If you yank out a USB drive from your computer, do you think it hurts the stick or could damage the drive?  No it doesn’t.  Well, it’s possible, but not probable.  The reason why is that Windows updated their removal policy for mass storage devices a long time ago.

To mitigate the likelihood of data loss in surprise removal scenarios, Windows XP refined the caching policy for removable storage. As of Windows XP Beta 2, for consumer-oriented removable storage (USB, Flash, Zip, and so on), write caching is disabled by default.

This means the write process happens immediately and when the Windows dialogue box shows complete…it’s really complete.

In the past, Windows would buffer the data first, then write.  So if you pulled out the storage device there was a good chance Windows was still writing to the drive.  That’s when you get a corrupted drive.  So Window’s changed (more…)

If you are like me, you’ve done a great bit of searching on the internet to remove Read Only USB partition or to remove CDROM USB partition, and unfortunately there isn’t much information out there.  The only utility we’ve found, is the one used to remove the U3 platform off a retail USB stick made by Sandisk, but chances are you are dealing with a different vendor or stick.

We found a company that can do this, and they do it in bulk.  USBCopier.com is a USB duplication service company that specializes in fixing your problem, like removing a Read Only USB partition.  I’m not sure how they do it, but their services worked for us.

As you know, a simple format or delete attempt to the USB device simply doesn’t work…you get the “This disk is write protected” message.

I spoke with USBCopier.com about the issue, and they can remove a USB partition off all types of drives, like USB sticks with Chipsbank controllers, Alcor, SMI, USBest and many others.  They also said the partition type doesn’t matter, it can be either the Read Only or CDROM and they can remove it.  USBCopier also mentioned if they can remove the USB partition, then chances are, they can also recreate it.

The company was a life saver to us and I wanted to pass along the information.  It was much cheaper to pay the service fee to remove the USB partition than it was to re-buy all the USB sticks and start from scratch.

Here is the link to their USB duplication service page.  Here is the link to their contact page.

If you are in a bit of trouble - I wish you luck - these guys could possibly help.

Some things sound better on paper than real life.  Take, for example, this stylish wrist watch that doubles as a USB storage device.  First, it is so clever, you always need a watch, you always need your USB drive, put the two together and it’s a perfect match.

Aaaah, but wait, there is a flaw.  The USB flash drive is on the wrist band.  This means you [most likely] need to remove the watch from your person to use the USB stick for any length of time.  What a waste.

Couldn’t they put the USB flash drive on the other side of the of the wrist band? (more…)

Today Sunland International introduced their self powered Blu-ray DVD writer.  The unit doesn’t need an AC connection to burn a disc, but it does need a PC connection for the software to control it.  You can think of this as a USB connected Blu-ray burner, but it’s ultra portable because it doesn’t require AC power or laptop power to burn a disc.  Rather, the self-powered DIG-78102 [nice name guys] uses an Li-Poly battery to get it’s daily dose.

The self-powered Blu-ray burner uses a “smart charge” approach via USB to power the device.  With an intelligent power manager to auto trickle charge the internal Li-Poly battery you can get up to 3 hours of use without a charge.

All this for an on-line price of just $599 [ouch].

Self powered USB Blu-ray burner product page.

The new USB video borescope from USBFever gives you the chance to check things out that you’ve never wanted to see.  Ok maybe that’s a bit odious [and suggestive], but the option is available considering the water resistant camera head and tube.

The USB borescope has a 300k digital camera on the front end, plus a nice accessory magnetic kit for the tip.  Now it’s easier than ever to find your keys lost behind the couch.

Two white LED lights are positioned at the apex to illuminate those dark holes or areas.

What is especially cool about the USB borescope is the ability for taking pictures or live video.  With the video option you can take those YouTube clips to the next level.

The USB snake scope retails for $64 + a couple bucks shipping.

Product Page here.

Here is a tricked out USB stick that does the downloading work while your PC is in standby mode.  The sleeptalking USB stick is aptly named, Somniloquy [medical term for talking in your sleep] and provides a great service when you take a closer look.

A team effort between University of California and Microsoft Research came up with the Somniloquy concept to reduce a computers carbin footprint into todays “going green” world.  Many users keep their PCs on for late night syncs, virus software updates, computer hard drive backups, or large data downloads.  The sleeptalking USB stick is designed to allow all of these things to happen while the computer remains in standby mode…meaning reduced power consumption for those critical updates or juice torrent downloads.

The Somniloquy is a prototype device that packs an entire low-power PC and embedded operating system onto the USB thumb drive.  It needs only 1/10 the power of a typical PC or laptop.

Somniloquy essentially takes over as the computer’s presence on the network while the actual PC is (more…)

Sugar Labs coined the phrase, “One Laptop per Child” and today they are getting us one step closer with Sugar On a Stick.

Sugar On a Stick is the Linux operating system fit to run off any USB drive.  Fit to run on any computer setup.  The Sugar Stick is based off the Fedora LiveUSB package and boots into Linux.  The package will keep all data usage on the drive so the host computer stays clean.

The Sugar Stick is intended to run on any legacy hardware configuration, so if you’ve got a moment, download the package, put it on a stick and give it a try.

Check out the full website:  SugarLabs.org

Source:  Betanews.