2 2 gig sanDisk Cruzers for sale, same price -- which one?

I have the 1 GB of this: SanDisk 2 GB Cruze Mini USB Drive

But I don't know how to evaluate the differnece between the 2 GB above and this 2 GB: SanDisk 2GB Cruzer® Micro USB Flash Drive

The second one seems more "modern" and convenient. But I don't know if I know what I am talking about, as I do not know what U3 is.

They are the same price with the same $40 mail-in rebate. It would be easier for me to get the second one because I can get it by mail The first one I would have to drive to the place and it is only open a couple more hours and sale ends tonight.

I can also hold off... I bought a lot of computer stuff this weekend (as my numerous posts can attest ) They will always have thes on sale again, July 4th is just around the corner...

 

www.u3.com for more info.

Personally I don't like the idea of U3 and software like that, but some people seem to like them. What it is is the ability to run software directly from the flash disk, so you can get and add free or pay extra software to the disk so that you can use them on the go. Firefox for example allows you to have your cache on the disk rather than leave them behind on a public PC. Other software would allow you to run programs on public PCs that usually wouldn't allow you to run, or don't have and you cannot install.

Edit: by the way the prices aren't that great if you want to hold off till later. I have seen some better deals online every now and then. Around 20$ for a 1GB and 40$ for a 2GB

 

Thanks for the info... I will have to think about that further. ... Given that you have seen it for less and I am not partial to mail-in rebates -- which are $40 each.. I'll be happy to wait.

 

Micro is smaller than the mini. You also get the cool thumb switch to expose the USB plug (no cap). I'd go with the micro, smaller and no lid to use. The mini, despite being able to have a breakable string to hold the cap to the drive, is still losable.

Also unlike the mini, the micro is U3 device preloaded with the following programs; CruzerSync synchronization software, SignupShield password manager, SKYPE "Make video calls from PC to PC", and AVAST antivirus software. I don't know what exactly what U3 programs are. My notion is that the are portable programs you can use on any PC without an installation. Someone else might probably elaborate on the meaning of a U3 device and programs.

 

That hits the nail right on the head. The U3 programs are just stuff you can run directly from the USB drive. It also has a convenient/annoying (take your pick) system tray icon that lets you access stuff, prettier interface, etc etc. There's a handful of software that is U3 compatible, you can get free stuff like Firefox, OpenOffice, Irfanview to run off the drive.... there's a bunch of pay programs as well.

One thing to note, is that the U3 stuff makes the drive incompatible with Windows 95/98/ME, and might be problematic with Macs and Linux as well. I'm not particularly pleased with that, and haven't been particularly blown away with the "run programs off the drive" aspect either. Nothing revolutionary, and even a bit of a nuisance.

 

This seems to me that I don't want the U3 though the size and the retractable USB port appeal a lot. The fact that the U3 is on there, does that mean I have to use it. I am around on occasion Win98/ME computers (my old lap- and desk-top in particular that I have not yet figured out what I will do nor have I cleared them out yet.)

 

I had been trying to find out if there is a way to get rid of U3 completely to avoid the annoyance and compatibility issues that may arise on other OSes, but have failed to find anything concrete. All that I found is that using it on a MAC is no problem because the U3 just doesn't run, and the drive acts like any other drive. But I still cannot find anyone who has managed to delete the U3 partition and reformat the drive back into one functional partition. BTW kingston don't ship any 98 drivers with their disks, not sure about sandisk.

And for some reason I am finding better deals on U3 drives ...

 

You don't necessarily have to mess with the U3 stuff to use the drive, but the software/system is still going to be there regardless of whether you want to just save files or not.

I was under the impression that they could be reformatted, if you do it correctly, but I may be wrong. I might try doing that later, but I'm still debating whether I should keep the U3 stuff on just so that I could troubleshoot for the office. Something to research on slow days I guess.

Older SanDisk Cruzers, I don't think shipped with the '98 drivers on disk, but they are downloadable on their website. I think they have just one Cruzer '98 driver set, that should work with the Mini, Micro, etc (sans U3, of course).