Sandisk U3 Cruzer Micro won't load U3 software

[mlevy]

I've updated my U3 drive to the newest version. When I plug in it occupies J: (the "CD Drive") and K:. When I try to run the U3 launcher it tells me Windows has mounted it on a drive that was already occupied and that I can't start it.

Disk management won't let me change the drive letter of the CD portion of it, but it will let me change the other one.

Any thoughts?

 

[Night Hawk]

The SanDisk drive you are seeing is a virtual cd drive not one generally available for use. That's part of the SanDisk builtin software package. Simply ignore that and look in the disk management tool at the 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, or 16gb actually less for each like 1.75gb, 3.75gb, 7.75, or 15gb roughly available depending the size.

With a reformat of the drive space will then become readily available in Windows where you can change the drive letter at any time. The screen here shows a SanDisk made into a usb key for the 64bit RC along with another one right above while the 96mb UI drive is actually only 96mb for the SanDisk program itself separate from the usable space.

 

[mlevy]

My problem is that I have purchased a U3-based app that I need to use. It's RoboForm, for storing passwords and auto-filling them on web sites. I bought the U3-based version, not sure if my license is good for the "standard" portable version.

I do see that they only offer one "2go" purchase option. I'll have to try it on another USB key to see if it'll work. Not sure how my saved information will transfer over...

 

[Night Hawk]

Well some usb flash drives can run a high enough price alright. The typical retail store will see the lower cost for general consumer and small business while the higher priced to "high priced"! are for commercial and other applications.

The 64gb Kingston I was looking at runs a lot less then the 32gb with 356bit encryption running at $588.99! Newegg.com - Kingston DataTraveler Vault 32GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) 256bit AES Encryption Model DTV/32GB - USB Flash Drives

For SanDisk models seeing higher security would be those found at Newegg.com - Flash Memory & Readers,USB Flash Drives,SanDisk,AES Encryption,

For installation onto flash drive with more then one the first is always the one single partition available in Windows since that is the only one mounted. Working with a few lately having more then one partition on each you use the K partition which can be reformatted to NTFS in order to install the program there.

 

[mlevy]

I don't consider this a "Fix"... Reformatting it and using it as a standard flash drive which, coincidentally, I can do WITHOUT formatting it does not solve the "U3 will not run" question I posed. FYI, my flash drive is formatted in FAT32 and is 100% readable, it's just that 7 will NOT allow the U3 software to start, preventing me from gaining access to my stored passwords.

I don't understand your second post regarding pricing....

 

[Night Hawk]

The one thing you can try at this time would be browsing the SanDisk itself for the archived passwords file itself to see if you can back that up first. Once that is done where you can reformat the SanDisk afterwards try unplugging and replugging it back in to allow Windows to mount it completely.

What worked here for being able to change the U3 virtual cd drive letter since that is also seen with the standard SanDisk models as well as the one you there. GParted live was used here to actually remove the original Fat32 partition and create a brand new one still seeing the SanDsik application load up plus allowing drive letters to be changed on both the one or more partitions created as well as the virtual U3 cd drive.

 

[mlevy]

Well, it turns out that my license for it works for either version (U3 or non-U3). I installed it on my other flash drive w/o issue, though I'd prefer to keep that only for what it's being used for (emergency boot for our HD encryption program for work).

 

[Night Hawk]

I hear you on the emergency boot part which is one reason for a guide I made up lately on how to use a flash drive to recover data. It may even work for you there since it uses something other then Windows. http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/11844-using-other-os-usb-rescue-device.html

The problem seen however is that Windows still has to mount any of these properly in order to be able to change drive letters as well as access the one or more partitions. The first you want to be sure is first backing up the data you have on it now in case you end up needing to nuke the partition it came with for a new one in order to see the update go on and work.

The next step offhand would be seeing if there is any support information on installation problems with the update you are trying to get working on that one unless it has another probelm other then a bad install of the update itself. Have you tried to install if a second time?

 

[mlevy]

The update to the U3 worked fine on my XP installation...

FYI, the emergency boot comment was just about how I have my other flash drive set up for the SafeTech boot for our Safeboot HDD encryption at work and I'd rather keep that as the only thing on the drive.

Checking the sales circulars from today's paper to see if there's a cheap one on sale that I can use for this, otherwise I'll spend $15 on one from Roboform....

 

[Night Hawk]

It sounds like a compatibility issue of some type if it works ok on XP. Which 7 are you running the 32bit or 64bit? I still haven't downloaded anything for the brands in use here.

When upgrading the U3 portion you could consider that very similar to how you would update the bios on a main board since flash drives have no magnetic platters like you would see in a regular hard drive but are more in a sense another form of memory card you would plug into a digital cammera or camcorder with a usb plug. The data is stored on one chip while the programming is on a form of rewritable eprom.

Even when reformatting one here and later unplugging and replugging one back in you see the immediate popup menu of choices along with the SanDisk icon. That also has links for the downloads on that as well as one for the support site along with the Launchpad.

That brings you to a one question type page where you sign up with your email address and password to make inquiries. At first I had to wonder what that was about until tracing it back to SanDisk when the explorer page was suddenly redirected there. But that's how they have their support set up.

 

[mlevy]

Running 64-bit Win 7, 32-bit XP Pro.

I successfully updated the drive, THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE. Win 7 will NOT allow me to run the U3 launchpad. It tells me that a drive letter was already assigned. I'll try to take a screenshot and post it for you, when I get home from work...


For the record, this appears to be a 64-bit compatibility issue. I have a W7 RC 32-bit machine at work, the U3 drive works fine on that machine.

 

[Night Hawk]

I was asking for that reason. Some of this stuff either will not run period or you need to run in the XP SP2 or Vista compatibility mode as well as the "run as administrator" to get it to go on. In the 7 right click menu you now see the troublecompatibility tool there being a new support tool.

 

[RetiredMSgt]

A possible fix for Windows has allocated a drive letter to the U3 dri

I downloaded and ran as administrator a free utility call "usbdeview". It allow me to see all of my usb device. I used it to uninstall all devices that were not currently connected to my computer. I also uninstall some of the generic usb hubs it was showing. After rescanning for hardware change and after unplugging and replugging my usb keyboard back in I was able to get the U3 launcher on my cruzer to work correctly.
Now I don't know if that will work for everyone but it did for me.

 

[RetiredMSgt]

2nd fix

Ok so if the first fix I tried does not work for you, try the following.
I copied the Launchpad.zip file into another directory on the computer and ran the LaunchU3.exe from there. Initially I received the same error about Windows has allocated a drive letter to the U3 drive that is already taken by another drive on your machine or there are no more drive letters available on this machine. Try disconnecting any network drives that you have connected to your computer and restart U3 by double-clicking LaunchU3.exe or the U3 System CD-ROM icon. Once the U3 Launchpad is running, you can reconnect the network drives. Even though the message came up the u3 launcher did start. After ejecting the U3 and rebooting the computer I have been able to launch the U3 software every time without the error showing up.

As far as using the compatibility mode, I am NOT. It has continued to work even when the system has been shut down and rebooted with the key still attached.