Not able to use the full capacity of Memory Stick

I recently purchased a 2 GB memory stick (Mr Flash U172). When I plug it into the usb port and read the properties it tells me that I have 1.91 GB of available memory but when I try to load data onto the stick it will only allow me to load approx. 0.5 GB. I have tried this a number of times on both my desktop and my laptop and get the same results each time. Is there some type of formatting I must do to access the remaining 1.5 GB or memory?
I have tried contacting the manufacturer, their website has a page for asking questions, but the page is corrupt and the question never gets sent to them.

Tom

 

Operating system

I forgot to include that I am using XP Home version on both computers.

Tom

 

Do you get any errors wen trying to load more than 0.5 gig onto the stick?

If so what are they?

And it will be 1.91 gig because there are invisible files already on the stick that take up a little bit of space such as the small drivers that are looded when you first plug the stick into any PC for the very first time.

 

No error codes.

There is no error code that comes up. A small window opens and tells me that the next file on the list cannot be copied to the requested location.
If I check the properties of the stick at that time ther is always approximately 0.5 GB used, and 1.5 GB showing as available. But it will not allow me to copy more files.

 

I have only dealt with smaller drives, but I think your problem is in the formatting.

Many here will know the "Do you want to enable large disk support" selection while using Fdisk. I think it was for when a drive was larger than 500Mb (I haven't used it for ages). If I remember correctly and try to extrapolate I would say that your drive is formatted as FAT 16, whereas it should be formatted as FAT 32 (don't try NTFS). You may want to see if anyone could confirm this, otherwise you may find some formatting information (FAQs) at the manufacturer's website.

Open My Computer, right-click on the drive, you will find the formatting options there.

Matt

 

I bow down to the masters.
Thanks for the help Mattman and Elite. The formatting was indeed the problem. I did a 'quick' format from 'my computer' and it works 100% now.

Tom