Flash/Thumb drive annoyance

I have a 2 GB Sandisk flash drive that came pre-loaded with a bunch of U3 garbage that allows one to run applications from the flash drive or something like that. The only thing I want to do with the flash drive is store files on it, usually very temporarily.

I cannot get rid of all that other stuff, stuff like "System" and "LaunchU3.exe". If I delete those files, they just magically reappear the next time I insert the flash drive into the USB port. My trying to kill those things have just made it worse, because now when I insert the flash drive, it also creates temporarily (as long as the flash drive is connected) a bogus CD Drive containing an autorun.inf file, a zip file with 25 files in it, and U3.exe.

Oh, wait... inside that bogus zip file on the nonexistant CD drive is an executable file that looked like it would remove all the U3 junk... and it did! Of course Winzip crashed at the end when the ghost drive holding the zip file I was running the removal program out of was no longer there, but Hallelujah, U3 is banished forever from my flash drive, rise up children and rejoice!

tanstaafl.

I think the U3 remover utility is on the Sandisk website as well somewhere. Removing those stupid apps and partitions is the first thing I do when I get a flash drive.

Actually, if you let it go ahead and intall itself, one of the options from within the software itself is to remove itself from the computer and thumb drive. Works great. I have no use for the U3 software, but I give them credit for building in the removal process and it actually working.

Really? I have a 4GB drive and see no option for uninstalling the U3 garbage.

Stu

looks like it's windows only, but here is the direct download for the uninstaller, and here is U3 begging to stay alive on your device.

I bought a thumb drive for my bother back in May that came with U3. I did take a quick gander at the applications, but replaced them with PortableApps.

In the last couple of weeks, work implemented a 'USB Flash Drive Encryption' program. Every time you pop a flash drive on any machine on the network, it automatically tries to encrypt all files on the flash drive. It pops up this nice little window where you have to go through and deselect certain boxes before you can successfully cancel without all the files becoming encrypted, if you don't have the right ones deselected, it starts over. Major pain, especially since it installs the decryption program in some obscure location on the flash drive that you have to hunt for before you can use any files on the drive if you didn't cancel it in time (unless you are on the major network at work).

It is especially fun when vendors bring their flash drives in with their sales pitches. Good times!

PortableApps is great, but I wish their launcher was better. It offers very little control over what gets put into it. Still, I have several of their applications on my portable 1.8" hard disk enclosure. That thing is my lifeline, and I have about 50 apps that can run directly off of it.

About the Sandisk drive, a formatting won't work?

Matt, in what way? I don't recall having any difficult adding any of the application from their site, nor removing at a later stage. Or are you referring to adding an application that isn't already PortableApp-ized?

The last part you mention. I agree that it's a simple matter to install and remove their own software packages, but when you start putting your own apps on there, it gets really screwy. Plus it doesn't give you any control over how they're ordered, which drives me nuts. Basically it appears that the launcher scans the programs folder for any EXE and puts it in the list. Some of my apps have a few EXE's but not all need to be accessed, yet they all get put in the list. In general there's no configuration of the launcher built in. I may give it another try, though. For now I've been "installing" their apps to my desktop (it only creates a folder wherever it "installs"), and move it over to my portable drive.

I am going to put together a PortableApps drive for my wife, though. She can take it to work and actually use useful applications on her locked-down desktop. They won't even let her install flash on her machine.