512gb usb memory stick only showing 460gb

Cerawy · 20 May 2021

I bought a new sandisk 512gb usb memory stick, but it only shows up as having 460gb, why's that, where are the rest of the gb?

Bree · 20 May 2021

Cerawy said:

I bought a new sandisk 512gb usb memory stick, but it only shows up as having 460gb, why's that, where are the rest of the gb?

There isn't any 'rest of the gb'.

USB manufacturers always define 1GB as a power of 10 in their spec sheets, where 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, such as in this pdf from Sandisk.

512gb usb memory stick only showing 460gb-image.png

File Explorer defines 1GB as a power of 2 where 1GB =1,073,741,824 bytes.

Your '512GB' stated by Sandisk and the '460GB' shown in Explorer are both correct, in their own numbering system.

Jaylob4 · 20 May 2021

Cerawy said:

I bought a new sandisk 512gb usb memory stick, but it only shows up as having 460gb, why's that, where are the rest of the gb?

Hi,

As Bree is saying, you haven't lost anything, you never had it as such, it's the difference between decimal and binary but still catches a lot of people out.

The larger capacity your drive, the greater the loss--so it appears--but it isn't.

Berton · 20 May 2021

I just figure most drives will "lose" about 10% when formatted.

bobkn · 20 May 2021

Bree said:

(snip)

File Explorer defines 1GB as a power of 2 where 1GB =1,073,741,824 bytes.

Your '512GB' stated by Sandisk and the '460GB' shown in Explorer are both correct, in their own numbering system.

The only problem with that definition, is that Windows should report a 512GB (decimal) drive as 476.8GB. (Verified on my old HP 32S II. Long live RPN!)

There must be a little more to the explanation.

Cerawy · 21 May 2021

Yes, that's also what i thought. A 52gb loss seems a bit too much.

Cerawy · 21 Nov 2021

Also, my ssd is a 512gb ssd, but it still shows a capacity of 476gb.

Try3 · 21 Nov 2021

Please post a diagram of your disk & its partitions using MiniTool Partition Wizard [or anything else other than Win10 Disk mgmt because that hides one of them].

Do adjust the column widths of the list part of it so it is as compact as possible with obscuring any data.
Post the list part & the graphical part as separate diagrams if it helps ensure text is legible.

Or post diagrams made using both utilities if you would like their differences to be discussed.
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of - TenForumsTutorials

Denis

steve108 · 21 Nov 2021

Cerawy said:

Also, my ssd is a 512gb ssd, but it still shows a capacity of 476gb.

That's correct: 512 GB to GiB | gigabytes in gibibytes

Hardware vs software units.

Difference between Gigabyte and Gibibyte (GB vs GiB)

You may enjoy the video explanation better

Decimal vs Binary for Measuring Storage as Fast as Possible - YouTube

Gurn Blanston · 21 Nov 2021

The missing 16 GB may be explained by Sandisk security and password software, if so equipped. My Sandisk USB stick lost a little bit of space due to these files.