Free Space on a 256 SD Card

[Stevoo187]

Hey Guys,

I recently purchased a 256 Lexar SD Card and was just wondering how much free space you guys have on your 256 SD Cards. I know formatting takes up some space but from my 256 SD Card, I have 241 mb free. Is 15 mb to format the normal amount it takes or is it the Lexar Card? Thx for your input :wink:

Steve

[Vulcan]

I get 241 on my Scandisk card as well.....You are correct that the formatting takes some of the space but I beleive that some of the space is lost to the marketing game that memory card and hard drive companies use.... (A meg = 1024 vs a meg = 1000).

[Mitch D]

I get 241 on my Scandisk card as well.....You are correct that the formatting takes some of the space but I beleive that some of the space is lost to the marketing game that memory card and hard drive companies use.... (A meg = 1024 vs a meg = 1000).

In reality a meg does = 1024, with exception of Microsoft's little world where a meg = 1000. Hence the reason Windows never gives the correct size of a hard drive.

[PetiteFlower]

This actually has nothing to do with Microsoft, windows DOES give the correct size of the hard drive or card. The problem is with the hardware companies who insist that a meg is 1000 k even though your computer thinks a meg is 1024 k. What's wrong is the box from your card telling you it's 256 megs when it's really 256000000 bytes which is, as you discovered, only about 240 megs. There's a class action suit going on about this now which I hope will have the effect of at least making the hardware manufacturers educate the consumers a little better about WHY their computer tells them that their card or hard drive is smaller then the box said.

[Vulcan]

My point exactly...

[Pony99CA]

Besides the megabyte game and formatting, some space is also used by the security part of Secure Digital cards.

Steve

[ctmagnus]

fwiw, my 256MB Sandisk SD card measures in at 240MB whereas my 256MB Lexar SD card is 244MB.

[Kacey Green]

This actually has nothing to do with Microsoft, windows DOES give the correct size of the hard drive or card. The problem is with the hardware companies who insist that a meg is 1000 k even though your computer thinks a meg is 1024 k. What's wrong is the box from your card telling you it's 256 megs when it's really 256000000 bytes which is, as you discovered, only about 240 megs. There's a class action suit going on about this now which I hope will have the effect of at least making the hardware manufacturers educate the consumers a little better about WHY their computer tells them that their card or hard drive is smaller then the box said.

Hear, Hear!

[jlp]

Whatis.com makes a distinction between MB which is MegaByte i.e. 1024 KB = 1024*1024 bytes and million bytes = MiB = 1,000,000 bytes

If everybody uses the right abbreviations things would be clearer.

(just like if everybody would use the metric system it would be easier; but that's another story altogether :devilboy:)

[felixdd]

fwiw, my 256MB Sandisk SD card measures in at 240MB whereas my 256MB Lexar SD card is 244MB.

It'll come out different depending on whether you format it as FAT or FAT32 in windows.

Hardware makers insist on having 1 meg = 1000 k probably because it makes their cards look bigger than it really is.

[Pony99CA]

Hardware makers insist on having 1 meg = 1000 k probably because it makes their cards look bigger than it really is.
Actually, it depends what hardware you mean. I think RAM measurements using KB still use 1,024 bytes, MB is still 1,024 KB and GB is 1,024 MB. It's the hard disk companies that seem to use GB as one billion (U.S.) bytes.

Steve