SanDisk Cruzer Micro 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ6-8192-A11

SanDisk 8 GB Cruzer Micro

The Cruzer Micro is a great USB flash drive with some significant advantages. You don't have to worry about losing the cap. There is a chance of getting dust in the head, so make sure to clean it from time to time with compressed air. Kingston also makes some retractable USB models as well, but in general I still prefer SanDisk.

This guy has 2, 4 and 8 GB sizes. 8GB is kind of the minimum size I would purchase at this point, since I have a ton of smaller drives already. This guy has the smallest case out of regular USB drives out there. The only way to get smaller storage is to my a memory card or a micro drive.

The small slot and ring are not really sturdy enough to secure this drive. The Cruzer Slide, on the other hand, has a nice attachment ring. But it is much...Read more

0. These instructions are for Windows XP.
1. In Windows Explorer allow hidden files to be seen.
2. Delete everything in 'new' Cruzer.
-- If you click on the 'U3...(E:) drive, it will now hang.
3. Right click on 'Removable Disk (F:) and choose 'Properties'.
4. Click on the 'Hardware' Tab.
5. There will be 2 listings for 'SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro USB Device'.
-- Type = 'Disk Drives'
-- Type = 'DVD/CD-ROM Drives'
6. Highlight the second 'DVD/CD-ROM Drives'.
7. Click the 'Properties' button. A new pop-up will appear.
8. At the bottom there is a pull-down menu titled 'Device usage'.
9. Choose 'Do not use this device (disable)'.
10. Click the 'OK' button.
11. Now the 'U3...(E:)' drive will disappear from Windows Explorer.

Have been using this 8Gig USB drive for few months (replaced Sandisk 4Gig). Works great, no probelms in using and (so far) zero hassle in using.
So why 4 stars and not five?
-Does not come (at least in my purchase) a round-the-neck lanyard. Maybe this was a error in the original plastic packaging but without this, worried about forgetting it.
-I cannot get rid of the pre-installed software on this. (As soon as I plug in via USB, it "pops up" a message and then my (Vista) PC displays the device discovered message. I have tried to uninstall the software to make the USB drive a "dumb" device but after three attempts (format, erase and using the device software's uninstall programme), nothing works.

Otherwise, have used Sandisk in past, all have worked great and I really have recommended this to friends as an ideal backup solution.