thanks
17179869184
I did not trust it when it fdisk reported it as 17.1 GB
so I elected to try 2 different live dvds each gave a diff number
so sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1
reboot create a fresh msdos table
still reports greater than 16G
only cost $6 so its now consigned for non-TC use
2) just bought a better brand 16G and it reports
Disk /dev/sdb: 15.5 GB, 15500673024 bytes
40 heads, 40 sectors/track, 18921 cylinders, total 30274752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5d5c776a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 8064 30274751 15133344 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
before I reformat it