Format thumb drives??? I have several ScanDisk 16GB thumb drives. When I have the images backed up, I have been deleting the images normally file by file. When I go back and check on...

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

I have several ScanDisk 16GB thumb drives. When I have the images backed up, I have been deleting the images normally file by file. When I go back and check on my Mac Book Pro, one always shows it only has approximately half of it's 16GB capacity. It only shows that it has only 8GB available, but shows it is empty.
Is there someway to like re-format them like the SD cards to obtain all of it's memory?
Thanks in advance.
Duane

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Should be.
Any drive should be format-able.
I have formatted them on my PC computer. And I regularly format my SD cards for my camera. (In camera)
Formatting makes all the 1's and O's line up for your next data.
Formatting is your friend.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Bear2 wrote:

I have several ScanDisk 16GB thumb drives. When I have the images backed up, I have been deleting the images normally file by file. When I go back and check on my Mac Book Pro, one always shows it only has approximately half of it's 16GB capacity. It only shows that it has only 8GB available, but shows it is empty.
Is there someway to like re-format them like the SD cards to obtain all of it's memory?
Thanks in advance.
Duane

Duane,

Under normal conditions, computers that format devices, leave some directories and hidden files behind. This so the computer has a history of what it has done. You have a Mac, I a Windows system. When I use the operating system to delete files, or format the device it always leaves some directories behind (the Trash directory on the device).

Your best option is to follow the directions offered by your camera manufacturer, after deleting image files in camera, use the camera to format the memory device.

Michael G

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Bear2 wrote:

I have several ScanDisk 16GB thumb drives. When I have the images backed up, I have been deleting the images normally file by file. When I go back and check on my Mac Book Pro, one always shows it only has approximately half of it's 16GB capacity. It only shows that it has only 8GB available, but shows it is empty.
Is there someway to like re-format them like the SD cards to obtain all of it's memory?
Thanks in advance.
Duane

In some/many cases if you delete file by file and do not empty the trash before ejecting the drive guess what? The files may still be there in the trash directory of the card.

http://www.angieslist.com/articles/why-doesnt-my-flash-drive-have-any-free-space.htm

You can always format an SD card in camera, which is a recommended way vs doing it on your computer.

I have done both, but for the past year I always reformat my SD cards in my camera - that way it is surely done the way the camera expects it.

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

Thanks but,
I understand that, but my inquiry was can a thumb drive be formatted? I have 9 or 10 16GB SD cards, a have several 16GB SD THUMB drives, one of which after deleting all the files and images still shows only 8GB available.
Duane

Dngallagher wrote:

In some/many cases if you delete file by file and ... (show quote)

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Bear2 wrote:

Thanks but,
I understand that, but my inquiry was can a thumb drive be formatted? I have 9 or 10 16GB SD cards, a have several 16GB SD THUMB drives, one of which after deleting all the files and images still shows only 8GB available.
Duane

Sorry, misread your original post....

Yes, drives are drives....

On a Mac you can mount the drive then go into disk utility to format it.

Same deletion issue occurs on flash drives that have files deleted individually and trash not emptied. Can also cause fragmentation.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/3434423/how-format-usb-stick-on-mac/

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

Thanks
Duane

Dngallagher wrote:

Sorry, misread your original post....

Yes, drives are drives....

On a Mac you can mount the drive then go into disk utility to format it.

Same deletion issue occurs on flash drives that have files deleted individually and trash not emptied. Can also cause fragmentation.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/3434423/how-format-usb-stick-on-mac/

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Bear2 wrote:

Thanks but,
I understand that, but my inquiry was can a thumb drive be formatted? I have 9 or 10 16GB SD cards, a have several 16GB SD THUMB drives, one of which after deleting all the files and images still shows only 8GB available.
Duane

It is highly possible that drive is damaged, or bad, or otherwise losing it's serviceability.

I once had a hard drive that was dieing. It became smaller and more and more fragmented.
Best description would be the media on the disks inside it was coming off the disks. Replacement cured all ills.
Replacing one of today's thumb drives is a whole lot easier.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Also, the best way to describe storage for data is like an empty room.
The empty room has a size, a hard drive, thumb drive, SD Card, has a size.
When that empty space gets formatted, the device (camera, computer) sets partitions in it. Think of those as filing cabinets.
Filing cabinets take up a certain amount of space.
But they are necessary for organized storage of files (data).
Sometimes those file drawers get stuck, broken, damaged. So storage space is lost.

I would liken your one thumb drive to a storage room full of filing cabinets that got hit by a Mac Truck. And half of the storage room is damaged.

Do you want to continue using the working half, and hope the roof doesn't cave in?
Or wouldn't it be more prudent to replace the room and file cabinets with a new room and filing cabinets?

THAT is about as simple as I can explain it.
Get a new drive.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

For Macintosh, try Disk Utility, which comes with the Mac OS. After you've saved anything valuable elsewhere, use Disk Utility to Erase the USB drive. If you use the USB drive only on a Mac, use Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you share the USB drive with a PC, use either MS DOS (FAT), like FT32, if the PCs are very old or ExFat for Windows newer than XP. (There is a plug-in to get Windows XP to use ExFAT formats.) A small percentage (e.g. less than 1%) of the drive is used for "housekeeping". Disk Utility will show a significant number of files, which are also for housekeeping. Then, do a Disk Utility > First Aid > Repair Disk. The Disk Utility > History window will give you the drive's status. If Disk Utility has trouble, trash the USB drive.

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

SonnyE wrote:

Get a new drive.

Good advice considering you can buy a new 16GB flash drive for like $7, why take a chance on fooling with one that does not appear to be working properly?

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Dngallagher wrote:

In some/many cases if you delete file by file and do not empty the trash before ejecting the drive guess what? The files may still be there in the trash directory of the card.

Correct. When you "delete" a file, it goes into the "Trash" (folder). It is not purged from the drive. Empty the "Trash" before you eject the USB flash drive. This will empty the trash on all mounted drives.

Bear123 Loc: Wild & Wonderful West Virginia

SonnyE wrote:

It is highly possible that drive is damaged, or bad, or otherwise losing it's serviceability.

I once had a hard drive that was dieing. It became smaller and more and more fragmented.
Best description would be the media on the disks inside it was coming off the disks. Replacement cured all ills.
Replacing one of today's thumb drives is a whole lot easier.

Have to chime in with SonnyE that the drive is faulty or dying. Had an mp3 player that acted the same way, showed the drive was mostly full but could only view a few files on it when connected to the computer. All the music files seemed to still be on the player but could not view them. After a short time it died completely and the PC would not recognize it. The same might be the case with the thumb drive as these are just basically flash memory. Anyhow, my two cents. :-D

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

peterg wrote:

Correct. When you "delete" a file, it goes into the "Trash" (folder). It is not purged from the drive. Empty the "Trash" before you eject the USB flash drive. This will empty the trash on all mounted drives.

Yes, you will need to mount the drive on the Mac OS and then empty the trash. The other option is to format the drive.

Years ago I was puzzled that when I deleted files of my SD card in my MacBook Pro, the SD card remained half full. I finally realized that I needed to empty the trash.

Wallbanger Loc: Madison, WI

Dngallagher wrote:

Sorry, misread your original post....

Yes, drives are drives....

On a Mac you can mount the drive then go into disk utility to format it.

Same deletion issue occurs on flash drives that have files deleted individually and trash not emptied. Can also cause fragmentation.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/3434423/how-format-usb-stick-on-mac/

When you format in Disk Utility, you can also delete and recreate the partition, which may solve the problem if formatting doesn't do it. Some thumb drives have a partition on them as well that holds software from the manufacturer.

If you want the drive to be able to be read on non Mac computers, make sure you choose FAT(32)as the file system.