I got a great deal on a 2 gigabyte, Sandisk Mini Cruzer USB drive at Staples.  It was something like $42  off so I ended up paying $19.99.

I had been using a 1GB stick for my Windows Ready Boost system and thought the 2GB addition would help even more.  Since this isn’t my first purchase of a Sandisk drive, I knew I needed to remove the U3 crap before continuing.

I found a freeware program from the manufacturers website that does the job of wiping the 8MB of on board programs that ship with the thumbdrive.

I’m glad they provide the ability to do this, although you have to search to find it.