A system and methods are given for providing information on the amount of life remaining for a memory having a limited lifespan, such as a flash memory card. For example, it can provide a user with the amount of the memory's expected remaining lifetime in real time units or as a percentage of estimated initial life. An end of life warning can also be provided. The memory device can be resized by host command. In an exemplary embodiment, a host can send a request to the memory device obtain its status and the size of logical units with which it operates. Based on this information, portions of the memory device can be erased, after which it can be reformatted and operated with a reduce capacity.