Re: Eliminating U3 System Stuff from SanDisk ruzer thumb drive

In article <1ijifau.1wdunv0s0e40yN%paul****hs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
'tkosher.oink>,
 paul****hs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
'tkosher.oink (Paul ****hs) wrote:

> AES <siegman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 
> > Is there a straightforward way to reformat a SanDick Cruzer 2 GB or
4GB
> > USB thumb drive to make it into a totally vanilla external USB volume
> > that can be read and written to on either Macs or PCs? 
> > 
> > That is, totally eliminate all the "U3" or whatever 
> > system stuff it is that shows up on a Mac or PC, including a separate
CD
> > volume that has to be ejected separately
> 
> Not trying to be rude, but there was a thread a few months ago covering
> this in detail.

These gadgets seem to be on display racks everywhere these days, at very 
attractively low discount prices per GB compared to other thumb drives.  
(Is this maybe because the additional "U3" stuff has turned out to be 
unpopular even with PC users?)

I guess I'm still hoping that since this gadget presumably contains only 
a purely passive memory card, there must be some brute force way even on 
a Mac to use Disk Utility or ??? to totally erase the entire unit down 
to bare or empty memory and reformat that memory . . .  or is the "U3" 
stuff in some kind of separate chip that can't be erased?