Talk:U3

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[edit] Advantages?

I think it would be great to figure out the advantages of U3. Unfortunately the website is not clear to me.

This article linked from their website confuses me. http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1808953200;fp;2;fpid;1

It's not possible at the moment to run an application directly off a portable USB drive, and the U3 platform will allow users to do that," said Tricia Arana, a spokeswoman for startup U3, which announced the platform earlier this year. "It can be considered to be a portable virtual desktop on its own," she said. The data remains stored on the USB drive; none of it is transferred to a PC.

First I HAVE used programs from a regular USB drive, also I think "none of it is transferred to a PC." is incorrect. So what did she mean to say?

Am I just being paranoid? To me it seems the idea is to make more money by forcing people to buy more expensive USB devices. Like I said paranoid, anyway I would like to understand what they are talking about. It is worth noting is that you can run applications from read-only media also, such as a cd or dvd. Unoriginal 14:47, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

It's a marketing thing. Programs are packaged specially, and in order to be certified programs have to obey certain rules about unobtrusiveness.
U3 technology can indeed copy files or registry data to the host computer, but it must be removed when the U3 drive is ejected to be fully U3 compliant. However, the application doesn't have to install files to the host computer; it can run fully from the flash drive.
However, most applications do a combo of both; install executables and DLLs to a temporary folder, and leave configuration data (that will exist from session to session) on the flash drive.
U3.com provides a good bit of info.

[edit] What makes U3 hardware different?

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)
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)
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)

The article section "hardware" says:

Disk Management shows two drives, one drive has a CDFS partition with the autorun and LaunchPad, and the other drive has a FAT partition that includes a hidden SYSTEM folder with your installed applications.

I think that there are several problems with this

  • What is "Disk Management"? If it is some piece of MS WindowsXP, say so. That isn't hardware. Talk in terms of the USB specification.
  • CDFS is not a partition type. CDFS is surely not what is meant. CDFS is (among other things) the name of a 32-bit MS Windows driver. Probably what is meant is ISO 9660 plus some extensions.
  • FAT is too generic a term. FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 are all different. Most likely FAT32 is used (to allow for greater than 2GiB)

Whatever is done, it should be include links to other relevant articles.

My pure guess is that this presents itself as a USB hub with two different USB mass storage device class devices behind it. One looks like a CD drive with a CD-ROM in it. The "disk" would follow ISO 9660 perhaps with El Torito extensions so that it could be booted from. The second device would be a plain ordinary flash drive (USB mass storage device class formatted with FAT32)) DHR 18:49, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] only a "standard" for some

This "standard" is not (yet?) widely adopted. About half the industry players seem to be pushing the U3 standard, and the first production line with "U3 compatible" drives was in october/november 2005.

[edit] Latest version has uninstall?

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

CobraA1 22:22, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

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)
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)

There are no tools that allow users of "other systems" (anything besides 2K and XP) to remove the U3 "features". And the only way to Uninstall U3, under 2K and XP, is to first Install the driver-management-etc. package. Which is exactly what someone who does not want U3 does not want to EVER do. So, someone who really wants to completely avoid U3 still has no options, when stuck with a USB drive with U3 "features". 69.87.204.122 22:40, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linux CD-partition Viewing Tools?

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)

[edit] Faults in Article

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 [1] 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.

—The preceding unsigned comment was 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)
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)
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