O.k. guys my USB flash drive won't work Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss O.k. guys my USB flash drive won't work in the Windows Vista forums; My SanDisk Cruzer Micro Skins 256 mb USB flashdrive will not work on my new Vista laptop. Here is the error message I get: "Unable to locate a license ...

[summer_rain_falling]

My SanDisk Cruzer Micro Skins 256 mb USB flashdrive will not work on my new Vista laptop. Here is the error message I get:

"Unable to locate a license key on currently available media. In order to access all of the features available for this archive please insert the Cruzer media that contains your license key and press Retry. To continue without the license key, press Continue."

Which of course does nothing but give you the same error message all over again!

WHAT????

[Snuffy]

Originally Posted by summer_rain_falling

My SanDisk Cruzer Micro Skins 256 mb USB flashdrive will not work on my new Vista laptop. Here is the error message I get:

"Unable to locate a license key on currently available media. In order to access all of the features available for this archive please insert the Cruzer media that contains your license key and press Retry. To continue without the license key, press Continue."

Which of course does nothing but give you the same error message all over again!

WHAT????

Try format I had one that was FULL of Viris in some crappy program (yes, it was NEW NEVER USED). Format made it work.

[Znod]

Welcome s_r_f:

I agree with Snuffy. Try to format the drive.

[summer_rain_falling]

O.k. maybe I'm really slow, or maybe really dumb, but how would you do that?

[Snuffy]

open my computer and locate the Drive.. it should show like any other drive...usually it is the very last showing... right click and FORMAT. Do not use QUICK Format... do it slow... 4 of the 6 Flash drives I have tested had a VIRIS or TROJAN added...

[felix8406]

Just want to add to Snuffy's instructions; when formatting the drive, make sure to select the NTFS option (File System).

[Midway]

I am still perplexed at why it was asking for some kind of license key to begin with. From what I read BitLocker can use a USB as a "key" if your BIOS does not support TPM. But other than that

I installed a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB on mine but didn't get that kind of message. I didn't think about formatting it and I just checked it and it is formatted in FAT. I read on some forums that FAT is faster than NTFS in the case of USB memory but I don't know if that is true or not.

[summer_rain_falling]

Thanks you guys. I haven't had time to try it yet, but I'll let you know what happens

[summer_rain_falling]

Wow!!! It worked! Thank-you so much! Hooray!!

[Snuffy]

ReadyBoost is a new feature in Vista that learns which applications you use most and preloads them into memory, reducing paging and load times. This is similar to the prefetch used in XP however, Microsoft has come up with a very compelx prioritization scheme that will differentiate which applications you use and when you use them. SuperFetch works with ReadyBoost which allows you to do is insert a USB thumbdrive and use it to cache the SuperFetch cache rather than paging to the hard drive. Flash based memory is more responsize than most hard disks, and by doing this, there is a noticable performance boost. The first step is the most obvious, insert the USB key and wait for the drivers to install. Once that is complete you will see the following pop up on your screen.

With the key inserted click on Speed Up My System or open up Computer, right-click on the USB Removeable Storage device and select Properties. Under the ReadyBoost tab, select Use this device, and then set the amount of space to reserve.

LazyAdmin
By saying that flash memory is faster than hard disks, it sounds like it caches ... to be aware of is to ensure the device is formatted as FAT32 not NTFS. ...

AnandTech:
I’ve found that formatting the drive as FAT32 (not NTFS), 4kb block size, with the windows suggested amount of usage space to be the ideal settings. Using the full capacity rather than the recommended seems to drag it down a bit.

TechNet
If you aren't already using a device for caching, and the new device is between 256MB and 32GB in size, has a transfer rate of 2.5MB/s or higher for random 4KB reads, and has a transfer rate of 1.75MB/s or higher for random 512KB writes, then ReadyBoost will ask if you'd like to dedicate up to 4GB of the storage for disk caching. (Although ReadyBoost can use NTFS, it limits the maximum cache size to 4GB to accommodate FAT32 limitations.) If you agree, then the service creates a caching file named ReadyBoost.sfcache in the root of the device and asks SuperFetch to prepopulate the cache in the background.

Therefore I have to recommend USB Flash Drives in the MAX size of 4GB, and Format x /fs:fat32