I was at Best Buy looking at monitors with someone the other day (looking not buying, as you can get better tech prices online-personally I buy from (Newegg but that’s not the point). I saw they had Flash Drives on sale. Now before on this blog I have talked about the importance of having one of these to help you with so many tech issues, from transporting data, to checking email on any computer, and giving problem free presentations. I have been wanting a larger one lately so I can pull off some sweeter hacks and demonstrations for classes. They had a 2GB one on sale for $44, so I thought sure. . . this was a mistake. Why? The drive was a u3 drive. I didn’t know about the problem with these things and it took me a couple of hours to fix it. So here is my advice: If you are going to buy a flash drive get one that is not u3, if you already have one, or find one on the cheap keep reading as I am going to explain the steps to fix this. But first let me explain what the problem is with these “smart” drives is, and why you have to fix them, they pose a particualr problem for academic uses.
What is u3?
The makers of u3 call it a “smart drive,” a way to carry on a flash drive all of your preferences, a few key programs, documents, data etc. This way you can, “plug into any Windows 2000 or XP PC, and work.” Basically they are marketing the techniques I talked about earlier here of putting small applications onto a flash drive so that you can hook into any computer and make it work the way you want. Especially useful for working on community computers where you are not allowed to change the settings. For example, you can carry firefox as a web browser on your flash drive, that way you can have all you bookmarks, and tab browse on computers where the only broswer is the woefully inadequate Internet Explorer. This is a great technique. And the promise of u3 is that they make this really easy by having a small part of the flash drive pre-installed with software that helps you do this. The problem: This is a Lie! It doesn’t Work!
Okay without getting to technical, (if you want more in depth explanation go here). But basically it comes with an autorun program pre-installed, it tries to run this every time you log into a windows machine. (On a philosophical level this is bad as no company should produce software that installs and runs without you first accepting-this is how spyware gets started.) Now the huge problem for academics is that not all windows machines can run the program that it tries to run. So when I first tried to put my new flashdrive into the office computer on campus, nothing happens, the computer can’t see the flash drive, or worse, it causes the computer to “hang“. If a machine doesn’t let you access the toolbar (many don’t) the program can’t run. Here’s a brief note to the makers of u3:
The ”u“ in ”USB“ stands for universal, the idea is that I should be able to plug my flash drive into any computer and have it work, by trying to make this thing ”smart“ you have taken away the whole reason I use a flashdrive!.
It is no longer universal. What is more, everything u3 does can be done without u3. And sometimes computers will recognize a u3 drive and sometimes not, so you might think everything is okay, and than one time when you are trying to print the chapter of your dissertation for a meeting with your advisor it won’t work. And, here is the real kicker, the drive does apparently leave ”traces“ on the computer, that means you are not completely operating safely.
And to make this quadruply heinous the evil developers at u3 won’t let you erase this piece of crap autorun software. It is write protected, which means you have read only privileges. I thought the problem would be simply fixed by erasing and reformating the drive, no such luck.
Let me say again, Evil, Evil, Evil, this can only cause problems as you try to use your drive across a range of institutional machines. Never fear though, there are steps for fixing this.
How to Fix a u3 drive.
Basically the fix here is to wipe the drive and start out fresh. This way you have a real univerisal flash drive and can actually plug into any computer. Initally the developers of u3 wouldn’t let you unistall the part of the flashdrive that is causing all of these problems, luckily enough people seemed to have complained and they have now made an unistall program available. The problem is that you need a PC to do this, so if you own a Mac you need to find someone with a PC. A community computer might not work as you need to run the uninstall off the main hard drive, and often community computers don’t let you do this.
- First back up all your data as this process will completely erase the disk, but this is good as it will make the drive actually universal. So save all your data you want onto your desktop in a folder titled ”Flash Drive“ or something.
- Second go to the uninstall webstie at u3. They will ask you to fill out a form as to why you are uninstalling their software. The final box is for comments. If you are so inclined you can cut and paste the following into the box:
I am unistalling this crap piece of software because it is autorun and automatically installs without asking my permission. Second, it doesn’t work on all computers. Third, it is not secure. In short, it sucks! In fact I recommend that whoever thought of this idea be promptly demoted to mail room clerk in charge of licking stamps and since most stamps are now peel and stick this will ensure that they never create such another horrible product. Thanks. - Third, once you go thru all of their steps it will download a program called unistall.exe.
- Fourth, with your flashdrive in the port run this program. It will now ask you again if you sure you want to do this. I wish this also had a comment box. I would write: You have asked me this four times already, of course I want to make my flash drive work correctly.
- If you are having problems getting your computer to recongnize your flash drive you can hold down “Shift” key as you put the drive in, this will prevent (this time only) the autorun program from loading allowing you to run the install and wipe the drive.
- Note for Mac Users: If you are only using the drive on a Mac you will be okay. Although everytime you put the drive in the computer you see two drives: one a cd, the other the flash drive, and you always have to eject both. To make sure you can run this drive on a PC you should do this uninstall.
I realize this might seem hard to get done, and it is a bit tricky, but if you are going to use one of these U3 drives it is essential
Difficulty
Thank you!!!!!!!!! This drives me nuts!! I try to do some work on some work computers and it doenst work!!! Thank you so very much for this! BTW I love the blog, very useful.
Anything else we should be looking for in buying a flash drive? Some of them seem to vary in price a lot.
I’m curious how it is possible to make something un-reformattable? I mean, if I shove the E3 USB drive into my mac and use some UNIX-fu to delete and reformat the drive, shouldn’t it be completely wiped clean?
I definetly tried to reformat, and repartition the drive, and was not successful, perhaps someone more texh savy than me could get this done.
In terms of buying a flashdrive, stick with a company whose name you recognize and 512mb (which comes pretty cheap) should be plenty, unless you are trying to pull off something fancy like lots of programs, or pictures.
i still haven’t gotten the damn thing to uninstall. it’s driving me nuts! no matter how many times i’ve tried it or how many times i’ve held the shift key down, the u3 uninstaller does not detect the drive. any suggestions?
Dan,
I need more context. I assume you have a Windows XP machine with the unintall program downloaded to the computer. So you hold down shift, put the drive in, wait for it to load (can your computer see the drive and not the uninstall?) and than run uninstall but it won’t work? Give me a few more specfics and I’ll see what I can figure out.
-Dave
GREAT site. Thanks, this is the problem that I was having with this drive!! I can’t believe that someone is out there that makes such crap!
I have not had any of the problems you guys are having. I have used my U3 drive on 3 different pc’s and 2 laptops. So far without fail. Maybe you guys have an older version of the product?
fro
My experience is that it doesn’t depend on the U3 software, all versions seem to have problems, but rather is about the preferences and version of windows on the machines which you jack into. Especially bad I found are old PCs with serious restrictions.
Regardless of having problems they still pose a serious security issue, and nuisance on the Mac.
Well, luckily all the PC’s I work with and use are XP. Since Mac is nearly dead I won’t have to worry about it. As for security, they’re no more dangerous than any other flash drive.
Great summary of U3! Under Linux there were no problems to operate my SanDisk 2BG stick. However, we found no windows machine (XP, 2000) where we could read the data without problems. Then we realized that the problem is U3. It was not possible to remove it since even the uninstaller software did hang. The U3 partition must be quite good hidden since even a Linux fdisk does not show it.
Since the stick was operated in a environment with a higher security level, we had no other option than destroy it physically because we could not track what U3 does internally with the data. Thus it is not safe to use products with U3 for storage of classified data, moreover since the internal software seems to access the data partition. In fact this is not only a storage device (like a CD-RW or a “classical” USB stick), it is a electronical device with own software. The maufacturer of these sticks should clearly indicate what U3 is and does, and also offer their products without that dangerous software. Our only possible reaction for now is, that in our company the use of U3 sticks is forbidden. In summary, U3 is useless, dangerous and makes otherwise very good products worthless.
I don’t see the problem here. I know that U3 will autorun, because I put the drive in the USB port myself. So far I haven’t seen any spyware or anything. All I am running on the U3 drive is accomplice, and on one of my machines I have to manually click on the U3 System (Drive E: in my case) to run it–and then it works fine.
I don’t doubt that there are some problems with U3, such as the storage of classified data. But for the vast majority of us in academia that aren’t dealing with classified data, I think it’s fine–provided, of course, you don’t leave it in a public machine. I would never use a U3 drive in a public machine–I use it for Accomplice and will perhaps load Skype and Firefox on it.
Cool website by the way–just what I was looking for in my hunt for useful software in academia.
Tom
I think the problem is less with spyware and more with the fact that the U3 drives can leave behind info on the host computer, for example what if you enter a password on Firefox . . . But I will say my major problem with the drive was its spotty useage. That is, it works on some WIndows systems, but not all, and some it caused to freeze up. Since I am likely to use a range of machines, particularly older ones this can be a real pain. And since I get nothing from the u3 part of the system . . .and they did not give me the option . . .
Tom
The major problem is, that you almost can’t get USB sticks without U3. This means, that in fact I am forced to download their uninstaller software which doesn’t work in some cases. You first need to uninstall parts of most CD/DVD burning program for having the chance that it might work. This is ridiculous. Either it is a proof of their incompetence in programming, or of their ignorance of the customer’s needs. I do not understand why it was possible to produce sticks which worked on every system with a USB port, and why it is no more possible like that.
The manufacturers would do better, if U3 would be a real add-on software which can be installed sometimes, or deleted. If it is possible to create a deinstaller software, it is possible to deliver an installer software as well. For me it looks more like a marketing trick, to promote USB sticks and to “destroy” CD/DVD burning programs. Of courese, they want to sell memory sticks….
I talked to some IT security people of another institution, and they even disuss the option to forbid memory sticks at all for use in sensitive areas (!!!), because there is no safe way to distinguish “clean” drives from “risky” drives. The consequences will be, that we get again back to the CD-RW just because of some marketing people. I would be really glad, if someone could explain me the advantage of having U3 already installed on the drives against the option of installing it when the user wants it. They could do this with just one click…
Does any body know how to put U3 on a normal flash drive?????????????
I don’t think you can.
Dumbass, current U3 software not only gives an option to remove it, but also to cancel autorun.
complain first, investigate second. Not too many cells left up there eh?
Yes current U3 software now has the ability to cancel or remove, but the first runs did not, as was the case with mine and many others that people purchased. Ad hominem comments rarely prove effective.
You just saved my English grade. ;DD
And yeah, that’s true. Mine didn’t have the option to uninstall or stop autorun. On top of that, my school computers don’t allow programs to run from flash drives so I’ve nearly failed some papers.
Thanks.
I completely agree. I purchased a u3 drive because I thought it would be handy to have my programs on my flash drive for use on various computers on campus. Well, not only did the u3 features not work on a single university computer, one of the pc i tested it on killed the u3. I had to use the uninstall program to access the drive again – luckily I had all my files backed up. the u3 worked fine on my laptop, but what’s the point of that?
Well, some manufacturers have the identic memory stick size (2 GB and 4 GB) with and without U3. Interestingly, the sticks with U3 are up to 30 % cheaper than those without U3. In fact, this policy tells us, that sticks without U3 are better than those with. If U3 would be really that useful, they would sell these sticks more expensive due to the added value the user gets. So the added value I get now at the higher price is a stick which runs on every system without the smallest problem…
Thank you so much; this blog has exactly the information I was looking for. I agree completely with your editorial comments as well.
Hi,
First of all this site is awesome, and secound is my problem with the u3 software on my flash drive, its a 1g cruzer micro and when i plug it into my school computers (which dont allow us to run exe’s) it only finds the cd part of it, not the actual drive. Dose anyone know of a way to fix this? IF not ill just remove the software and use it as a 1 gig flash drive.
Thanks,
-Alex
P.s. feel free to check out a video website me and a couple friends made: http://www.shwot.co.nr
feel free to donate and keep us alive
** Note ** Under Construction
1) You can reflash the U3 partion with your own disk image it is however restricted to ~6MB of data.
2) The autorun program does not or at least is not supposed to install any thing on th host computer. In fact this makes the U3 drive a favorite malicious or mischeveous hacker tool because you can steal data invisibly leaving no trace of access by only plugging the drive into the computer. You can also deposit data the same way. All the hacker needs is physical access to the computer and a U3 drive with the new autorun software flashed to the U3 partion. (The same things can be done with a regular flash drive it is just not 100% invisible.)
How can any computer-system be “safe” or “secure” if it allows
non-admins to mount external drives ? U3 drives are no more unsafe
to the host than any other removable media . True , they can be used by “hackers”
but so can mp3-players, CD’s, DVD’s, floppys and “normal” USB flash-drives.
Even Macs can be used by “hackers” so they are bad to ?
You can not “format” the u3-CD away with standard tools and that includes Linux .
The reason is that it’s not a partition but a device that is managed by the u3-controller.
The only way to remove it is thus to use a tool that can “talk” with the USB-controller chip
and until some real hacker writes a tool that does that you will have to use the manufacturer supplied tool .
It’s rather funny to read all the whining about how “u3 installs software” .
No it doesn’t, it spawns a copy of the “LaunchPad” to a temp-DIR on the host and is supposed to
delete it when you “safely eject device”. If you don’t do that the copy will remain on the host .
Copying a file is not the same as installing and that some people don’t have that fact straight
raises some questions about their knowledge in general .
The one thing that everyone seems to be missing is the DRM-capabilities of u3 :
Unique s/r number, hidden space for programs to write cookies that are not accessible to the user
and a bunch of other “nice” features . How about you all start whining about that instead ?
Yes!! Nothing on the drive! That’s what I like to see!
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’ve thought
recently about getting rid of that, it just isn’t useful
anymore, now that the initial novelty has worn off.
There really isn’t need to be so hostile toward them,
though. I’ll agree, the software is fairly evil, and very
spyware-like, but still, getting so angry never does
anything.
Thanks again, though. My jumpdrive is clean and un-
obtrusive. God bless you.
-Nathan
There has come a point where I cannot say nothing,
when Jesus Christ means everything. May I be silent
no longer.
I bought the U3 flash drive and I loved it. So far, I experience zero problems. The U3 technology delivered what it said it would. Perhaps, your problem was attributed to other factors, i.e. operator error?
Danielle,
Perhaps operator issue is a problem, however given the ubiquity of the problem (just do a net search) and the fact that special software had to be written to correct the problem, I doubt it is limited to just me. I have heard from some who suggest that the more recent versions of U3 are less buggy. But in the end I still see no gain for this product.
I bought a PQI 512MB drive. It had its own shite on there, similar to U3. Just as lame, just as troublesome. I spent over an hour getting their crappy partition off of there. But I needed the portable app functionality and needed it to be secure. So after clearing off their crap, I created an automounting PGP traveller disk with TrueCrypt (free). Inside there I installed several portable apps from PortableApps.com (free). It cost nothing, it’s hassle-free, and a thousand times more secure.
Thank you. This crap should never have found its way on my computer. Luckily it doesn’t work under win200, but it messed up my laptop which is sadly running WinXP, yes I could not be bothered to remove this other big heap fo shit and I should have done so before trying to use the machine. Anyway now I have a USB drive that works and does not screw up, not even under XP. I now wish somebody did an upgrade to WinXP to return a computer to a sensible os, may be Win2k or Linux.
I running the U3 uninstall program but it is not working..it has been going for about 30 minutes and still nothing. I haven’t seen that write protect error though…anyone please? thanks. this site has been really helpful.
Sorry patski, no idea, you could try running the uninstall on a different computer . . .anyone else have ideas?
After I starting using a U3 drive, my other flash drives stopped being read by my computer. I can see first level folder, but nothing below. ARGH!!!
I’m just wondering if I can make my USB run .exe
To clarify for all those that view this blog, I recently purchased a 4GB SanDisk U3 Drive, and after reading this blog was concerned about the issues presented. However:
A) Numerous U3 security features have been added to the U3 Launchpad interface, including an option to lock the drive’s contents with a password.
B) There is now an uninstall optional built in to the U3 Launchpad itself, which will remove the U3 services from your flash drive.
C) The U3 partition’s “hidden” contents are not hard to access by any means. They are on the root of the main partition (where the user would normally store their files when using the drive as a regular USB flash drive). You simply have to make “hidden” files visible in the Windows Explorer >> Folder Options >> View options menu.
I have a feeling that they hide that folder so that the average user won’t accidentally delete it, and mess up the U3 system from the inside out.
D) Finally, the only actually issue I have seen is when trying to use the drive on a Windows PC with a limited user account. The drive eventually does its autorun thing, but Windows complains about wanting admin privileges along the way, which I dismiss until U3 kicks in.
E) As far as U3′s favoritism to newer, Windows-based PCs. I don’t blame it. U3 has worked fine on the PCs I use. (The oldest one being manufactured in 1999). If you are trying to run in on a PC older than that, then it is not the fault of the U3 software. It is the fault of your hardware and software. Programs should not have to cater to obsolete, frankly ancient computers, because users do not want to upgrade in a timely manner.
And, I’m done.
- Michael F.
Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing the U3 software/hardware or suggesting that it is the greatest program on the planet. I am simply pointing out that the facts in this blog are either out of date or simply incorrect to a varying degree.
Mike
Thanks, you are right most of the stuff here is now out of date as the uninstaller is included in most current U3 drives. So uninstalling is easy. Although I am not entirely sure about the security issues, as I wonder if U3 still leaves traces on the host computer, worth investigating. As far as the issue of older vs. newer computers, I won’t say I disagree from a development standpoint. But, when working in academia one has to face the possibility that some students cannot simply afford new computers, or rely on common machines, which the university does not necessarily keep up to date, making U3 perhaps a good business choice but not necessarily the best education choice.
I just bought a U3 thumb drive and was getting disgusted. This did the trick. You’re beautiful, and get a permanent link to a future post on this subject.
Sign me,
digitalnomad
[...] The problem is U3 equipped drives are not truly universal. Also, anything you can do with U3 can be done without it. Even more disturbing is that sometimes computers will recognize a U3 drive and sometimes they won’t. Read the full scoop at “Flash Drive Warnings: U3 drives=Not so Smart” by Academic Hack. [...]
I just tried this process and it didn’t work for me. When I tried running the download it said it found an “unknown publisher” and that I “must have administrator privileges to run U3 Uninstall.” What do I do?
Jenna
Sounds like you do not have adminstrator privileges on the machine. This means that on whatever computer you are running (a public machine maybe) you cannot install the program to run the u3 uninstall. You need a computer on which you are allowed to add programs (your home machine—or a friends—or contact the person who is in charge of your computer).
I was looking for a flash drive with password protection and chap at the computer shop told me this would be ideal. When I looked at the details and it mentioned U3 I was confused, anyway When I pluged the sandisck flash drive into the usb a u 3 launch pad kept on comming up, Eventually I got so fed up I went on to their website and decided to uninstall U3.I went back to the shop and told them than I had uninstalled U3 but there is no password protection now. They told me the password protection was part of u3. I think This U3 is absolute rubbish, very complicated someone like me I think i could have bought a 2gb instead of 1 for the same price since the extra cost included was for U3.
THANK YOU FOR THIS!! When my sister bought me a flash drive, I expected nothing less than 1GB of empty, usable memory. Then I saw all the U3 crap. After trying to remove that shit, I ended up with a bunch of corrupted U3 files that couldn’t be deleted. I just set them to be ‘Hidden’ and never saw them again. Then, I found this, and finally made my flash drive UNIVERSAL.
By the way, I put your comment in the comment box. =]
This drive is crap; especially for Mac but even if you have a PC its awful. Why god why?!
I have two Flash drives… both 2gb, one is U3 the other is plain. I love the U3 stick. It works flawless. Sure… there are times that it doesn’t eject properly but I have had similar problems with CD’s & DVD’s that would not burn correctly or play properly. In the last 20 years I’ve had computers there have been nothing but headaches with media (Floppies, Zip Drives, ORB Drives, Tape Backups, Online Storage, even External Hard Drives) They all have problems. I have been treating my U3 drive the same way I did everything before it. I learn from the problems and try and make it better or learn to live with it. I’m not always successful but I try. I kicked and screamed when it was time to upgrade from Windows 98 to XP(I still do). And I’m really fighting this Vista thing!
My point is this: There are a lot of people that are going to buy a stick pretty soon. The U3 people have a great idea here, maybe it’s not perfect, but the more people that use it the better it will get. Before you try to destroy it why don’t you try to use it. You may just like it! (Remember your greens?)
Oh… the second drive… I was trying to find out how to load U3 on it but opted for PortaApp instead. Biggest problem there is it does not offer an eject button and usually will not eject properly using the Windows XP method. GO FIGURE!
And the U3 stick works great on a MAC
I think this is a great discussion arena. Please keep adding your “yea’s” or “na’s”. It’s all good!
OMG!!!! Thank you so very much. This was very helpfulI was getting so pissed with the crap that they wanted to put on my computer. So thank you thank you thank you
I used the U3 uninstaller and it said it was backing up the data(It took it 9 minutes so it was doing something!)
but when it was done it didn’t restore the data. Where does it write the data it says it’s backing up? I couldn’t find it in any of the temp folders. I guess that it’s lost. I would have backed everything up but the U3 uninstaller prog said that it was backing it up so I went ahead with it.
Thanks
Thank you!! It was pissing me off SO much!
Great blog. I had just discovered how to uninstall before i read this, but I was so annoyed at the whole u3 thing that i sat and enjoyed reading how much it winds other people up. I AM NOT ALONE!! The launchpad kept crashing my computer, and then on the second stick I have the launchpad loaded only to show me bugger all in benefits and a slow-down. verdict: concept = good; execution = crap.
I just found this website because of a school assignment and I am very troubled to hear about all of the problems that it has had. I am happy to hear that the new programs aren’t the same but still. I hope that everything goes better and I am very happy to hear that the school that I go to, has given us jump drives that don’t have U3 on it at all.
thanks for the info. i had been thinking of trying one of these out because the U3 website offers a MedicAlert application that could keep a copy of current medical history and issues ect. I had this idea myself a year or two ago that it would be great if there was a secure way to store the info so only medical professionals in an emergency situation would have access to it if i could not speak for myself. but this blog info troubles me as to how secure is this and more over U3 could be leaving people with a false sense of safety if they choose to only us a U3 flash for critical treatment information. how disasterous could it be if someone became sicker or died because the information contained on the flash would not run on the ER computer?
i think i will have to hold of awhile on this one… thanks a bunch
Tazman