This is an attempt to explain to you why your computer tells you "conflicting" (but not really) information on exactly how much usable space you have on any given storage medium.
In my possession I have a really old 512MB Sandisk cruzer micro USB stick. To make absolutely sure I was going to get the maximum space out of it, I low-level formatted it first to obliterate any and all partitions (which includes any hidden ones):
Note the low-level format tool says at top that the space available is 524.28MB.
Then a regular format:
Note that Windows 7 states the capacity is 500MB before regular formatting.
After format, Windows 7 via "Computer" then states there is 499MB available:
On a right-click/Properties of that storage device, the same information is displayed:
Now the question is this:
How did we go from a stick labeled as 512MB to a reported 524.28MB to 500MB to 499MB? Are they all correct? Are none of them correct? What’s the deal here?
Raw Capacity
This is the space available in an unformatted state.
The HDD Low-Level Format tool is correct. In a raw unformatted state, the USB stick does have 524.28MB total space available.
When storage media is formatted, space is used and that’s why what you get is smaller when formatted compared to raw.
Windows 7 was also correct in stating the total space available was going to be 500MB before I formatted the stick; it guesstimated that 500 was about what I’d get.
Formatted Capacity
The 499MB total formatted space available is also correct. You can see in the above screenshot that the total formatted space available in bytes is 524,009,472. That translates to 499.7MB.
"Is there any way I can get my space back?"
No. Once formatted, what you get is what you get.
"Does this mean the box my hard drive came in lied to me?"
No. The way hard drive OEMs determine what capacity size to print on the box is to literally take the raw capacity size in bytes, divide by a billion and use that number. And yes, it is technically correct.
"Why do they do that?"
Different operating systems determine formatted usable space in different ways, meaning the usable space you get with any hard drive depends on which operating system you use. In a raw, unformatted state, the size remains consistent and isn’t dependent on any particular OS, so that’s why they use that figure first.
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