Flash memory says full when empty

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Dave Perry, Nov 10, 2005.

  1. Dave Perry

    Dave Perry Private E-2

    Hi everyone,

    I use a flash memory device, 128 megs, to grab downloads while I'm at work and take them home. Today I deleted all the content (some file deletions, some folder deletions) and started trying to DL some new stuff, but every time I tried it said the disk was full, even though when I access a list, it's empty. Win XP tells me there is only about 822 KB free, but it shows no files, and says it's working properly.

    What can cause this? It seems like the deletions didn't work (the data is there), or else it's somehow reporting data that's not there, but no files are showing. Is there a way to just wipe the whole disk clean all at once?

    BTW, I tried restoring all files from the recycling folder and they disappeared from that folder and did not show up on the content list for the flash memory.

    Thanks much,
    Dave
     
  2. majinbuu

    majinbuu Specialist

    if there is nothing on that device you need, try reformatting it.
     
  3. Dave Perry

    Dave Perry Private E-2

    Thanks for the reply. Someone else suggested that on another board (I guess it seems obvious but I'm new with flash memory so I just didn't think of it).

    It worked, but I'm still curious as to why this might have happened, so if anyone has any ideas I'd be interested.

    Thanks again,
    Dave
     
  4. majinbuu

    majinbuu Specialist

    what probably happened was that the data on the drive became corrupted, so while it didn't show up, it was still taking space.

    Data corruption on flash drives commonly occurs when you remove the device while the pc is performing a read or write cycle on it, even if it isn't a user initiated action (maybe like a virus check by a realtime virus scanner?)

    The safest way to remove a flash drive after using it is to use the safely remove hardware wizard on the bottom right taskbar
     
  5. Dave Perry

    Dave Perry Private E-2

    Hey, thanks for the info!

    Dave
     
  6. majinbuu

    majinbuu Specialist

    no probs
     
  7. fov

    fov Private E-2

    Ive also seen them flash sticks fill up with temp files if your writing large files to it.
    These can be removed by viewing hidden files and deleting them.
     

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