Strange `No space left' on usb pendrive

[Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com>]

Hi all.

When I try to copy more than 40MB onto an empty new 2GB usb pendrive, I get an
inexplicable `No space left on device' error message:


`11022008699.jpg' -> `/mnt/pendrive-carolina2/11022008699.jpg'
`11022008700.jpg' -> `/mnt/pendrive-carolina2/11022008700.jpg'
cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/pendrive-carolina2/11022008700.jpg': No space left on device
`11022008701.jpg' -> `/mnt/pendrive-carolina2/11022008701.jpg'
cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/pendrive-carolina2/11022008701.jpg': No space left on device


The command df seems to show that everything is all right:

$ df -lh
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda6              11G  9.2G  912M  92% /
tmpfs                 110M     0  110M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M   80K   10M   1% /dev
tmpfs                 110M     0  110M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda1             7.8G  7.3G  541M  94% /mnt/hda1
/dev/hda7             4.9G  1.9G  2.7G  42% /mnt/hda7
/dev/hda8             4.9G  3.4G  1.3G  74% /mnt/hda8
/dev/hda9             7.9G  2.7G  4.9G  36% /mnt/hda9
/dev/sda1             1.9G   40M  1.9G   3% /mnt/pendrive-carolina2


and so parted:

# parted /dev/sda1
GNU Parted 1.7.1
Using /dev/sda1
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p

Disk /dev/sda1: 2004MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00kB  2004MB  2004MB  fat16


Please help understand what the problem may be.  Should I format the device?

Thanks for any help
Rodolfo