Talk:U3/Archive 1

message: I archived this page because it was more than 30kb. Bry9000 (talk) 22:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

message: I still do not understand why the u3 compatible flash drives have to be different in terms of hardware. Any USB flash could have an autostart loader for programs, where is the need for specific hardware?
:I'm confused on this too. Can any usb drive potentially become a u3 compatable drive?
::As I understand it, the hardware is the same, but with partitions.
:::Here's my 5 cents:  on a U3-USB-stick there is a up to 5 MB large launchpad read-only partition which has to be factory written.  That's why you can't just transform any ol' USB stick into a U3-USB-stick.  Apart from this small ROM-unit the hardware is identical, which keeps prices in line with regular USB sticks. Maikel 19:51, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A regular USB flash drive can not autorun like a CD/DVD.  Neither can an external USB hard drive.  It's a Windows restriction.  U3 drives have some way of fooling Windows into thinking that part of the drive is a CD-ROM drive, so Windows will kick off the autorun located there. Ratbert42 10:23, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The USB controller on the device presents to the operating system two different drives. The controller tells the computer that one drive is a standard disk drive and the other device is a CDROM. The controller has to be specially made to do this. You would not be able to convert a normal USB disk into this. I wonder if it is possible to load the startup software onto a standard USB disk and then manually start it without the autorun. jteich 4:19, 29 Nov 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: What makes U3 hardware different?

message: I've recently obtained a U3 Flash drive, and the latest version of the U3 system has the ability to remove U3 and transform it to a standard USB drive.
U3 -> Status and Settings -> Remove -> Uninstall
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I'm speaking from recent experience.  The U3 flashes are being sold with no warning at all what they are.  I believed I was buying 2 gigs of flash space, and I only found out different when I put it into my machine.  What if that had been not two mysterious and unexpected partitions and stuff on them; but serious malware?  So I feel the sales tactic of dumping the U3 stuff on users is ill advised.  (If I've busted protocols here I apologize: I'm not an experienced Wiki user.)  -- Martha Adams, mhada@verizon.net
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CobraA1 22:22, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The article notes that a uninstaller was created in response to criticism from Best Buy.  If the reason for the criticism is gone, then should it be removed from the article altogether, or should the article move it somewhere else, such as a "U3 Responses to Criticism" header? 71.103.112.18 00:03, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, the article says that "U3 has responded to this criticism as they have recently made available an uninstall feature on their website." This may be misleading, as the feature has been added to recent updates of Launchpad software on the drive itself, not just on a website. Perhaps this could be phrased differently to make it clearer that soon after the uninstall was made available on the website, it was also made available on the drive itself? CobraA1 06:06, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  How to uninstall? 

message: The CD-ROM partition is the second LUN, read-only, and somewhat hidden.  What easy-to-use Linux tools exist to see this partition?  What Live-CD or Live-DVD is best?  On a new Compaq Presario V5303NR, a number were tested with a new SanDisk Micro Cruzer U3 1GB, SDCZ6-1024-A10.  Knoppix 5.0 DVD and Slax 5.0.6 CD did not seem to see the CD partition.  PCLinuxoS 0.92 CD did see /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom2 scsi/.../lun1/cd, but there was no obvious way to mount/view it.  RR4 3.0b0 did best, showing /media/sr0 LUN:01 CD-ROM U3 Cruzer, but just thought it was a blank CD.  (They all seemed to have no trouble seeing the regular USB MSC partition, and working with it in normal ways.) 69.87.204.122 22:57, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Linux CD-partition Viewing Tools?

message: I'm horrible at editing the wiki, so I just want to point out a few things.
1) "Problems - Where a user has insufficient privileges he may run into problems getting the launcher to work. In such a case the launcher might actually prove a hinderance to using the device"
---Note that by pressing and holding shift, you may disable autoplay preventing U3 Launchpad from loading.  (tested under windows XP with a Sandisk 1 Gig drive)
:Source   U3 website, common questions
Also, it appears that as a limited user, one may circumvent the privileged escalation denial by entering the old Windows 2000 style login on XP    (Press and hold the Alt + Ctrl keys, then press the Delete key twice).
Once there, enter your login user name.  Then insert your U3 drive.  If you quickly type in your password, the U3 software will often load.  (Checked at school, limited rights user setup as default)
2) Benefits •	Software can be taken with all its personalised (sp personalized) settings to any computer running a compatible version of Microsoft Windows, with no need to install the software if not already there, or to use different settings and options, and no need for administrator access privileges.
3)This is due to Best Buy's Geek Squad who in early 2006 raised the issue of not being able to uninstall U3, and got them to write a (an) uninstaller for first the Geek Squad branded drives and then all the U3 drives
I have some other stuff that should be added, I'll add more here when I have the time.  If sources are needed, I'll try to find the articles that pointed what I wrote out, its just that your not going to find a "credible" source on the login bypass.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.224.85.47 (talk • contribs) 04:05, 8 December 2006
:I've seen hinderance/hindrance spelled both ways. But I changed a uninstaller to an uninstaller. Melonjuice 20:50, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed that spelling fix after noticing an online dictionary referring hinderance to hindrance as an alternative spelling, I originally posted that because both Word and my in browser spell checker tagged it.  I finally got around to registering, so I am the above poster by the way. OpEd 02:23, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Faults in Article

message: I'm not very familiar with this software, but I have heard from a source of admittedly spotty reliability that one can install a program such as a password recovery tool onto a U3 drive from an account with Administrator privileges, and then run it on any computer on whatever account they're signed in on, regardless of user type.  Is this true?  If so, this is a huge security risk.  Is there a patch I can download to protect against it, or a setting to disable that function? -- A concerned parent of a computer wizard, March 3, 2007
:What you heard is partially true, solutions exist to replace the default U3 software with a prepackaged iso (see the switchblade and hacksaw packages) and they can indeed be run on a computer that does not have an administrator logged on, however the program will fail to dump the password hash in that situation.  Thus nothing bad happens.  However, in most cases a computer is left logged on with an administrator account allowing such exploitation.  If someone has the capability and knowledge required to operate a package like the switchblade your computer is compromised anyway.
OpEd 05:01, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not on the English wikipedia... besides its possible to do many of the things he cites on a regular flashdrive, people just aren't intelligent enough to do so.  One way is through execution on opening a folder, say opening the flashdrive's folder in my computer... who plugs in a flashdrive without the intention of accessing it?
OpEd 05:01, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Security Problem?

message: I'll try to find a suitable citation, but I'd never heard of U3 until I accidentally encountered it yesterday and I can confirm that it's true that " the uninstaller doesn't work in all cases."
I bought a couple of what I thought were generic SanDisk thumb drives because they were on sale at Staples. My wife and I needed drives with about a 256-512 MB capacity but the 1GB SanDisk Micro U3 was on sale and had the lowest price per MB. On my Mac I spotted the extra crap and was mildly annoyed that it was installed in such a way that Disk Utility couldn't remove it by erasing or repartitioning, but it wasn't a big deal.
On my wife's XP machine, it popped up a boatload of intrusive in-your-face tours and desktop icons and things, like the bloatware that came preinstalled on her machine. The drive was slow to mount. It wasn't clear how you were supposed to eject it, because it presented itself as two devices--did you need to eject both? and it wasn't clear when it was ejected... it appeared that the U3 system kept remounting itself or kept remounting the other drive or something.
Worst yet, her Norton Internet Security package kept popping up warnings about the software trying to address some DNS server it didn't like. My wife isn't the least bit interested in any of this stuff. Her instructions to me were to "buy her a thumb drive," like the other one she has--which turned out to be impossible as it's no longer available...
According to the SanDisk site, all you need to do is "simply go to the U3 Launchpad and, under Settings, select U3 Launchpad settings and click Uninstall." When I tried this, it failed with an error message complaining that it could only uninstall from a single U3 USB device and I should remove the "extra" devices and try again. The problem is that there weren't any extra devices; it was the only USB thumb drive attached. After about an hour of struggling (would it work if I manually ejected one of the two "drives" before running the uninstaller? No. Is it possible that it really did uninstall it and the message was misleading? No. Did I just need to reboot the machine? No. Is it possible that the drive I was using had somehow been corrupted by exposure to the Mac's Disk Utility? No, the virgin drive displayed identical symptoms.) Dpbsmith (talk) 10:51, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I also had troubles uninstalling the U3. When I ran the uninstaller, it asked me to plug in an U3 USB flash drive, but it was already plugged in. Apparently the uninstaller didn't recognized my U3 USB flash drive. I tried it in another computer and then it did work fine. Jayme 17:13, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "However, the uninstaller doesn't work in all cases..." 

message: The article states that a U3 drive consists of a read-only ISO 9660 partition, and a standard FAT partition.
However, it is obvious that there is another part of the device that is written to by installed software, and which is not accessible to the user - at least from Windows.  It would appear to be like a mini-registry.  The primary use of this part of the device seems to be to store license information such as license serials and monitor trial periods  of software.
It seems strange that there is no information on this.  Clearly the software companies must have the full details of the necessary information to write to this part of the device.
Jamesthebod 15:36, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The article is correct; when applicable the U3 programs use the windows registry itself and for data like license information it is stored on the fat partition of the disk.  Theres a hidden "System" folder on the fat partition, and license information is stored within that; it could be hidden from the windows gui and only viewable in command as well. OpEd 23:53, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

text: Yes (that'd be correct). Ok (Did you read my comment?? This part especially "when applicable the U3 programs use the windows registry itself"). The device doesn't leave behind parts in the registry. You also didn't backup this claim.  Furthermore, you confuse the idea of device and software that runs on said device.  The U3 platform can accept many programs, some of which aren't certified and some that are. Just because a program is certified does not guarantee that when terminated unexpectedly it will correctly remove all entries stored within the registry. The methods to remove any registry entries can only be called at program termination, and are not the responsibility of the U3 device or launchpad platform.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by OpEd (talk • contribs) 20:11, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing information 

message: The article says that the ISO9660 doesn't work in Mac OS, but when I put my U3 Cruzer Micro 1GB into my iMac, the CD does show up. It is necessary to eject both separately in order to prevent a Device Removal dialog (possible data loss alert).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kainino (talk • contribs) 23:50, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mac OS X & ISO9660 Partition