# how to utilize pen drive for maximum capacity?



## chicha (Feb 3, 2008)

i have a kingston data traveller 100.
its a 4GB pen drive but only show 3.73 GB so i am missing good 200MB!!

how can i gain that?
i tried converting it into fat system but i could not.


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## Pathik (Feb 3, 2008)

You cant do anything. 4GB = 3.73GiB.


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## dOm1naTOr (Feb 3, 2008)

For thumbdrives nd HDD the real size is less than the specified. This is lost due to farmating.


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## ico (Feb 3, 2008)

FAT16 or simply FAT doesn't support partitions over 2GB, so you can't use FAT for your pendrive. You'll have to use FAT32

And 4GB = 4 * 10^9 bytes = 4000000000 bytes

4000000000 bytes (divide by 1024) = 3906250 KiB = 3814.7 MiB = *3.73 GiB*
So this is the maximum you can use.......


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## ayush_chh (Feb 3, 2008)

^^ very correct ....


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 4, 2008)

gagandeep said:


> FAT16 or simply FAT doesn't support partitions over 2GB, so you can't use FAT for your pendrive. You'll have to use FAT32
> 
> And 4GB = 4 * 10^9 bytes = 4000000000 bytes
> 
> ...


 
how u know that 4 * 10^9 = 4 GB i.e. how you got that it is 10^9 why it is not 10^8..???

Hope u understand what i am asking..


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## chicha (Feb 4, 2008)

ok.
 now i formatted it with a NTFS. what is better NTFS or FAT32? 
 which is faster?


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 4, 2008)

*^^ NTFS.*



> Originally Posted by *gagandeep* *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/kirsch/buttons/viewpost.gif
> _FAT16 or simply FAT doesn't support partitions over 2GB, so you can't use FAT for your pendrive. You'll have to use FAT32_
> 
> _And 4GB = 4 * 10^9 bytes = 4000000000 bytes_
> ...


 
how u know that 4 * 10^9 = 4 GB i.e. how you got that it is 10^9 why it is not 10^8..???

Hope u understand what i am asking..

*---------------------550 Posts------------------------*


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## prasad_den (Feb 4, 2008)

^^ come on dude... don't say you don't know 1GB is 1000 MB and 1 MB is 1000KB and 1KB is 1000B.. So do the math yourself... and stop counting your total number of posts..! that'll take you nowhere.!


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 4, 2008)

^^ *1 GB = 1024 MB *and u say _1 GB = 1000 MB_ and same with KB and B.

Anyone plz help.


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## prasad_den (Feb 4, 2008)

^^ Thats because manufacturers count them in 1000s while the computer still identifies a KB as 1024B.. Tht's the reason why your computer shows 3.73 GB on a pen drive while the manufacturer insists its a 4GB one. Both count differently.


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## ashfame (Feb 4, 2008)

Any softwares for testing the read write speed of pen drives.? I have a kingston 4gb (bought it for Rs.750 ) and wants to benchmark it.


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## redhat (Feb 4, 2008)

prasad_den said:


> ^^ Thats because manufacturers count them in 1000s while the computer still identifies a KB as 1024B.. Tht's the reason why your computer shows 3.73 GB on a pen drive while the manufacturer insists its a 4GB one. Both count differently.



+1 True....
This is still a confusion, since some count 1GB as 1024MB n others as 1000MB...


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 4, 2008)

prasad_den said:


> ^^ Thats because manufacturers count them in 1000s while the computer still identifies a KB as 1024B.. Tht's the reason why your computer shows 3.73 GB on a pen drive while the manufacturer insists its a 4GB one. Both count differently.


 
thanks I got that.


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## chicha (Feb 4, 2008)

me too paid Rs 750.
and this pendrive can be used as READYBOOST.

so the conclusion is that i can not regain that 200MB 

yes are there any softwares that can benchmark pendrives?


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## ico (Feb 4, 2008)

chicha said:


> ok.
> now i formatted it with a NTFS. what is better NTFS or FAT32?
> which is faster?





vaibhavtek said:


> *^^ NTFS.*



NTFS is surely a better file system but it is not for use on Pen Drives. Using your Pen Drive will actually decrease its lifetime as it will increase the read/write cycles because of the feature of Write Cache in NTFS. Write Cache (NTFS) will surely increase the speed of writing files but at the cost of the life of your pen drive.

So, I'll say to use FAT32 on your Pen Drive.


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