Questions about file manipulation...

[ddeder]

A couple of things have been bothering me...

I downloaded a driver from the internet and stored it on my HD. I right click on the file and look at the properties and it tells me that the file contains 979KB(1,002,501), 1,003,008 bytes used.

I put a floppy disk in the A drive and copy the file to it. I then check the properties of the file on the A drive and it says 979KB(1,002,501), 1,003,520 bytes used.

What happened?! Does the file contain 1,003,008 bytes or 1,003,520 bytes? I copied the file to another floppy to verify that it isn't a problem with the floppy, same result.

My second question...

I copied a bunch of files to a floppy and then immediately tried to format the floppy. I get an error message saying something to the effect that one of the files is in use and I can't format. I don't get it. I rebooted the computer and then was able to format the floppy. What is going on here???

 

[Evadman]

Notice that in both cases, on the HD and on the Floppy, the file is 979KB. (1,002,501 bytes. ) The other # is the amount of storage space the file takes up. Both of these numbers are correct. It has to do with cluster size. When a Disk is formated, it is given a certan size for clusters ( in Bytes, or KB, depending on size of original disk ) A file MUST use an entire cluster, as Clusters can not be split between files. Example:

Say you have a 10KB file on your HD
Your HD cluster Size is 5KB
Your Floppy Cluster is 3 KB

On your hard drive, the file uses 2 clusters, for a total used space of exactly 10KB.
That same file on your floppy would take 4 clusters, as 3 would only be 9KB, and not enough for the file. So it uses 4 for a total of 12KB.

Smaller drives = smaller clusters ( usually ) The smaller a cluster, generally the more efficent the HD/Storage system can be. A 1K file would use 5k on the above example on the HD as storage space, while the Floppy would only use 3K.

 

[Evadman]

Did you think you would get an answer that fast?

 

[ddeder]

No, that was great! Any ideas about why I can't format the floppy?

 

[amdskip]

The floppy could be junk or the little write protect switch thing could be on.

 

[Medea]

Nice explanation, Evadman.