iPod shuffle capacity
so, can someone explain to me why my 512 shuffle doesnt have 512 megs of space? i understand formatting can take some, but im missing a good 13-14 megs here.
[edit]
I added up used and unused and i have approximately 492.2 Megs on my 512 shuffle. so that's 19.8 megs that I'm missing.
[edit]
I added up used and unused and i have approximately 492.2 Megs on my 512 shuffle. so that's 19.8 megs that I'm missing.
Comments
Formatting my 64Mb Memory Stick in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), leaves something like 49Mb remaining, which is pants for backing up my most important files. When formatted in MS Dos, it's something like 60megs.
Can someone explain why Mac OS Extended uses that extra space?
Originally posted by Asaph
so, can someone explain to me why my 512 shuffle doesnt have 512 megs of space? i understand formatting can take some, but im missing a good 13-14 megs here.
[edit]
I added up used and unused and i have approximately 492.2 Megs on my 512 shuffle. so that's 19.8 megs that I'm missing.
A couple of reasons...
1) It's got an OS on it. (I'm guessing it's a couple of megs)
2) Math. It's that old -a MB is actually 1024 KB, while manufacturers advertise it as 1000 KB/MB...which means it's closer to 500 MB. Annoying, but everyone does it...
Originally posted by Colby2000
A couple of reasons...
1) It's got an OS on it. (I'm guessing it's a couple of megs)
Probably. (The OS could be stored in some other memory on the shuffle, but I doubt it)
Originally posted by Colby2000
2) Math. It's that old -a MB is actually 1024 KB, while manufacturers advertise it as 1000 KB/MB...which means it's closer to 500 MB. Annoying, but everyone does it...
No. That happens with hard drives, but not flash memory (not below 1 gig anyway, not sure about above). With flash <1 gig, when they say MB, they mean 1024 KB.
HFS is a more sophisticated format (than MS-DOS) requiring database files and such which take up the missing space.
So, in summary, the space you are missing is almost entirely down to the formatting of the drive.
edit: Having checked Apple's spec page, it would seem that actually Colby2000 was right. Even for flash 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes rather than the 1,048,576 bytes it should be. This is particularly odd given the power of two storage capacity (512 MB). I had assumed that since flash is more similar to RAM than a HDD, the MBs were "real" MBs like you get with RAM. So, most of the missing space is missing because it isn't there at all, the rest is due to OS and formatting. My apologies to Colby2000, I stand corrected.