Unable to access all of Cruzer Mini Flash Drive

[gbradshawii]

I have a 1GB Cruzer Mini flash drive, and this morning, I was copying MP3 files over, which didn't amount to 970 MB, which was the amount of free space it gave me. Near the end of copying , it gave me a "Disk is full" error, but I still had about 450 MB left. Anyone else run into this or have any idea why I can't access the rest of the space? Thanks in advance!

 

[gbradshawii]

Solution

Since I never heard any suggestions, I'll assume no one knew, so I'll post the fix for anyone who encounters a similar problem. The drive was originally formatted as FAT and only let me use a bit over 500 MB. Once reformatted (through the Disk Management utility in Windows) with FAT32, I was able to use all the space with no problem. Why SanDisk failed to mention this anywhere is beyond me. Hope this helps someone.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

You guys should learn to have some patience!
The reason you could only put on so much (or so little), had to do with the NUMBER of files, not the TOTAL SIZE.

Root directories are limited in # of entries, depending on the FAT-system the drive is formatted in (e.g. max. 512 or 1024 files)
Next time, use a sub-directory, you can put as many files in there as you like.
This is basic hardware knowledge, that nobody bothers about anymore (unfortunately).

 

[gbradshawii]

Okay, let's examine your theory:

512 files (MP3's) x 3.5 MB (approx) = 1.8 GB > capacity of flash drive

524 MB (the space I was able to use) / 3.5 MB = 150 files (approx)

The numbers don't match up, but the formatting does. I'll try your experiment, though and let you know how it comes out.

EDIT: Okay, it's strange, but it worked -- only the part about the sub-directory, though. However, it obviously needs to be formatted with FAT32 if you want to be able to put files in the root directory.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Read my post again: had to do with the NUMBER of files, not the TOTAL SIZE.

 

[gbradshawii]

Read mine. I did your number theory.