How do I remove the U3 Smart Software from my Sandisk Flash Drive?

I recently discovered the true evil of the included software on my Sandisk Cruzer Micro 1 GB flash drive with "U3 Smart" technology.

It automatically installs this U3 program onto any Windows PC it is plugged into. Also, the drive itself is partitioned such that a small portion is recognized by WinXP Pro as a CD drive. Therefore, the files on this "CD" partition can't be easily removed by me.

When I erase the program files on the writable partition of the flash drive, they come back the next time I check the drive. I think this happens because the files on the unwritable partition get copied over every time I plug in the drive.

Also, (and here's where it gets really evil) the U3 program that was automatically installed is near impossible to remove. It's not in the add/remove programs list, it's not in the registry, and it's not running as a service. Yet, even after I had a friend open up the flash drive in linux and remove the partitions, and format the drive by writing 0 to every bit, the files were magically back the next time I plugged the drive into a PC with the hidden program. The hidden program restored all the deleted files on the USB device!

So, does anyone know how I can erase this hidden program on my PC and Flash drive once and for all?

Thank you.

I hate U3...
The software packed are available free online...
U3 is just a program annoying users with the menu and increased loading time

Or just delete the .exe file?? Worked for me.

I don't own the product in question, but the topic was of interest to me so I delved in. I clicked on the link Scarchunk posted, and as I was reading, I came across this:

Whoa! Did I miss something? Wasn't the OP complaining about the U3 **** being installed on his PC and damned near impossible to remove? Why aren't there any lawsuits being filed?

I'll second that. During a U3 software(firmware?) upgrade, it formatted the drive. I lost everything!

This worked great thankyou

And guess what? No email on the sandisk site, just telephone, unless you register.. like I would want to give them my email address. Very under-hand methods; very poor integrity: I'd like to be paid for the time I've had to waste removing this software (there was nothing about it on the packaging.) Get your act together sandisk!!!

I JUST put in a new SanDisk flash drive, and noticed a weird system folder with zip file.

I clicked on the 'launch.exe', and it had a help window trying to get me to try their other apps, or just use the flash drive for storage only.

I checked first thing to see how much space this 'extra' stuff was taking, and it was taking up 2...something MB. I was also suprised that when I plugged it in my windows was recognizing multiple things, one of them being the segmented CD drive, which I was very confused by.

So I clicked on the 'storage only' button, and it said just a minute while it removed the software, but it said I could always hit the restore.exe to get it back.

Now I noticed a NEW restoreU3.exe icon next to the launch.exe icon, and the CD drive was now gone. The system and zip folder are still there unchanged.

HOWEVER, I check the flash capacity, and NOW it's using 4.28 MB!!! It DOUBLED in size! What the eff??? Why can't I just have a flash drive with nothing on it? What is all this malarky? I wonder if the flash drive will be hurt if I just delete all that junk.

Hello there, i am in need of help removing a U3 launch file, that i transferred from a class mates USB along with some other files that i needed by accsident, now since i dont got the USB, i cant use the removal tool, and it wont let it self be deleted since it need administrator approval to delete it, there is only 1 bloody user on my pc, i use vista by the way, any that can help me remove the exe file?