# Help! My 2GB microSD will hold only 500MB **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397 "2008-03-07T01:29:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barry_From_Eastenders)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/1 "2008-03-07T01:29:56Z")
I have a SanDisk 2GB microSD that will not let me drop more than just shy of 600MB onto it. XP and Mobile 5.0 show that there is still over 1.31GB free. Does anyone know what the problem might be? Thanx Barry ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/2 "2008-03-07T01:31:24Z")
You could back up your data and try reformatting it. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/3 "2008-03-07T02:12:50Z")
Floppies had a limit on the number of files that could be in the root directory. Maybe delete a few of the files, make a directory, and see if you can put more data in the subdirectory. ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/4 "2008-03-07T03:34:25Z")
Did you buy the card from a store, or from eBay? I ask because fake memory cards absolutely flood eBay, and appear genuine to the naked eye. Many are cheaper knockoffs that overstate their capacity. From [Dan’s Data](http://www.dansdata.com/flashswap.htm) > [@](#): > > Minor fakes are a cheaper brand of card with fake SanDisk stickers, which may well work perfectly well. Major fakes look like, say, a 2Gb card, but don’t actually have that much storage, leading to entertaining errors when your write operations fall off the end of the memory that’s actually there. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/5 "2008-03-07T13:10:12Z")
The software in some devices, such as cameras and calculators, may have difficulty with 2GB flash memory cards due to bugs and/or limitations in the file system software. This is a common problem in devices that were designed when flash memory cards were much smaller. I have a camera that came with an 8MB card, and it chokes on anything larger than 1GB. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/6 "2008-03-07T14:00:33Z")
I bought a cheap flash drive on EBay that worked for a few days on its 8GB capacity then suddenly went down to 5.5GB. I can’t see at all any of the files that are taking up this space, can flash drives be formatted like floppy discs? ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/7 "2008-03-07T16:13:12Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I bought a cheap flash drive on EBay that worked for a few days on its 8GB capacity then suddenly went down to 5.5GB. I can’t see at all any of the files that are taking up this space, can flash drives be formatted like floppy discs? [/QUOTE] Yep, put the flash drive in your computer, right click, format. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Jinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Captain\_Jinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Jinks)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/8 "2008-03-07T17:07:57Z")
I do see a similar problem on occasion (I’m in IT support). Reformatting has never failed me. Also note that a U3-type drive (the kind that runs software such as Mozilla directly from itself) will, of course, not allow you to save to its rated capacity, because the programs loaded take up space. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/9 "2008-03-07T18:47:57Z")
I hate my little U3 drive, and all that “helpful” software it insists on shoving at you. ---
**Author:** ![Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barry_From_Eastenders)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/10 "2008-03-07T19:22:25Z")
I purchased it from Best Buy. I’ll try the format/folders suggestions. Thanx Barry ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/11 "2008-03-07T19:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I hate my little U3 drive, and all that “helpful” software it insists on shoving at you. [/QUOTE] You can remove it. [www.u3.com/uninstall](http://www.u3.com/uninstall) will take you to the removal software. Its the first thing I do whenever I encounter it. ---
**Author:** ![Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Barry\_From\_Eastenders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barry_From_Eastenders)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/12 "2008-03-07T23:11:09Z")
The folders thing worked. Thanx! ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-2gb-microsd-will-hold-only-500mb/440397/13 "2008-03-09T05:12:28Z")
I also ran into this “number of files in the root” limitation when I bought a 1GB SD memory card for a digital photo frame and attempted to load all our cat photos on it. I would get a disk full error when only a small percentage of the photos were copied over. Finally I did as suggested above and created a Photos folder on the card and put all the pictures in it with no problem. The digital frame is perfectly happy with reading from the folder instead of the root.