Why in the world is it called 256 MB memory stick when it's just 237 mb?

[Gameguywld]

I reformated my "256" mb stick (I have all of my files on my pc) and after it formated i only had 237 mb of memory, thier is NOTHING on my stick at all! That's 19 mb short of what it was suppose to be, is their any way of getting 256 or close? they should have just called it a 237 Mb stick,

[DogRed9]

no, its 256 on your comp, 237 or w/e on PSP, they use diferent powers to get the mb...

[Garp]

Not quite right.

There are two reasons for this. First of all, when you format a memory stick (or anything for that matter) a certain amount of space is required for setting up the "laws" of that format....how files are stored, etc.

Secondly, memory and hard drive manufacturers don't believe in the bit/byte process, apparently...they count memory space differently, because of that. If you get a 120GB hard drive, you'll "really" have something like 110 or 112. Just something you get used to, really.

[Joey]

This has been discussed soooooooooooooooooooooooo o many times on this board it's brimming on rediculous...

The companies that make memory products will print 256 on the package, but don't measure each MB as a full megabyte... A megabyte is 1024 bytes, but the company only measures each Megabyte as 1000 bytes... That's why the bigger the storage, the more you lose... A 512 MB memory stick only has about 460, and it gets just gets bigger...

My comp has a 40 GB harddrive, but it's only got about 36 GB of storage available... I had an MP3 player about a year ago that was 20 GB's, and it only had about 18 1/2 available... It just varies...