why i won't buy sandisk or u3 again
Comments: 11 - posted on November 5th, 2007
- I wanted a bigger flash drive.
- A Sandisk 4GB flash drive was on sale for 25 bucks at the Radio Shack downstairs.
- A really good deal!
- Which should have been a clue.
- It was bundled with 80 megs of crap software.
- 4GB of storage does not mean 4GB minus 80MB of crap.
- Removed the crap.
- But there's this little program, U3, that autoran when I first used the drive.
- On my work computer.
- Creating itself as another drive on my machine, separate from the flash drive.
- I deleted it.
- When I plugged the drive back in, U3 reinstalled itself.
- Very angry now.
- Did web research, discovered hundreds, maybe thousands of people angered by this problem.
- U3, it seems, after a good while, gave in to public pressure and offered uninstall program on their website.
- After determining from the comments of knowledgeable people that uninstall indeed appeared to be a straight uninstall, I ran it.
- Three times is twice too many to ask me if I REALLY WANT to uninstall your software.
- But thanks for the comment box, assuming you actually read the opinions of people you foist your unnecessary, intrusive, and uninstallable software upon.
- Don't buy Sandisk; don't use U3.
Comment by jeffk - November 5, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
Yet another reason to turn off auto-play for all CD drives, DVD drives, and plug-in drives. Like Microsoft's default setting of hiding extensions, it's not a feature, it's a hazard.
Comment by P J Evans - November 5, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
I have SanDisks, none over 2GB, but I haven't had this happen to me. (They haven't tried to install anything on my hard drive, either.) They do have stuff already on the flashdrive, but not so much that I can't live with it.
Comment by Scraps - November 6, 2007 @ 7:19 am
Apparently it is just the "Cruzer" models that autoinstall U3.
Comment by Michelle - November 6, 2007 @ 12:09 pm
I actually find U3 handy since I run software off of my drive.
The information was on the package I bought...that's why I bought the cruzer over the other usb drives.
Comment by Dave Bell - November 6, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
U3 is a nice idea when it works, and when you want it. Your own portable set of programs and data which can be run on any machine, without leaving traces.
That is, any machine which isn't locked down against running unauthorised programs.
And, on my windows system, you can't exit the U3 system. The launcher claims some program is still running.
Having said that, my sympathy for you is muted. This isn't an obscure bit of hackery. It's explained on the packaging. It's not turned out as wonderful as the proponents believed but, yes, any free software you don't want is crap.
Comment by Scraps - November 6, 2007 @ 2:20 pm
Yes, explained in small type on the packaging of a storage medium. Every previous piece of storage I have bought has been unencumbered with "free software". I would say that it's standard to receive a blank piece of storage when buying a piece of storage. As noted, I am far from alone in being surprised and annoyed at this.
Nonetheless, I would have been only mildly annoyed had the program been uninstallable. I really don't see how that preventing that can be defended.
(n.b.: I am not looking for sympathy, muted or otherwise.)
Comment by Terry Karney - November 6, 2007 @ 4:29 pm
Well, that's a pretty pickle. I think my course of action is now going to include reformatting all my CF drives in the camera prior to any use. That will also tell me if they have any hidden software.
Comment by Zed - November 6, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
Use TweakUI to turn off default autorunning of all new drives. That would have blocked this (I'm nearly certain), would have blocked the Sony rootkit back in the day, and is all around a sound security measure.
I just ordered a Cruzer and intend to remove U3 first thing.
Comment by Scraps - November 6, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
Thanks!
Comment by OG - November 10, 2007 @ 7:10 am
Also, check out Unlocker for tracking down what program is preventing you from ejecting a portable drive.
Comment by john - November 26, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
I just got a cruzer micro 4gb for $25 at costco, same thing, u3 stuff... golly, clicked on the icon, and there it was, a menu item to remove it permanently, it even offered to backup the files I'd put on the cruzer and restore them to the clean flash, said it would take 65 minutes (I'd put 1.6GB of mp3s on it) but in fact finished in about 5 mins..
this stuff is called 'value added'. users are demanding encryption and such.
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