How do I find out the how much I can store on my USB memory key?

Q  I have a USB memory key but the device offers no indication of its capacity. Is there any way of finding out how much storage it has?
Brian Hillier

A  Right-clicking the memory key’s icon in Windows Explorer and choosing Properties from the menu that appears will open a dialogue box that shows the drive’s capacity.

However, it’s worth knowing that some unscrupulous vendors fake the apparent capacity in the memory key’s circuitry in order to fool buyers. If you want to be certain of the device’s capacity, use a free tool called H2testw. (The site is in German, but the download link is obvious enough).

The memory key will need to be formatted first (so anything stored on it should be backed up first), then launch the program, select the drive and click the Write + Verify button to test its capacity.

Depending on the drive’s actual capacity, this may take some time – but it will report the genuine size of the drive and also detect any errors that may affect how much data it can store.