why is my sd card only 14.7 gb? - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshoot

So I bought a 16 GB SD card and I formatted it on my s4 now it's only 14.7 GB

almacncheese said:
So I bought a 16 GB SD card and I formatted it on my s4 now it's only 14.7 GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever experienced that moment where you insert
your 16GB memory card into the camera only to discover
that this new, freshly formatted card is a nickel short of
15GB? Or a 32GB card turning to 29.8GB once installed?
Have you ever wondered where those GigaBytes are hiding?
The truth is that they are not hiding at all.
It has to do more with the way card companies (and hard
drive companies too) decide to annotate their products.
In English Kilo means one thousand (1000 1 = 1,000), a
Mega is a million (1,000 2 = 1,000,000) , a Giga is a billion
(1,000 3 = 1,000,000,000) and so on (Tera, Peta, Exa, Zetta &
Toyya). This system is called the SI units system .
In Computerish, however, the numbers are a bit different: A
Kilo means 1,024 1 = 1,024, a Mega is 1,024 2 = 1,048,576, a
Giga is 1024 3 = 1,073,741,824 and so on. This is called the
Binary units system.
So there is a difference in what Kilo, Mega and Giga means
and that difference is getting bigger the "stronger" the prefix
is.
For Kilo, the difference is only 2.3%, for Mega it is 4.6% and
for Giga it is 6.8% - see a pattern here?
Back to the memory cards.
Memory cards manufactures choose to use the SI system to
denote cards sizes. Our computers and card readers use
the binary system for size calculation and here is where the
missing Bytes are.
Of course, the card companies are covered, they do mention
this fact on their sites (in a small asterisk, or with hover text
that is revealed when you hover over a small asterisk). Here
are screen shots from three leading cards and hard drive
manufacturers, though they are not the only one to use that
practice:
Sandisk:
Lexar:
Seagate:
If you followed the math, you probably realized that the toll
this calculation method in taking gets bigger the bigger the
data units are. So while the toll on a 1GB memory card in
way smaller than on a 1 tera hard drive. Have a look at this
table to sum things up:
Size SI
units size
Binary
Size
Delta
(%)
Delta
(GB)
512 Mega 536870912 512000000 4.6 0.02
4 Giga 4294967296 4000000000 6.9 0.27
16 Giga 17179869184 16000000000 6.9 1.10
64 Giga 68719476736 64000000000 6.9 4.40
1 Tera 1,099,511,627,776 1,000,000,000,000 9.1 92.68
4 Tera 4,398,046,511,104 4,000,000,000,000 9.1 370.71
1 Peta 1,125,899,906,842,620 1,000,000,000,000,000 11.2 117253.43
Now What?
Now, I think it would be fair if we politely asked memory
card makes and hard drive makers to switch to binary so
they will be better aligned with the way we use them.

almacncheese said:
So I bought a 16 GB SD card and I formatted it on my s4 now it's only 14.7 GB
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There's always a disclaimer *formatted capacity less* so this is normal
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

Related

best 512 SD card

I have seen various makes / models on the market and I am thinking about a
SanDisk Ultra II 512 card
Does anyone have any experiance of this model
Ashby
512 SD card
what about a 1gb card has anyone got any suggestions on which one to get the o2 data support said that there are 1gb sd cards out there but all they've tested is up to 512 mb. They are firmly against the MMC cards but they couldn't explain why. The MMC card is cheaper.
Re: 512 SD card
jkn said:
what about a 1gb card has anyone got any suggestions on which one to get the o2 data support said that there are 1gb sd cards out there but all they've tested is up to 512 mb. They are firmly against the MMC cards but they couldn't explain why. The MMC card is cheaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 1-GB SD cards only became available for purchase a little over a week ago.
The MMC is cheaper because it has a lower maximum transfer rate. But I have found many stores where the price of MMC and SD cards are the same.
Ultra II sd cards as far as i know only run at ultra speed if your sd-slot support it
ok guys any idea
how much a 1gb sd disk will cost, compatability and where from
cheers john
jkn said:
ok guys any idea
how much a 1gb sd disk will cost, compatability and where from
cheers john
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, the only 1-GB SD card brand available now is SanDisk. The price is around US$395. Other brands will soon follow.
with the price of 1GB compared to 512 and 256 then i'd rather have more cards and switch between them like
1 for goat and sheep p0rn collection
1 for mp3 music
1 gps maps (if i had a gps device)
1 for programs
......
Rudegar said:
with the price of 1GB compared to 512 and 256 then i'd rather have more cards and switch between them like
1 for goat and sheep p0rn collection
1 for mp3 music
1 gps maps (if i had a gps device)
1 for programs
......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
totally agree
as only one has just come out it's likely to be quite expensive
but if people keep a look out they can let us know when other models come out and where to get the best prices
failing that they could swap their donkey porn collection that takes up less memory !
I use a Kingston 512mB SD, works well in the XDA II, no speed problems or loss of data. I use it mainly for camera images and large data files but also for my regular backup (Sprite Backup Premium) and several applications which I don't use often.
Ed
I have a 512mb ultra ii on order, for quicker access to gps maps and voice etc, and should receive it next week. I'll try to post back here when I've tried it, assuming that there is any discernable difference.
frankly speaking I use regular sandisk 512MB SD card only due to high price for everything with Kingston sticker on it, IMHO kingston has not been manufacturing memory cards for years but branding other manufacturers products, including memory ...
one thing that is of interest to me is .... whether these sandisk ultra II SD cards are really faster and to waht extent, especially considering the fact what is the SD card port in XDA / XDA II, i.e. what is the internal port speed limit as compared with new and speedy cards ??
regards, monika
PinkySlayer said:
I have a 512mb ultra ii on order, for quicker access to gps maps and voice etc, and should receive it next week. I'll try to post back here when I've tried it, assuming that there is any discernable difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just received the ultra ii and although I haven't USED it yet, here are some benchmarks...
Internal Integral SanDisk Ultra II
Read MB/s 1.55 0.13 0.20
Write MB/s 0.10 0.02 0.68
Min Read ms 0.25 0.25 0.25
Max Read ms 1.50 9.75 8.5
Ave Read ms 0.32 4.14 2.43
Total Read ms 813 10368 6089
Min Write ms 0.25 0.75 0.28
Max Write ms 165 108 6.75
Ave Write ms 4.87 28.85 0.72
Total Write ms 12310 72246 1810
I've only done a quick test abd should really have repeated them several times and taken averages. However, this clearly shows that the Ultra is built to WRITE FAST, even blowing away my XDA II's internal storage.
sandisk 256MB
I just bought my second sandisk 256MB works fine for me, i bought it for my new NAVMAN 4410
I use a Kingston 512Mb
Works great, using it mostly for watching divx but I also have some music and GPS maps on it. In Sweden Kingston is much cheaper then Sandisk.
The only strange thing is that Im only able to use 488Mb...
The card was preformated so maybe thats a reason...
Steves digicams did a big test some time ago on compactflash memorys and the ultra memorys wasnt always faster. I would save the money and buy regular, its fast enough for the programs in the XDAII.
/miki
seem to recall that all sd cards give you less then they are labeld because of the secure encryption features which make SD cards different from mmc cards apart from being a bit thicker
has,nt anybody got any price,s?
I paid £129 through eBay.
Sandisk 512 Mb for € 159,-
www.geheugenkaart.be
So around £129 for an Ultra II or around £107 for a 'normal' one - I know which one I'd rather have!
thanks i think its time i get my wallet out.hehe

SD Card Capicity

Can someone tell me the max capacity XDAII can take for SD card? Can I put either a 512 or 1G card in?
Thanks
Both is possible.
AFAIK there is no limit for SD-cards
FWIW, I'm using a 512MB Panasonic SD card and it seems to be OK.
HTH
since the sd card uses FAT16, I think that the limit would be something like 4GB.
but also I think that it should be possible to format a sdcard with multiple partitions.
just tried, under xp, it is also possible to format an sd card as fat32, the xda will read it too.
format DRIVELETTER: /fs:fat32
in that case the maximum size is 32GB.
Thanks!!!!!! All very useful information... Didn't know that you could specify the format.
At the moment, I find 256mb the most economical, although 512mb are only just slightly more expensive than two 256 cards. 1gb cards though are nearly 3 times the cost of 512 ones.
They are small and easily swapped over, and you can fit a lot on a 256 mb card. I can't see any point in buying a 1gb card until the price drops substantially.
That what I thought initially, but because I could get this 1GB card at a really cheap price, well less than £100 each ;-)
Where can u get a 1gb SD card for less than £100 - pls provide a link

Sandisk 16gb con?

Bought a 16gb card and it only has 14.8 on it, after a google search i see that they are all llike that.
Trade descriptions act?
It's the way its formatted, every hard drive you buy comes like that...they always state the unformatted capacity
For marketing 16GB = 16'000'000'000 bytes, which is usually written in small somewhere on the package, while for your system 16GB would be 16x1024x1024x1024 = 17179869184 bytes.
It's the same for every storage device, be it memory cards, hard drives, DVDs,...
I'm, sorry for being thick and a noob
can you get the full 16 out of it by re-format or is that just the final size
jonbaker76 said:
I'm, sorry for being thick and a noob
can you get the full 16 out of it by re-format or is that just the final size
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're being neither thick or a noob mate.
As described by kilrah, when selling stuff they call 1GB 1,000,000,000 bytes, whereas any computer type device calls 1GB 1073741824 bytes. It's because 1KB is actually 1024 bytes, 1MB is 1024KB and 1GB is 1024MB, but in the "normal" world 1KB is 1000 bytes, 1MB is 1000KB and 1GB is 1000MB.
This always bugged me until I thought about the fact that it's actually a missuse of KB, MB & GB on the part of computers, not sellers. There's 1000 metres in a KM. There should be 1000 bytes in a KB.
In short, you can't get any extra out of it because it is the size they advertised.
thanks, you ask you learn

[Q] Missing memory

Hello all,
did anyone calculated memory in our Notes?
2Gb - / "system disk"
11Gb - /mnt/sdcard
But we should have 16Gb. So, 3Gb is missing. Where is it ?
When 16 GB is indicated it's never the full 16GB, the same goes for 32GB...64GB....ext, they always round up to the nearest increment. It is deceptive, but that's just how they do it with solid state memory.
Spartan2x said:
When 16 GB is indicated it's never the full 16GB, the same goes for 32GB...64GB....ext, they always round up to the nearest increment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
Rounding ?! 13Gb <> ~16Gb
pavelbor said:
.
Rounding ?! 13Gb <> ~16Gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. When the last time you saw increments other then 4,8,16,32,64,128...for solid state memory.
when manufactures advertise 16gb, theyre going as in 16,000,000,000Bytes. but most OS will read it in terms of binary, and the nearest number to 1000 is 1024 (i suck at phrasing).
so 16,000,000,000bytes divided by 1024bytes per kb = 15625000kb divided by 1024kb/mb = 15258.8mb divided by 1024mb/gb = 14.9 gigabytes. now subtract the 2gb for the apps partition and thats 12.9gb. now i dont know too much about the little things to do with android/linux, but i would assume that maybe 1gb or so would be reserved for the android OS itself, or some of it is used as virtual memory.

512GB microSD in Galaxy S8

Hi all,
I know Samsung states the max capacity card for the S8 is 256GB but with the prices falling I'm strongly considering a 512GB card.
My current one is a Samsung Evo Plus 256GB card (red and grey version).
The new 512GB Evo Plus (grey one) looks to be faster and has A2 support and under £40 now. Mymemory also suggests it is compatible but unsure if they have actually tested it themselves.
As the S8 supports SDXC and exfat and believed to be UHS-1 bus it looks like the new Samsung Evo Plus 512GB might be good?
I did consider a newer model but not a fan that newer phones don't tend to support storage expansion and it's all cloud now. I like the files on the phone as I back them up at home.
Just wanted to post that out to see whether the 512gb samsung evo may be a good idea?
Many thanks
Not sure if that will work or not. I've read about people using larger than speced memory and it working on other phones.
I use the Sandisk Extreme .5 and 1tb V30 rated cards with my N10+'s. Zero issues. Get write speeds of [email protected] going from internal to card.
Consider upgrading to a N10+, these are fast, capable phones with one one the best displays out there. After this flagship Samsung starts losing it.
blackhawk said:
Not sure if that will work or not. I've read about people using larger than speced memory and it working on other phones.
I use the Sandisk Extreme .5 and 1tb V30 rated cards with my N10+'s. Zero issues. Get write speeds of [email protected] going from internal to card.
Consider upgrading to a N10+, these are fast, capable phones with one one the best displays out there. After this flagship Samsung starts losing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks blackhawk, I was thinking that their limitation on size was based on what was available for them to test with at the time so maybe couldn't test 512gb at the time of manufacture (2017 or so). I know at some point I'll definitely need to move on when the OS becomes really obsolete, the battery isn't holding charge for long, I have to take power banks with me to get through a day!
I'll check out the N10+ as I think if I wanted a Galaxy with micro SD support the best I'd be looking at is an A53?
martyp78 said:
Thanks blackhawk, I was thinking that their limitation on size was based on what was available for them to test with at the time so maybe couldn't test 512gb at the time of manufacture (2017 or so).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume it depends on the default cluster size for exFAT:
7 MB-256 MB4 KB256 MB-32 GB32 KB32 GB-256 TB128 KB
https://support.microsoft.com/topic...nd-exfat-9772e6f1-e31a-00d7-e18f-73169155af95
I think for that reason Android formats sd cards up to 32GB in FAT32 while sd cards 64GB+ are formatted in exFAT. So - in theory - every Android should accept sd cards up to 256TB (cluster size 128KB) as long as min. 64GB is compatible according to the manufacturer.
Excellent thanks, I did wonder if there could be any limitations if it supports exfat and sdxc. I'll hold off from 1tb but might be intrigued if anyone does try that size.
sd card sizes are mostly just recomendations,
i run a 400gb sandisk ultra in my s3 wich oficially supports up to 64gb, only downside is that it takes 15mins to recognize the card, after that everything works as it should, get about 12mb/s out of the card
also run a 512gb samsung card in my a5(2017) wich is specified with up to 256gb supported with no problems
Great, thanks for confirming. Useful also as my other half has an A5(2017) and I also have an S3 and an S5.
martyp78 said:
Thanks blackhawk, I was thinking that their limitation on size was based on what was available for them to test with at the time so maybe couldn't test 512gb at the time of manufacture (2017 or so). I know at some point I'll definitely need to move on when the OS becomes really obsolete, the battery isn't holding charge for long, I have to take power banks with me to get through a day!
I'll check out the N10+ as I think if I wanted a Galaxy with micro SD support the best I'd be looking at is an A53?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could replace the battery, not that big a deal.
Not sure about which of the midrange Samsung's is top of the lot.
The N10+ trumps the new midrange Samsungs except no variable refresh rate display and no 5G (probably should avoid the 5G variant). New N10+'s N975U1 (Android 10) can still be had new from a reliable vendor for $700. PM me if you want his site link. Used used ones for half that price. You may need to replace the battery but it's not a big deal.
The Snapdragon variants (N975U, N975U1) have the best hardware but can't be rooted. They run the fastest and coolest.
Most used ones will be loaded with Android 11 or 12 with the scoped storage nonsense. I prefer Android 9. I have two N10+'s; one running on 9, the newest is running on 10. Android 10 runs ok and scoped storage isn't fully implemented. I bought the second one new in part to avoid Android 11/12.
If you buy used beware of scammers. Use known good vendors only. Test the display with ScreenTest as soon as you get recieve it. The display should be perfect. Then test the cams, spen, connectivity, card slot and so on.
Use a Sandisk Extreme V30 rated card; they're fast and are very reliable.
Use a Zizo Bolt case to protect it otherwise it will get damaged; these are heavy, corner hitting phones.
Excellent, thanks.
martyp78 said:
Excellent, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. Check out the N10+ forum. There's lots of information there. Also Android 10 no rollback to 9, Android 11 no rollback to 10, however Android 12 probably can be rolled back to 11.
These work horses are just a joy to use. Once optimized they run very well stock, are extremely stable and long lived. The N10+ is exponentially faster than the N9 but the flagships that followed to N10+ don't see that leapfrog speed increase in most real time usage.
I just wanted to report back that I have now replaced the 256GB Samsung Evo Plus in my Galaxy S8 with the 2021 newer 512GB Samsung Evo Plus which is V30.
The tests and details are attached. It seemed to have no problem at all and have recorded Ultra 4K video to it perfectly so pleased with my £32.99 purchase as I was going to pay £42 then the price suddenly dropped by £10 last week...
martyp78 said:
I just wanted to report back that I have now replaced the 256GB Samsung Evo Plus in my Galaxy S8 with the 2021 newer 512GB Samsung Evo Plus which is V30.
The tests and details are attached. It seemed to have no problem at all and have recorded Ultra 4K video to it perfectly so pleased with my £32.99 purchase as I was going to pay £42 then the price suddenly dropped by £10 last week...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is screenshot no 1 showing only 477,5GB for the micro SD but 64GB for internal? I've never seen that decimal and binary were mixed up. Aside from that 512GB = 476,84GiB and not 477,5GiB as shown there.
WoKoschekk said:
Why is screenshot no 1 showing only 477,5GB for the micro SD but 64GB for internal? I've never seen that decimal and binary were mixed up. Aside from that 512GB = 476,84GiB and not 477,5GiB as shown there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Must admit I'm not too sure, could be an oddity with the app there. It detected it and made it usable straight away although I formatted it in the phone anyway. Then the apps on my phone filled up 7GB of space without me doing anything.
I bought from a well known trusted supplier as I know are loads of fake cards on the market these days.
I'll do some checks and see if I can determine the size correctly.
WoKoschekk said:
Why is screenshot no 1 showing only 477,5GB for the micro SD but 64GB for internal? I've never seen that decimal and binary were mixed up. Aside from that 512GB = 476,84GiB and not 477,5GiB as shown there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
samsung makes it so the internal storage always shows up with the next "full" capacity so 32gb 64gb 128gb etc
size for external media is taken from usable size so after filesystem and all so that may explain the difference there
NigrumTredecim said:
samsung makes it so the internal storage always shows up with the next "full" capacity so 32gb 64gb 128gb etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every storage size on every mobile phone is a multiple of 2, e.g. 2^5 (32GB) or 2^9 (512GB). And a storage overview shows always total/free. Also non-Samsung devices.
NigrumTredecim said:
size for external media is taken from usable size so after filesystem and all so that may explain the difference there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A GUID partition table (gpt) has a header size of 32 blocks (block size = 512). The default start block of the first partition is 2048 (0x100000). This is 1MiB (2048*512=1048576 Byte) unallocated space. No existing file system takes 34,5GB for its partition table.
WoKoschekk said:
Every storage size on every mobile phone is a multiple of 2, e.g. 2^5 (32GB) or 2^9 (512GB). And a storage overview shows always total/free. Also non-Samsung devices.
A GUID partition table (gpt) has a header size of 32 blocks (block size = 512). The default start block of the first partition is 2048 (0x100000). This is 1MiB (2048*512=1048576 Byte) unallocated space. No existing file system takes 34,5GB for its partition table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the physical storage is 32GB but samsung shows 32GiB (at least on android 8)
moreso the stock data partition on my phone is only 24gib big
it will also show 512 gb while the /data partition is on an 400gb sd-card (will show 100+gb used even though that storage doesnt exist)
most other phones i had just showed the capacity of /data instead of the full flash memory (so 398gb on that 400gb sd card for example)
sd card in question https://www.amazon.de/SanDisk-Ultra-microSDXC-Speicherkarte-Adapter/dp/B074RNRM2B
conclusion: samsung appears to not read the full flash capacity but appears to just extrapolate the size of /data to the next full capacity instead just showing the missing amount as system storage.
It seems nearly every android has that stupid bug mixing up GB with GiB in storage calculation, that's not only Samsungs failure. the discrepancy is hidden in occupied space for System, as we recently discussed here.
Why is the OS (System) size different for different storage variants of the same device model?
I have seen that the space occupied by 'System' is different for different storage sizes of the same device. My Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra shows space occupied by system as over 50 GB. Mine is the 512 GB variant (Snapdragon). While I don't...
forum.xda-developers.com
NigrumTredecim said:
moreso the stock data partition on my phone is only 24gib big
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct since /data is one of many partitions on your storage chip. The size of /data in your internal storage is
32GB - (all other partitions except /data) = /data
The meta data on a sd card occupies not more than a few MB. So the system should always show 512GB of 512GB free storage.
It's quite unusual showing both, GB and GiB in one overview. Apart from that 477,5GiB ≠ 512GB. That's too much.
depends on the person that calculates it. in the two articles in other thread former one mentioned 494 GiB the latter one 476 GiB. 2023 at it's best

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