Flash Drives (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

I apologize in advance if this question is in the wrong forum. I've rarely ventured too far out of the Entertainment section of HTF before. Moderators, please move it if necessary.

I have a 1G and a 2G flash drive. I can store around 250 pics (digital images) on the 1G. So, I thought I could store around double this amount on my 2G, but it turns out that I cannot; in fact, I believe the storage as far as the number of images is the same for the 1G and the 2G. I also have a lot of text on the 2G drive (what would amount to about 2,100 pages); however, I cannot believe that this text would take up that much space. Does the fact that I cannot store more than 250 (+/- 10) pics on the 2G have anything to do with partitioning and/or formatting the flash drive?

On a related note, I recently purchased the Kingston 64GB (red) flash drive. This came about because my son downloaded some updates for his PS3 and Xbox yesterday (multiple folders and files were required), and he mentioned how he would love to have a flash drive with a lot more memory than he now has (also a 1G). I was also curious about this new flash drive, so I took the plunge and bought one.

Has anyone purchased one of these recently, and if so, do you like it? I thought too about getting a Corsair, but I read some negative reviews on it that gave me pause.

Here is some background info. on the Kingston:

Kingston 64GB DataTraveler DT50 USB Flash Drive Announced [DataTraveler DT50 Doubles Capacity, ReadyBoost Incompatible] TFTS - Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Kingston 64GB USB Drive: Cheap but Slow - Gearlog

Kingston launches 64GB flash drive

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Scott,

I really can't answer the first part of your question. I have a few
various flash drives, but see no partitioning problems with them. You
should be able to store twice as much on a 2G over a 1G.

What I can tell you is that Corsair are excellent flash drives. I have
a few and love them. Very reliable.

 

[Ockeghem]

Ron,

Thanks. My son offered the opinion that I may have purchased a 'bad' 2G flash; I suppose that that is possible.

Thanks also for the Corsair info. Most of the negative stuff I read had to do with it having the rubber casing (nothing negative about speed or storage).

 

[Shane D]

you might try putting the disk back in and emptying the trash too. sometimes even though you move something to the trash and then take the disk out, its still reading it as there and wont write over it til its emptied.

 

[DaveF]

A 2GB memory card will hold twice as much photos, documents, etc. as a 1GB card. Period. If yours does not, something's amiss.

A weakness of OS X, historic holdover from the old days, is that you must empty the trash for the entire system to truly delete files from removable media.

Until the trash is emptied, the files remain, hidden, on your flash drive.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave is right!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Had this happen many times.

If you are using a MAC and a flash drive and have deleted files
off of it, that flash drive is not truly empty until you have emptied
the trash can.

 

[Ockeghem]

Thanks to all for the help.

I am not using a Mac; could this make a difference in the storage capacity of the flash drive?

Dave,

I agree. That's why it seemed odd to me. The thumb drive is one of those where the U3 Launchpad comes up on the screen, and moves around a bit before it goes away.

When I plug it in, if often says 'E' cannot be read, whereas 'F' can be read. I thought that maybe it was a thumb drive with two drives, but I don't think so, as the maximum amount of pics it can hold is around 240, and only on the 'F' drive.

With this 64GB flash drive I have coming soon, I figure it ought to have a bit more space than either my 1GB or 2GB drives.

 

[DaveF]

The U3 system takes up some space. I don't know how many programs are pre-installed, but perhaps there's enough there to drop your usable space noticably. So, if you don't use the U3 system, I suggest plugging it into a computer formatting it, and checking the available memory.

If you're using Windows, I believe it deletes files fully from the flash memory fully when you drag to the trash. But you can make sure by plugging it into the PC you originally deleted the files from and emptying the trash.

Regarding the E & F drives -- there are many possibilities. You might have a conflict with an existing removable or network drive. I've also seen computers that just don't read some USB drives correctly and dont' register the drive correctly.

 

[Ockeghem]

Dave,

Many thanks. I'll try what you've suggested. I think your thought about a possible conflict between E & F drives could be spot on, now that I think of the messages I've received when I've used the stick.

Hopefully these problems won't exist (or if they do, will be negligible as far as storage space is concerned) with the 64GB.

 

[Shane D]

i had a drive that had that u3 stuff on it and i found a program thru the manufacteres website that removed it all from the drive and it worked correctly after that.

the one i had was a 2gig and i could only access 1.5gig until i removed that stuff

edit: that u3 stuff cannot be removed with just a format. you can't touch/delete/change any aspect of that 'extra' drive. Mine wasn't kensington though.

 

[Ockeghem]

Shane,

Thanks. I may try to discard that stuff; on the other hand, I may not need to be that concerned about it once I have a 64GB. That U3 stuff is somewhat annoying, isn't it?

 

[Ockeghem]

Something dawned on me yesterday with regard to storage space on flash drives. So I tested my theory, and it yielded impressive results.

Here are a couple of sample files of mine:

TrekGorn.38
TrekHorta.123

I changed the length of the file names to:

Trek.38
Trek.123

I did this for about 100 files, and I had a ton more space on the drive. I suppose this is elementary to most here, but I hadn't thought that this would make a substantial difference--which it did. I guess my file names were just too long!

 

[DaveF]

That makes no sense. Filename length has nothing to do with available capacity on a harddrive. There's something else going on.

 

[Ockeghem]

That could be. But that's what occurred when I changed the names of hundreds of files. I'm just pleased I now have hundreds of files at my disposal due to my having changed the length of my file names (even if this is not the cause of the problem).

 

[Ockeghem]

Dave et al.,

How does one empty the trash on one's flash drive? I've not done this before. I deleted everything off of one of my flash drives. It says it's empty, but before I begin adding files to it again I'd like to be sure. Thanks.

BTW, on my 'F' and 'G' drives on the 2GB, the following still remains:

autorun.inf
Launchpad.zip
LaunchU3.exe

I could delete these from the 'G' drive of the 2GB, but not from the 'F' drive of the 2GB. It informs me that these are 'read only' files.

 

[DaveF]

You're on a Mac, right? Drag files to the trash and empty the trash on the desktop.

I don't understand why your 2GB flash has two partitions. That may indicate a larger problem. I suggest copying off files you care about and formatting it with a single partition.

 

[Ockeghem]

I don't understand it either. But I will format it with a single partition. This will probably solve the problem. Thanks.

 

[DaveF]

In Windows, you simply delete the files. You can empty the desktop trash for good measure, but I don't think it's necessary with removable drives.

 

[Christian Behrens]

Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Since flash drives are usually formatted with FAT32, there is a hard limit of file entries for the root directory, something that is relatively easily reached by having long filenames.

FAT was never made to deal with more than 8.3 filenames, so the way they made long filenames possible is to use additional, invisible directory entries to store long filenames. However, once the limit of possible directory entries is reached, the device appears "full", since no more directory entries can be made.

Using only 8.3 filenames helps work around that problem, as does moving files into subdirectories, IIRC.

-Christian

 

[Ockeghem]

Dave and Christian,

Thanks for the help! Much appreciated.

BTW, my 64GB is working wonderfully. It's astonishing to me how much data this tiny item can hold.