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March 8th, 2013, 11:55 PM
#1
[RESOLVED] Cruzer Edge flash drive SANDISK?
Some where i posted a question about flash drives being virus free? I was advised to reformat it, but in the store i was told if i reformatted it, it would not work?
Are they bug free? Is it advisable to reformat?
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March 9th, 2013, 12:53 AM
#2
You can reformat flash drives. What store was this?
Nothing is "bug-free", but a brand new drive should be fine. It's up to you if you want to reformat.
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March 9th, 2013, 01:38 AM
#3
Walmart,, i happened to run into the dept mgr, off duty, i asked him, he had never done it, the other guy that is full time, i asked him if i could, he said if i did, the files on the sandisk would be lost that makes it functional.. He told me the amount of them they had sold with no returns? So what should i do? $14.00
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March 9th, 2013, 01:52 AM
#4
I usually format the new USB drives in NTFS to get rid of the fat32 on most of them.
Throw some large files onto them and that gets rid of the 4GB minus-1 limit Fat32 has.
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March 9th, 2013, 02:00 AM
#5
so what should i do win 7 64 b, the sandisk i bought is an 8 gb?
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/de...ice-using-a-pc
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March 9th, 2013, 02:08 AM
#6
Walmart? Uh, don't get tech advice from Walmart, dude.
It's your call about the File System. FAT32 is fine if you don't have files bigger than 4GB. If you need to go between Mac and PC, then FAT32 works with both.
You could also use exFAT or NTFS. NTFS is more universally accepted by Windows. WinXP doesn't read exFAT by default.
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March 9th, 2013, 02:45 AM
#7
Dude, small town personally know these guys, however they haven't performed these tasks in their personal use.
So on an 8gb you can't download any bigger at once or at all than 4gb?
and never down this how long does it take if it will do it?
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March 9th, 2013, 03:16 AM
#8
FAT32 has a FILE SIZE limit of 4GB. I.E. a single file can't be bigger than 4GB. That's like a file the size of a DVD.
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm
and never down this how long does it take if it will do it?
Are you asking how long it takes to format? It only takes a couple minutes.
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March 9th, 2013, 03:35 AM
#9
Took about a minute on my 32GB flashdrives. But my cpu is a AMD 8150.
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March 9th, 2013, 10:33 AM
#10
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
... but in the store i was told if i reformatted it, it would not work? ...
The employee may have been referring to some USB flash drive(s) with software included by default.
e.g. Kingston Data Traveller series typically have urDrive software, Maxthon browser and such.
If only using the flash drive for storage,
As already mentioned by others, format.
Cheers.
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March 9th, 2013, 01:34 PM
#11
So is it normal that this sandisk comes with FAT32? And if i am presently using only win 7 or vista the FAT32 is ok
and the advantage of formatting it to NTFS would be for a bigger single file," this one is 16gb"
and formatting this would not delete any programs on this "cruzer sandisk" to make it dead before i use it?
And disk management on my computer is what i use?
tks
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March 9th, 2013, 03:27 PM
#12
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
So is it normal that this sandisk comes with FAT32?
Yes, that's normal for USB flash drives.
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
And if i am presently using only win 7 or vista the FAT32 is ok
Yes.
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
and the advantage of formatting it to NTFS would be for a bigger single file," this one is 16gb"
Yes.
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
and formatting this would not delete any programs on this "cruzer sandisk" to make it dead before i use it?
Formatting erases everything currently in it, but that doesn't "make it dead". It's just empty and ready for use.
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
And disk management on my computer is what i use?
Just right-click it in Windows Explorer and select Format.
(One way to load Windows Explorer is to simply press [Winkey][E]).
.
Last edited by SpywareDr; March 9th, 2013 at 03:30 PM.
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March 9th, 2013, 03:59 PM
#13
I've bought dozens of flash drives (it's a "thing" with me!) I can't remember hearing of any major name drive makers that suffered from viruses being preloaded from the factory. Certainly not impossible though. There have been cases of viruses in digital photo frames (which are not too far of a leap from flash drives.)
Many USB flash drives do come preloaded software that is of questionable value and use; encryption (that few know how trustworthy it is), U3 launcher (which requires special software to prevent from running and uninstall) and so forth. Many of these preloaded programs make use of Windows auto run functionality (which IMO is seldom a good thing (and a really, really bad thing if it runs something you don't want!))
Should you format USB drives? IMO, no, it's not needed unless you have a good reason to do so. What is important is to not allow anything on it to auto run. Holding down a shift key when inserting a drive should normally prevent auto run. Once the drive is mounted, take a look via explorer and see if there is anything on it that you don't want/need. Deleting the unwanted/unneeded software is typically all that needs to be done.
I have formatted a few drives and fared ok. But keep in mind that some manufacturers recommend not using Windows to format flash drives. Those companies make their own tools for that.
As to the FAT32 vs NTFS file system, I prefer FAT32. But that comes with one big caveat. I never store any one individual file that is larger than 4 GB. If I did, I would then switch to NTFS.
If you do use decide to go to NTFS, there are caveats with it too.
First, NTFS is a journaling file system. Any changes made to files on the drive causes more activity than just the files themselves. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS )
Second, NTFS recognizes file permissions. While this may seem like a good thing, it can mean that you could (at least temporarily) lose access to files on that drive (NOT handy.)
And while I always recommend to use the safely remove feature built into Windows, with NTFS you MUST use it (or risk data loss.)
Finally, it is often rumored that NTFS is supposed to be faster than FAT32 on a flash drive. But in the few times I've compared, I haven't found it to be so.
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March 9th, 2013, 04:13 PM
#14
Originally Posted by egdufwollamhsram1851
but in the store i was told if i reformatted it, it would not work?
They are talking about the software, most likely the U3, that is preinstalled in some SanDisk USB drive. BUT:
- Not all Sandisk USB drive have that.
- If it come with it, it is usually in a separate partition.
- The U3 partition is usually formated as a CD, so it can't be reformatted.
- Reformatting the data pottion of the drive won't get rid of U3, so the Walmart guy is wrong in the sense that reformatting the drive won't affect the functionality of the U3.
- To remove the U3 partition, refer to SanDisk's methods here.
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March 9th, 2013, 05:33 PM
#15
Originally Posted by falcon2000
They are talking about the software, most likely the U3, that is preinstalled in some SanDisk USB drive. BUT:
- Not all Sandisk USB drive have that.
- If it come with it, it is usually in a separate partition.
- The U3 partition is usually formated as a CD, so it can't be reformatted.
- Reformatting the data pottion of the drive won't get rid of U3, so the Walmart guy is wrong in the sense that reformatting the drive won't affect the functionality of the U3.
- To remove the U3 partition, refer to SanDisk's methods here.
Is there a concern about plugging this thing into my pc, out of the wrapper never used and having malware or a virus on it?
Some where here i was advised of this , but is there any different exposure than an external hd dr?
How do i know if this cruzer has the U3 but do you mean will or will not affect it?
But it does come with the Fat nit te NTFS?
Is there a reason with win 7 and vista on 2 diff pcs i should be concerned?
Facebook time line is what i want to put on this.
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