Using Acronis TI to Backup and Restore U3 USB Flash Drives

I have just orderd a SanDisk 4 GB USB Cruzer Micro with U3 (SDCZ6-4096-A10). I understand that this USB flash drive has multiple partitions with U3 software preinstalled. I don’t think I want to keep all the U3 stuff and have found a SanDisk utility which will get rid of everything. I may change my mind later down the road and want the USB flash drive to be restored as it was when I received it. I did a search and only found this info.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=132589&highlight=backing+flash+drive

Has anyone had any experience using ATI 10 backing up the different partitions on this U3 USB Flash Drive and then restoring them at a later date?

Does anyone foresee any possible issues in making a backup of this type of U3 USB flash drive?

 

I'm having issues with backing/restoring to a Seagate USB 2.0 external drive.

I wonder if it's a related issue.

TI doesn't see my drive at all, it only sees the HDD, CD ROM and Floppy.

 

Hello ARAUL,

As Acronis Support said in that thread you linked, if your flash drive is detected as a Removable Disk (open Windows Explorer, right click on the flash drive, select Properties and see what it says) then you will not be able to backup the disk/partition(s). However, you will be able to use the Files and Folders backup feature of TI but that's not really what you want.

Regards

 

I am also interested in support for this feature. I want to backup my U3 flash drives. Will this feature be implemented?

 

At present U3 is implemented in the firmware of a USB drive. (U3 is essentially a sophisticated hack that makes a USB drive appear to the operating system like an optical drive.) I do not believe U3 can be restored once it has been removed. I have read of several attempts to do this and the results are not consistent.