I have 16GB pendrive but it shows only 14.4GB is usable, where my 1.6GB storage gone?

There are 3 different reasons behind it:

• Different operating systems treat your disk differently. Windows OS may not show the disk space like Linux, Mac or Unix. There are little discrepancies between the file formats and algorithms used by different operating systems. (It doesn't matter much)
• Another reason is that- A portion of memory space is reserved for system filesand data sector for better performance. This is the primary reason behind the less usable space than the mentioned space.
• The last reason but not the least is the calculation method used by the disk manufacturing companies. They consider 1 KB = 1000 Bytes. But your OS may consider it as 1 KB = 1024 KB. Here you are also losing a considerable amount of disk space.

Look at the calculation below:

Virtual Storage              Disk Storage

1 MB = 1024 KB    1 MB = 1000 KB

1 GB = 1024 MB  1 GB = 1000 MB

8 GB = 8192 MB   8 GB = 8000 MB

7.2 GB = 7372 MB                   7.2 GB = 7200 MB

So, you are getting 172 MB less space because of using 1 KB = 1000 Bytes!

Now what do you think? Shouldn't the manufacturer mention the actual usable memory on the packet? :)