyways, USB drives are cheap. So if he really wants something to haul around MP3s on, a inexpensive solution could be found.
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HEEHEE. NOT I. NO. CERTAINLY. NEVER. NOT A CHANCE. I ONLY USE ReiserFS AND HAVE NEVER FORMATTED ANYTHING FAT-16. EVER.
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