ReadyBoost

[hubris]

Worth a look.

How do I remove the U3 Smart Software from my Sandisk Flash Drive? - Flash-Media - Storage

 

[seekermeister]

Worth a look.

How do I remove the U3 Smart Software from my Sandisk Flash Drive? - Flash-Media - Storage

Thanks, I think that is one that I found a bit ago, but it wasn't clear to me how to reverse their instructions as to how to restore U3 to the drive. From what I have read elsewhere, it is not possibble to restore u3 via a download, so if U3 is totally destroyed, it is gone forever. But since I still have the U3 files and folders, I'm hoping that all that I have to do is to cooy/paste them somewhere else, and format the drive CDFS, then copy/paste them back. However, I'm not sure how to format to CDFS, nor if there is something else involved that is not obvious.

 

[hubris]

Worth a look.

How do I remove the U3 Smart Software from my Sandisk Flash Drive? - Flash-Media - Storage

Thanks, I think that is one that I found a bit ago, but it wasn't clear to me how to reverse their instructions as to how to restore U3 to the drive. From what I have read elsewhere, it is not possibble to restore u3 via a download, so if U3 is totally destroyed, it is gone forever. But since I still have the U3 files and folders, I'm hoping that all that I have to do is to cooy/paste them somewhere else, and format the drive CDFS, then copy/paste them back. However, I'm not sure how to format to CDFS, nor if there is something else involved that is not obvious.

Did you come across this one too ?

Reinstall or Restore U3 LaunchPad Software into USB Flash Smart Drive My Digital Life

cheers.

 

[seekermeister]

No, I hadn't. It appeared to contain the ideal answer...contrary to what I had read before. I downloaded the installer linked on the page, and ran it. Oddly, While it gave two choices...to save or not to save data on the drive, it would only let me proceed if I chose not to save it, but then failed and said to try again connected to the internet. When I ran it again, and it outlined what it was about to do, it said that it was going to format F:, instead of Z:, where the U3 files now exist. It sounds s though it is only going to use the FAT32 portion to restore U3. I guess that wouldn't be too great of a loss, because the current U3 portion is only 7MBs, but I aborted anyway. I'm now thinking that I need to delete the U3 portion entirely and convert it to FAT32, before converting it back to U3, but I was uncertain enough to pause and think, thus printing out my thoughts here.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that the problem is solved. I removed the flash drive again, and on reboot ran into an impassible hang, as I did the first time around, so I ran the Startup Repair Utility, as I did the first time, but that didn't seem to fix the problem. Then I remembered that my second harddrive didn't appear is Disk Management, even though the BIOS saw it, so I pulled the plug on it. On reboot the BIOS hangs disappeared, but not the Windows hang.

I ran the Startup Repair Utility again but this time I didn't opt for it to do a System Restore as before, because I assume that it only can restore to the last restore point, which is what I did just before. This time the utility ran much longer than before, but then said that there was a problem that it couldn't fix, but looking at the details log, but it appeared that all of the checks run found no problem (= 0x0). Then I decided to run a System Restore to a date several days back, but it quickly popped a notice that it couldn't perform the restore because of some problem with some instruction.

Crossing my fingers, I rebooted again, and it booted as it did before these problems began, so I guess the Startup Repair Utility did something despite it saying that it didn't.

At this point, while being happy that the problem appears to be history, I would like to understand that repair utility better.

 

[whs]

Very mysterious. But thanks for posting the sequence of events.

 

[RickMcGeeknerd]

did you check these features/

I would...if I knew that it was the problem, but don't care to do so, unless I had reason to feel certain that this is the case. Originally, I intended for the drive to be dedicated to this purpose full time, but if I can't resolve the boot issue otherwise, I may pull the plug on it, and U3 would be a useful feature to retain.

---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------

I found this article:

Disable Auto-Run and Auto-Play of U3 Smart Drives Launchpad My Digital Life

Which speaks about how to remove U3, but also tells how to simply disable it. The thing that caught my eye, is that it keeps referring to the flash drive as a CD/ROM. I did a couple of reboots, to see if using the Shift key during the boot would effect the boot time, but it seemed to act like a Pause key, except that it would start running again, after several seconds delay, and the panes still froze midflight as before, so that is not a solution.

Also, I noticed that the first page of the BIOS would sporadically hang on drive detection. This is something that previously has been caused by having flash drives plugged in. The only mention of the flash drive is on the last page of the BIOS run. I'm not sure what to call it, but in a much older rig that I had in the past, it was call the DMI Pool, or something of that sort. But the odd thing was that the drive was listed twice.

I went into the BIOS setup, and found the drive listed as an option within the CD/DVD listings, and tried moving it to first boot priority, but that didn't help. Something still isn't right, but I'm still not sure that it has to do with U3.

have you checked to make sure you are using a usb port that supports a bootable device? not all usb ports do. second in boot order list hard drive first, usb device second and do not give a number to your cd/dvd drive which is usually listed second by default. if listed at all your system will take the time to try to read it after it reads the hard drive and before the usb device . if listed after the usb your system will still take the time to read the cd/dvd rom write drive drive zapping any noticable boot time gained. now if you want to use the device to store virtual memory you need to install the device. when the readyboost prompt comes up x-out of the screen, go to computer in start menu, find the device right click, scroll to last option properties and click. format , format to ntfs. I have heard that efat works well too but when I used the ready boost my hard drive was ntfs and I think it works best with what ever your system is used to reading. BEFORE you dedicate this device to ready boost you must go to control panel, system and security, system, advanced system settings, open performance settings, go to advanced, you will see the virtual memory box with the icon "change". un check the automatic manage set your page file parameters, then initiate ready boost. I found no performance boost using readyboost for virtual memory until I set the virtual memory on my hard drive to minimum. your system will look for virtual memory the same as in boot sequence. it will check for virtual memory on the hard drive as soon as the ram is used up then it will look for virtual memory on the readyboost stick. all in all I didn't get the performance I wanted until I installed enough ram to not use virtual memory at all. my system will not recognize any RAM that is not installed in the dimm slots as physical memory and even keeps a little of that for itself. you can easily get 4g new ram sticks for 40 bucks on ebay and it is simple to install. I got way better performance with 4 gigs of ram then i did with 2 gigs ram and 8 gigs readyboost. hope that makes sense and someone please correct me if i'm mistaken I researched this for hours trying to find the best use of ready boost.