Do you use U3 flash drives?
Asked by
alive (
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)
October 3rd, 2009
Have you heard of U3’s?
I recently (and finally) figured out what they are and how they work, but now that I know all that, they seem nearly useless to me and to the average computer user.
If you use them, what programs do you use it for? What is your fav? Do you have any suggestions that would help me find it more useful?
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17 Answers
I didn’t care for the U3 provisions, so I reformatted the drive, and just use it as an ordinary thumb drive.
Good for god forbid hacking.
but why pay extra for the U3 technology? why not just buy a regular ol’ flash drive?
Oh, I just bought a thumbdrive on Amazon. I had no idea it was U3.
@alive Didn’t know I paid extra. It was pretty cheap. But no, I wouldn’t choose U3 by purpose.
I have a 4 gig and 8 gig, and will get a 32 gig when I get my laptop. I absolutelyove them! The password protection is great and very secure, and there are lots of free applications! I highly recommend one.
The concept is great – it allows you to have the same portable system effectiveness as a Mac using a standard thumb drive. ;)
(Macs can boot from a thumb drive.)
The problem is that very little software does not require registry settings and so cannot be used on a U3. I have one with a browser and software to enable me to use off-shoe servers from Internet-Cafes/Airports etc., but it is really more of a concept thing than a functional reality.
I have a U3 jump drive, and I had no problems with it until I started needing to use it on computers in public places, like the school library, or office supply stores. I had too much trouble getting it to work with those PCs so I ended up uninstalling the software.
Never have due to them not working with OS X. They are rather annoying, because I believe I had to run the uninstall software on a Windows box to get it removed.
@justn Never have due to them not working with OS X.
Any flash or USB/Firewire drive will work to boot OSX – you don’t need jump drives. I am using an iMac booted from a 64GB flash drive right now – I carry it from office to office to simplify my work process. By using it and a central database server everywhere I sit down is my desk. I have Adobe CS4, Office, Lightroom2, my browsers and mail clients and various other regularly used apps all installed.
@DarkScribe I know that with the new Intel Macs you can boot from usb and Firewire, I’m just saying that the U3 software isn’t compatible with OS X and thus the reason for me not using it.
@justn I know that with the new Intel Macs you can boot from usb and Firewire,
Any Mac G5 or better (G3/4 won’t do it) that can run OSX will boot from USB and Firewire so U3 isn’t needed. When OSX first came out it would not boot from USB, but as it developed it became a function. I discovered it accidentally on a G5 iMac when I powered it up after a blackout – A Firewire/USB external drive connected via USB booted instead. The system that I am on at the moment is a three year old G5 iMac running 10.4.11 and is running quite happily from its USB drive.
@DarkScribe I had no idea that some pre-Intel Macs could boot from USB drives. Good to know.
@justn I had no idea that some pre-Intel Macs could boot from USB drives. Good to know.
Just go into System Preferences and check what options show on “Start-up Disk” while you have drives connected. I use SilverKeeper to create bootable backups via USB, and if any of those drives are connected they show as a startup option.
(You have to create the bootable backup using USB – if you create via Firewire it won’t boot from USB.)
yes
but I replace the CD-rom partition with something else :>
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