From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Sun Oct 21 16:30:23 2007
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6981E16A417
	for <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:30:23 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from fatman@crackmonkey.us)
Received: from crackmonkey.us (crackmonkey.us [70.58.166.197])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4594513C481
	for <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:30:19 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from fatman@crackmonkey.us)
Received: from tarani-bosatsu.dreamtrack.dnsalias.com
	(cpc1-swin7-0-0-cust216.brhm.cable.ntl.com [::ffff:86.18.88.217])
	(AUTH: PLAIN fatman, TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA)
	by crackmonkey.us with esmtp; Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:29:59 -0600
	id 0017C67C.471B7E8D.00005719
Message-ID: <471B7DC7.6000307@crackmonkey.us>
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:26:47 +0100
From: Adam J Richardson <fatman@crackmonkey.us>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (X11/20070830)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Andriy Babiy <freebsdathome@shaw.ca>
References: <ccc3af9689cdd.4718ed2c@shaw.ca>
In-Reply-To: <ccc3af9689cdd.4718ed2c@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: FreeBSD-questions <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: flash drive question -- can it be incompatible with FreeBSD
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:30:23 -0000

Andriy Babiy wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> While looking for a new USB flash drive, I found that some of them come with:
> - U3 feature
> - ReadyBoost feature
> - security software, either pre-installed or zipped on the drive
> - hardware data encryption
> Some of them need partitioning/formatting.
> 
> My question is: is there anything that would prevent me from using such drives on FreeBSD machine?
> Google shows that U3 can be uninstalled. What about other "features"?
> 
> Thank you in advance.
> Andriy

Hi Andriy,

I have a few Flash drives from different manufacturers. They all work 
just fine, detecting as SCSI devices on /dev/da0.

One of them I couldn't format under Windows. I assume it was some sort 
of software on the drive. I was able to format it using the port 
"ntfsprogs" under FreeBSD. Hurrah for FreeBSD! :D

If it was some sort of software preventing the format, it was Windows 
only. I think U3 would have a really hard time preventing format under 
all operating systems, but of course I'm only guessing there.

HtH,
Adam J Richardson