Re: Eliminating U3 System Stuff from SanDisk ruzer thumb drive

In article <jollyroger-6E3AB1.10121004072008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Jolly Roger <jollyroger@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <siegman-DB2A83.08071904072008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>  AES <siegman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > 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?

So far as I know, and I have done some research as well as personal 
experimentation with these U3 devices, there is no way to clear them via 
the Mac OS. You have to take them to a D'Ohs machine and run the 
mentioned uninstaller.

Microcenter is selling these at very attractive prices: 1,2,4,8,16GB for 
$7,9,14,25,50 respectively, with a nominal lifetime guarantee. Last I 
looked U3 was installed on the 4GB and up. Wherever you buy these they 
surely will have a D'Ohs machine onsite and _should_ have the 
uninstaller available. Before you buy them ask if they will clear the U3 
stuff. If not, buy from someone else.

> Could it be it uses some custom hardware configuration that strays 
> enough from the standard USB specifications (in order to save money on 
> production costs) that it requires custom drivers to work rather than 
> relying on standard USB drivers in most computers?

As far as I can tell, these drive use the standard USB driver, unless 
they load something special into RAM when they mount. You can delete 
some of the U3 info, but not the core read-only partition which contains 
the encoding executables. I have to say I'm impressed that SanDisk has 
made that partition so resistant to alteration, though it's yet another 
unnecessary D'Ohs PITA for Mac users.

--Fred