[SOLVED] Formatting USB stick to real value

May 8, 2022
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Hello. I'm new here, so sorry for possible stupid question, but can't find answer on Google.
Is it possible to format a USB stick of 16GB to 16GB available space? Or 32, 64, 250 etc. Someone told me once that the loss of available space from 16 to 14 GB after formatting is specifically Windows weakness, and that Linux allows you to format 16 to 16 available. I think he meant Windows weakness but he intended to say FAT/FAT32/NTFS weakness, and that Linux has a formatting standard that doesn't lose space in the formatting process. Is that right or it's impossible to do that even with Linux and I'm barking at the moon here?
 
Solution
Hello. I'm new here, so sorry for possible stupid question, but can't find answer on Google.
Is it possible to format a USB stick of 16GB to 16GB available space? Or 32, 64, 250 etc. Someone told me once that the loss of available space from 16 to 14 GB after formatting is specifically Windows weakness, and that Linux allows you to format 16 to 16 available. I think he meant Windows weakness but he intended to say FAT/FAT32/NTFS weakness, and that Linux has a formatting standard that doesn't lose space in the formatting process. Is that right or it's impossible to do that even with Linux and I'm barking at the moon here?
Different reporting units.

Base 10 vs Base 2.
Human vs Computer.
1000 vs 1024.

16GB printed on the drive...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Hello. I'm new here, so sorry for possible stupid question, but can't find answer on Google.
Is it possible to format a USB stick of 16GB to 16GB available space? Or 32, 64, 250 etc. Someone told me once that the loss of available space from 16 to 14 GB after formatting is specifically Windows weakness, and that Linux allows you to format 16 to 16 available. I think he meant Windows weakness but he intended to say FAT/FAT32/NTFS weakness, and that Linux has a formatting standard that doesn't lose space in the formatting process. Is that right or it's impossible to do that even with Linux and I'm barking at the moon here?
Different reporting units.

Base 10 vs Base 2.
Human vs Computer.
1000 vs 1024.

16GB printed on the drive will be shown as 14.9 in Windows.
No space is lost or missing, just a difference in how it is counted.

https://wintelguy.com/gb2gib.html

It has been like this forever.
There was even a lawsuit about this long ago.
 
Solution