My first computer in college was a Macintosh LC III. The hard drive that came with it was 80MB only and I remember having a stack of floppies around for backup. Nowadays I carry most of my essentials on a SanDisk Cruzer Micro; this tiny flash drive is pretty incredible when compared to that 80MB hard drive. It features 1GB of space, which currently leaves me plenty of room for data files and programs. At the same time it is absolutely tiny and easy to carry. Although I have had other USB flash drives, I personally prefer the Sandisk Cruzer Micro for three reasons: the first being it’s physical size, the second has to do with the rubber casing which makes it easy to handle, and the last reason is the U3 software that makes it easier to manage portable applications.
The U3 Drive
U3 is really a platform which some flash drive manufacturers use to make their drives more appealing. These flash drives, usually referred to as smart drives come preformatted in two partitions. One partition automatically loads the U3 Launcher application and the main partition is for your program and document storage. The Launcher sets up a U3 icon on the Task Bar for you to click on. Think of it as a second Start Menu.
Clicking on the U3 icon will bring up the Launchpad as shown above (shown with third party applications already installed). Some smart drives come with third party applications already setup. SanDisk does not come with any third party applications. They include only their CruzerSync software, for which they sell a Pro version upgrade on their website for. Most U3 applications are just repackaged applications that are retrofitted to work on the U3 platform. This also means that most U3 apps are actually commercial applications that you have to purchase from the Software Central site. Although most opensource applications like Firefox are being ported, see Firefox Goes Portable.
The U3 Launchpad
The best features of the Launchpad is that it makes portable software easy to install, launch, and maintain. SanDisk’s implementation of the U3 system is also excellent. Unlike other vendors (like BestBuy’s GeekSquad brand), SanDisk actually updates the U3 software via a software update feature. Their last update, updated the Launchpad’s theme to a brushed metal background similar to Apple’s Safari.
There are however some downsides. The most annoying one is that the Launchpad sometimes refuses to install or interferes with your other mapped drives. So far I have not seen this documented anywhere, but the fix is actually pretty simple. The problem appears to be caused by a conflict between the last mapped drive in Windows, this is sometimes a CDROM drive, or a substituted drive mapping. The solution is to open up Computer Management, which is under the Start Menu – Settings – Control Panel – Administrative Tools. Under the Storage section you will find Disk Management. Right-click the removable disk partition for the flash drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths…, and then click on the Change button. Change the drive letter to a higher letter. For example if your CDROM drive is drive D or E, choose F or I for your flash drive partition. Once you make this change, just restart Windows and the Launchpad should install correctly and no longer mess up your CDROM drive mappings.
If you are trying to use the Micro Cruzer or any other U3 smart drive with VirtualPC, it simply won’t work. I think it is because of the USB port that VirtualPC emulates. Then there is the fact that the U3 system only works on Windows, so Linux and Mac OS X users simply will not be able to use the Launchpad at all. I experienced some problems on Windows 2003 Server as well.
Final Thoughts
In all I am quite happy with the SanDisk Cruzer Micro. It is a durable flash drive with some nice features, and even if you don’t use the U3 system, there are plenty of portable versions of Firefox to use with it. My personal favorite is PortableApps Firefox. The only thing I wish SanDisk would do to improve on it would be to include more applications with it.
Other Recommended SanDisk USB Drives
U3 does offer a utility program that removes the U3 software permanently.
How i make my USB flash drive start working, because it worked the first time the it kept saying that it was not reconized by the computer help please!!!!
Your problem is most likely caused by an underpowered USB port. Either use a powered USB hub or try a different USB port on your computer. Lots of older Wintel machines have underpowered USB 1.1 ports.
I am trying to find an update for my Cruzer Micro, Model #SDCZ6. I bought it when I had XP and my new computer has Vista and it is not compatible. Is there a place to get this update. When I put the drive in I get a message to update, then it tells me I don’t have permission? Any help you can give would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Douglas Steele
Your best bet would to plug the Cruzer into a WindowsXP computer with Internet access and go to Status and Settings in the U3 menu and update. This should work if there is a compatible update for Vista.
I have SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive(1GB). I deleted the U3 Launchpad Software. Now I want to install it into my pendrive. Where can I download it?
Once you remove the U3 Launchpad Software via the U3 Uninstaller, there is no way to put it back. Removal is permanent! You can always use PortableApps instead which is almost as nice as U3 and is free.
Hi, I am trying to open my U3 system launch pad with using windows, Can I kill my cruzer by doing this?
How do I change the name on my U3 SanDisk USB flash Drive, It keeps telling me I have not enough rights to do so. Pls help.
For the U3 Drive, it actually shows up as two disks. One is the U3 Launcher partition which I believe you cannot change the name at all. The other partition or disk is the one you actually can change the name of it. You can right click on that one and choose properties and then in the General tab, there is a field where you can change the name of that partition.
If the U3 drive icons do not show up, right click on My Computer and choose Manage. Then go to Disk Management under Storage and see if it shows up there. You can then right click on it and change drive letters for it and now it will show up under My Computer.
i have my sandisk which was made for window xp,now i have change to vista but it can work there(the u3 menu).i need it to plz help me.
U3 is compatible with Vista. If you launch U3 and have it check for updates, if there are any you can apply the update and that should make it Vista compatible I believe.
i have an hp computer with vista and a mac os x and i want to use my cruzer on both. Is that possible? please help
i was also wondering if the cruzer works on mac versions better than mac os x. please answer
There are two problems with Mac OS X. The first one being is that the FAT file system does not work well for larger drives, like the 2GB or higher USB Flash drives. I am not sure if Apple supports the newer FAT system that Windows does and I believe NTFS is not supported. For Macs, it is best to reformat the USB drive as HFS+, but then you won’t be able to use the drive on the Windows machine without some third party driver on Windows.
One compromise that I found works is to get software for the Mac, like Paragon’s NTFS for Mac or you can try using the free NTFS-3G driver. This way you can have an NTFS USB drive and use it on the Mac as well.
Some Mac users also like using a DMG image file to store their Mac files on the USB drive without messing with the rest of the drive.
It does not matter what USB Flash drive you use, they all work about the same. The only difference I found out is that some drives like Kingston require more power from the USB port, and may not work on USB 1.1 Mac Keyboard ports.
Did you ever get it to work with Win Server 2003?
I have not tried Windows 2003 in a while, but if I remember correctly it did work with my SansDisk Cruzer once I went into Disk Management (under Computer Management) and assigned the device a drive letter.
I had to do the Disk Management tweak mentioned above to get mine to work at work. It was trying to map to G:\ which is already mapped to a network drive. Changing it to E:\ (which was free) worked. XP Pro SP2.
We ran into some problem with our product communicating with some of the flash drives. We are using VersaLogic VSBC-8 which has 1.1 USB hardware.
We have used the follow USB flash drive all 2.0 backward compatible to 1.1.
A: SanDisk 512 MB (2.0 Comp 1.1) (SDCZ4-512-A10) – have not reported any error as of yet.
B: SanDisk 1GB (SDCZ6-1024) -failed to download data at least once
C: SanDisk 2GB (SDCZ23-002G) -failed to download data sometimes.
I am wondering what is the difference (speed etc. between SDCZ4, 6 and 23).Is it firm ware. Is lower number older model and slower in speed – Is this why we didn’t have any problem.
I accedentally deleted U3 Software central, sso now my USB drive is a storage only drive. How do i get Software Central smart drive software back?
hi, i have a problem with my flashdrive which is sandisk. when i plug into my laptop it says removable disk F when i plug it in my school computer it says removable disk E and i can’t find any information i saved from my laptop when i plug it in to the school computer… plzz help aprrciate….
do i like change it to disk E or something????
How would a person assign the drive letter of the Cruzer partition on any computer? I know there’s a way to manually assign drive letters in a startup .inf file, would this work the same?
Hey..
I have SanDisk, and i used the Launchpad U3, when i finish, i closed the U3.. and now when i plug in the USB, it dosen’t apeer, i can only open the disk E.
What can i do???
Please help!
I have a sandisk ultra backup 32GB that have worked, after I put it in a computer with viruses( needed to install a virus program from the flash disk).
Now when I want to put the flash drive in any computer it does not show up on the computers, the light sometimes show and then the next time noting, how can I fix the flash drive
How can unlock a SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash drive?