Ok, so this isn’t really a hack per se, but it’s useful information for anyone who’s just bought one of these little puppies.
I saw this nice little 1GB USB flash drive when I was in Wisconsin last week for 30 bucks (after instant rebate) at a Best Buy. I was there for something else, but my dad had just misplaced his USB drive just before an extended consulting trip to North Carolina, and I figured I’d call and ask if he wanted me to pick one up for him. (My question was really whether I should buy one or two – 30 bucks is a very nice price for a decent amount of storage, and I figured Christian and I could certainly use it.)
So 60 bucks later, I left Best Buy with two little USB drives. They’re nice and small, have a retractable USB connector, and don’t have a cap to lose (which may or may not be a good thing). I thought it was a good buy in any event. When I got to the car, though, I noticed the fine print about U3 technology and some crappy software bundled on the drive (Skype with a free month of voicemail, some password storage software, and an anti-virus package, I think). Eh, I thought to myself. I’ll just wipe it when I get home. As I’ve implied before, I don’t really like companies deciding what’s installed on my hardware for me.
Well, I finally unpacked the thing today, and for some reason or other decided to look up this U3 stuff before I plugged the thing in. I like to know what devices and software are going to do before I let them run amok on my system. Sure enough, Amazon’s reviews of the drive had lots of complaints about the U3 Launchpad application running everytime the drive was plugged in, lots of undesirable stuff going on in the background, errors if the drive was not removed using the U3 tool instead of the Windows “Safely Remove Hardware” application, etc.
Ewww… I thought. This could suck… Bunches of people griping about it can’t mean anything good.
Of course, I’ve overestimated people before.
But after finding out how to fix it and forwarding the link to my father (who I hadn’t talked to since he got to North Carolina and started using the thing), I found out even he had had trouble with it. He’s a darned smart cookie, and he was pretty irritated:
It is REALLY annoying. It even told me that I had removed it improperly without using the f@3$%$*** eject button, even though I had disabled it from windows. … [I] will fix it after I transfer my files, but it’s nice to know that I don’t have to throw the damned thing away!
So I figured posting the fix might not be a bad thing, and might speed up some frustrated person’s search on how to get rid of the unwanted software. Fortunately, poking around at the SanDisk site reveals that it’s pretty easy to get U3 and all of the associated crap off of your drive.
Here’s how it goes, if you’re running Windoze (I don’t know if U3 even runs for other OSs, so if you’re running MacOS X or a *nix distro, the fix may be as simple as just formatting the drive):
- If you’ve used the device before, make sure you’ve gotten everything off of the drive you need. You’ll be reformatting it. (The application may have an option that allows you to keep the data – I don’t remember – but better safe than sorry.)
- Plug in the drive – the U3 launchpad will load. You can close the U3 tour program and whatever main window pops up if you like, but leave the U3 launchpad icon in the system tray enabled (i.e. don’t exit the launchpad application entirely).
- Download SanDisk’s U3 Launchpad Removal Tool (opens in new window) – as the site says, make sure the USB device is plugged in and Launchpad is still running.
- Run the tool, and choose the option which completely removes U3 and formats the drive.
Voilà, you now have a regular old USB drive which you can break in any way you want.
(Edit: If the SanDisk tool above doesn’t work for you, you might try the uninstall tool from u3.com – thanks to Olaf for the information. I had no trouble with the SanDisk tool, but I can only speak for myself!)
I admit that I am not a fan of bundling unwanted applications with devices or other software. Hell, I get annoyed with programs that install links to URLs for internet providers on my desktop, let alone executables that hide on my disk doing God-knows-what. (Well, ok, I have a pretty good idea as to what, but that’s only because I take the time to find out and eradicate them.) This is just one more example of how companies think it’s really OK to do whatever they want with your machine once you’ve bought something from them – purchase this OS, and you tacitly agree to relinquish control of your data. Purchase this DSL package, and you agree to have MSN as your ISP, even if you don’t need the service. Purchase this hardware, and you agree to let data be tracked that you would otherwise keep private or to run certain applications on your machine that you have no desire or need for.
Now, I understand that part of the reason that drive was so cheap was probably because there was some monetary incentive to SanDisk to push U3 out to consumers. And it was easy enough to get rid of once I looked for a solution. But let’s face it – Joe Blow who uses his CD drive for a cup holder and thinks he breaks the Internet every time his connection lags is not going to know how to find a solution. My feeling is that unless the software is clearly advertised on the packaging along with an explicit mention of how to get rid of the software, companies have no business installing or running anything on your machine that is not directly related to the product you intended to buy.
I loooooove corporate America. Yes, yes I do.
Standard disclaimer: If anything breaks as a result of following any instructions anywhere on this site, the responsibility lies with you, not me. I’m a poor academic – suing me would be pointless anyway… 
(Added 1/10: Thanks to Jim C. for the updated Sandisk removal link.)
Professional computer geek and linguist living in Germany, doing infosec stuff and being the freakiest mother ever.
I came across a 1GB Cruzer Micro at Staples for 19.99 plus tax. I bought two, one for my husband and one for me.
When I first plugged it in I was impressed. I’d owned two previous key drives and neither one of them came with an instruction video. However it was annoying to have the U3 thing pop up all the time. And rarely do I use my key drive long enough where I was willing to sit down and figure out how to get it to stop or to uninstall it altogether (glad I just didn’t delete U3 launch and system files like I started to, that probably would have been a disaster, eh?).
After reading your article, I decided not to uninstall the U3 stuff but I did finally find the option that stops it from loading automatically when you plug it in.
For those who aren’t sure if they want to delete the U3 stuff but just want it to stop loading every time they plug the darn thing in do this:
Double Click on the U3 icon in the System Tray
Settings
U3 Launchpad Settings
Autorun
Click the button that says “Disable Autorun”
Funnily enough, I wasn’t even looking for information about USB flash drives when I found you. I was looking for USB hubs. In my search, I noticed where someone had said their older Micro Cruzer had suddenly stopped working. That scared me because I got was supposed to be an $80 flash drive for a little over $20 and I wondered if this why I got it so cheap. I’m going to invest in another flash drive of another brand to back up all my stuff just in case. Maybe it’s time for me to get an external hard drive.
Nice blog.
Thank You,
I’m glad they had a program to remove that crap. Shame that I really liked the company.
Word to other Companies – We dont want your B*llSh*t add-ons just make the dam thing work.
If you feel your program will help us out provide a disk and let us decide what we put on our computers.
-G
I don’t have that particular flash drive, but why not just disable autoplay and reformat?
I usually reformat thumb drives when I get them as a rule. I even defrag them and scan for viruses. You never know what types of badware are bundled with things like that.
All that aside, thumb drives are the greatest thing ever! Very good for school, where floppies have too little space (and you can’t write CDs every day). My thumb drive also doubles as a NES, SNES, PS1, Gameboy Advance, bootable Linux, and more.
I will second the portableapps.com recommendation. They have some really nifty freeware usb-ized programs so you can carry your favorite stuff with you anywhere. They even have their own launch program that *doesn’t* suck, and you can configure it any way you want. I bought two cruzer minis as well, since now they’re going for $20 at circuit city…
I wonder if U3 can be wiped with Linux…
Thanks, that was really annoying. I bought one last August, so I’ve had it the past 8 months. Now I have a little more disk space!
Thanks for the link to the removal software.
Other than post #119 (Rick), I’ve heard nothing good about this U3 software.
Does anyone out there (a user – not a developer) WANT this U3 stuff?
HOW DO U EJECT IN WITH A MAC OS X????
THANXSSSS
157, drag the stick into trash.
—
Thanks for an useful advice.
My company won’t buy SanDisk any more!
I also advise you to contact SanDisk directly, and bug your reseller about this subject. And off course change your supplier!
Thanks, Krista. SanDisk didn’t exactly make its U3 removal tool easy to find. I appreciate the commentary and links.
Thanks for the website for removing this unwanted crap one may call “bundled software”. It should be bundled out the door as soon as it is plugged in for the first time. I have an intense hatred of software that is “included” and I liken it to when you download and install an application similar to winzip, which wants you to install toolbars etc. At least that will give you the option of de-selecting it prior to installation.
Add another thanks to the list! I just bought this thing and wondered what was up when I plugged it into my Linux machine and it popped up a CD-ROM and a USB drive. I also wanted to know if it was safe to delete the junk that came on it. Thanks to your advice, the first thing I did was to fire up WinXP in a VMware virtual machine and run the removal program from U3.com. Now the device does what I want it to do, and behaves like the device I thought I was buying.
I searched google for “Cruzer delete crap” and this site was number one, thanks. By the way the U3 stuff doesn’t show up using Vista, but you have about 200MB less available space. I was able to download the removal tool and move it to my XP machine, which isn’t connected to the web, and get the job taken care of.
I just wanted a thumb drive for mp3 storage for an FM modulated player in my car. Now I have one. Thanks for the help…
This U3 System is a piece of crap. I am a home user of Mac and work user of PC (from office) so I bought this stick originally with transferring files between Mac and PC in mind. Thanks so much for the original author’s post I removed that piece of … instantly. On PC, you may wan to access your “mac-formatted” USB drive (w/o the annoying U3 piece of…) using MacDrive, which is a freeware (?) I have been using on my PC to access all files from my mac drives (exteral). The software also allows you to unformat your U3 stick (but first you have to remove U3 by way of the stated above) and reformat it to either a PC or Mac version. Anyway… I am not affiliated with MacDrive but simply wanting to share my experience with file sharing and this U3 piece of …. so far.
I have problems! I was pretty excited to see that I was able to remove the U3 crap from my drive (I’m a Mac user). So I went ahead and did it. No problems. No when I insert the drive into my Mac it says, “this drive is not able to be read by a Mac”. So my Mac does its usual thing and tries to fix it by brining up the disk utility. I’m thinking to myself that its still gonna be okay cuz it will just initialize the drive and all will be well. The Cruzer shows up in the list of drives to the left so I select it but when I try to repair/initialize it, all of the options are “greyed out” and I cannot select them. So now I basically have an unusable jump drive. Did anybody else have this problem? I didn’t see much mentioned about it. Everything seemed to run smooth but now the drive is unreadable to my Mac. Help!
Thanks for the removal link.
Thanks for the removal link. I removed this for a different reason than everyone else. I actually bought 2 Sandisk 4GB drives because I got a good price. I already have a drive with the U3 program on it and I like it very much.
I’m not sure I understand everyones disdain for this software. I can lock the drive down with a passord. Some of the programs are useful the rest can easily be removed. Like I said, I like it.
The only reason I wanted to remove it from the second drive is that I want to use it as a large public flash drive that I can loan to someone else and not require using the software.
All in all I have no problem with U3 and I would say to everyone else that they should give it a chance. I think it is a useful program that takes minimal space on the drive.
[Ed: Removed for being obnoxious and abusive. Executive summary follows. I don't like assholes in my sandbox.]
Mr. Rolling Eyes here thinks folks who didn’t see the logo are ignorant. His basic gist is “caveat emptor” with a lot more hostility involved. Read: Troll. Or someone who needs to get out more. Either way…
Editor’s note: Do note that on my packaging when I purchased this in August, said “bright yellow logo” was barely visible, and I knew it was something I was going to have to remove before I plugged the bastard in, because I’ve been a geek for a long time. If Sandisk has rectified this, good for them, but my guess at the time – and I was correct – was that most average Joes wouldn’t notice, and that once it managed to make a mess of itself on one’s computer, it would cause problems. Hence the post. And it turns out I was right – see comments. That Mr. Eyes-of-the-Rolling-Kind feels the need to bitch about something that was posted last August and has nothing to do with him is beyond me.
I posted some apparently useful information with a story. A lot of people apparently were looking for such information. They got it, and they were either happy or felt the need to disagree (and those that have done so appropriately have been allowed to express themselves here), and that’s all. End of story.
Thanks for the post. I couldn’t get SUSU 10.2 to recognize the cruzer until I removed the U3 software. After the software was gone SUSE gnome recognized it as soon as I plugged it in. HUGE help. Thank you!
Thank you! i kept trying to format my drive forever, this program is so annoying. this is a great guide. good work.
Thanks!
Thank you SIR
You are a god send. this was driving me nuts. Thank you for providing the answer to this stupid issue.
Many many Thanks. One issue can we format this to NTFS.
Am a Mac user and am trying to download the U3 uninstaller. I’ve been to all the sites mentioned above to download the software and can’t open it. I want the U3 software off of my drive and it’s driving me nuts.
Any ideas would be so appreciated!
Thanks for posting this info. Huge help and time saver.
thanks for U3 removal tip, just a stupid question but whats
the small metal thing for that comes supplied with the
Cruzer.????
thanks! worked like a charm!
I really appreciate this. I got a half-dozen of these thing for a very good price and hate that U3 junk.
I got my wonderful flashdrive for $50 including tax with 4 GIG. Yipee.
I change it from the generic name of K drive and changed it to my name so that if someone stole it and deleted all my stuff, I could tell its mine.
Then I attempted to delete U3. Didn’t work. Kept on being ‘write-protected’. All that crap they place on it is so irritating.
I already got skype, don’t need it twice. I got portable apps. Don’t need U3. I don’t want games on my flashdrive. No calendars. I just want a place to bring my stuff between mac to pc and school computers to my personal computer. And a place to use Mozilla Firefox.
It keeps on saying I have two versions of u3 on my fd when I try to uninstall it. Let me tinker with it a little bit more.
-Sterre
Thak you so much for the info!
/matias
Sweeett….Thanks.
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Thanks Krista,
Google brought this up on the first search.
I’ve only had this thing for 10 minutes. Saw the launch pad stuff come up and couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
I have my own tools, if I wanted their’s I’d ask.
~Dan
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Thank you very much! Not only was it annoying like everyone says, since this computer has Japanese installed for my dad who’s a translator, every time that U3 thing came up, it’d all be in Japanese gibberish.
This is nice though.
We get it for cheap, take a minute to download and run the uninstaller, and it’s like brand new. Now I’ll figure out how to install Ubuntu on it…
Thanks for this! I’ve had mine since last fall and that U3 system annoys the crap out of me. Usually I just ignore it, but I finally got annoyed enough to Google for a solution, and this post popped up first! Thanks again!
OMG THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH THE U3 SYSTEM IS S@#!
Just when you think things can’t get any worse……
Okay, so first off, thanks to everyone that so wonderfully shared their experiences and information here.
Sadly, I think I’m the only doh doh head that tried to use this crazy thing on my laptop which is running WinME. The whole reason I ran out and bought this thing ($45.) was because they were selling it for $39+tax for a 2GB. I figured it was the better deal since the pink 1GB was $24. That’s neither here nor there.
I am not computer illiterate. I even asked the guys at WalMart if I’d have problems since I was running ME and they said I wouldn’t. I must be tired because I didn’t even read the back of the package which clearly states Win2000 to XP.
This all stems from the fact that my CD-ROM is toast, I only have a floppy drive and although my very good friend was kind enough to buy me the Western Digital portable HD for Christmas, IT also was only compatible with XP!!!
Ok, so I go get this flash drive thinking, my prayers are answered, I don’t have to fish for laplink cables! Oh, did I mention that I just bought a new laptop!?! Ok, so I guess you figured out that I simply want to take the info from my old system and bring it to the new one.
Well, I plugged in the Cruzer Micro and was able to drag and drop a few files. I figured I’d start small. I then put the little device in my new laptop running Vista, no sweat.
I then plugged it back into the old laptop to grab my other files, NO SUCH LUCK!!!!!!! Nothing’s working anymore. It’s giving me messages like: Error Copying File or Folder; Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Nothing else is in use. The files are not protected and I certainly haven’t put passwords on anything.
I’m at a total impass. The device still works on my new laptop but alas, my new laptop is empty! I don’t need to move anything OFF of it!
I’m back to square one on the old system. Lots of info ready to move, no way to transport it. I don’t even have internet access on the old thing as my Xircom Ethernet Cardbus went caput!
Anyone have good news for me Any advice at all????? I can’t use that uninstall file either by the way since it doesn’t fit on a floppy disk. I know, I know…. no one uses floppy disks anymore…. Maybe I should change my name from WD to NoOne:-(((((( Please help! I’m not even sure if U3 is the reason for my problems.
Thanks for the information. I first tried using your first prescribed advice, but that didn’t work. When I used your second method all went well.
I truly understand that U3 has it’s advantages, but to me and what I do it’s a waste of space!?!
THANK YOU!!!
I (incorrectly) assumed U3 would go away once I re-formatted the drive. I found the removal within the SanDisk LaunchPad app, but it wasn’t working for me.
The U3 removal app did work.
ANNOYING!
This is the first SanDisk USB drive I personally purchased. I’m an I.T. Buyer, and will no longer recommend this drive to others since it’s bundled with this crap.
For crying out loud people. I’m a TEACHER!!!!! I am constantly telling my kids to read and re-read until they find the answers they’re looking for.
Well, now that I’ve practiced what I preach, I’m happy to report that the drive is working!!!
I don’t know what happened between the first time I used it and the following attempt but whatever it was, EVERYTHING was on lock down. If you scroll up, you’ll note all the problems I was experiencing HOWEVER,…..
…..after staying up all night and re-reading all the advice from THIS site and the awesome contributors, I finally figured it all out. I haven’t gone to the trouble of uninstalling or removing the U3 stuff, I’m just happy the key is working. The problem stemmed from Vista recognizing both the removable drive and a CD drive. I’m still not sure I understand why it does that but basically, I’m just happy that I was able to delete it and that it is now working like a charm!
Thanks again everyone!!!! If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!!!!
Okay, in case, I wasn’t clear. John(61), Olaf and the Exorcized Cruzer Owner(82) all said it before me. When you insert the Memory Key, it recognizes TWO removable drives…. one is the Flash Drive itself and the other is a virtual CD ROM. The CD ROM is the one I disabled (by right-mouse clicking on it and hitting Eject and then doing the Safely Remove thing again choosing CD ROM at the bottom in the SysToolbar where your clock is).
Once that is done, there shouldn’t be any troubles with Dragging and Dropping files to the Flash Drive (memory key).
To be even more clear about things, I am using MS Windows Vista Home Premium and quite frankly am too afraid of deleting or removing the U3 software, so I still have it. I do have to disable the CDROM bit every time I use the drive but I don’t mind as I like using the little folders that the U3 program has on it. (yes, I know I could perceivably create my own)
Someone else in here mentioned that the U3 program takes up 200MB of space. I don’t know it that’s true but it doesn’t bother me and it hasn’t gotten in the way of me using the drive for my purposes. If it ever does, then I will come back here and re-read everyone’s comments before I go through with deleting the U3 software.
Okay I think that’s it for now!!! Good luck to any of you novices like me!
WD
now i am a happy man.
thanks , now the drive really works, but does anyone knows howto makeitworkunder win 98?
yes i know it is old, but there are many who love past and dont like to embrace future. specially if future sucks
thamks again and everyone who wrote here have a nice day
Thank you! I know there are many out there who like the software (my mom is one who likes the cruzersync). However, I am not in that camp. I have tried for several days to format this little sucker to no avail. I know what I am doing and thought I had finally encountered something new. Turns out I had just encountered something that sucks.
All that being said, I do like the idea of what the U3 software had to offer. I just want the “portable apps” version with the open source programs on it.
Thanks for the info.
Tim
Thanks. Fix saves time, money and my nerves
So… how do you delete all the crap from your computer?
I don’t even own the drive – my friend put it in my computer, & now I’m getting major software bugs in Sonar (music program)
even when the drive is not in!!
My computer has worked 100% perfectly since I got it a year ago – until the U3 rubbish self-installed. Funny coincidence…
I’ve located 9 prefetch files & a hidden U3 folder – is it safe to just delete them? or do I have to do t another way?
Please help!
Good deal, first hit on google, great info. I probably would’ve figured it out on Sandisk’s site, but thanks for documenting the fix here to make it easier to find, as undoubtedly Sandisk hides it pretty deep.
Thank you SO much – I’ve been struggling with this darn U3 program pack. It made my work computer lock up every time, rendering the drive somewhat less than useful. MUCH better now.