Help with choosing a U3 enabled flash drive

[Workaholic]

After one of my computers recently became seriously infected with viruses and the only way to completely get rid of them being a reformat as quite a few of the OS files and Anti virus files being infected, I saw that you could buy a U3 enabled flash drive which you can get a copy of Avast for.

The problem now though is that the only u3 enabled drives that I can see on the market DO NOT have a write protect switch therefore the anti virus files there could equally be infected, so if anyone knows of any with such a switch could you let me know?

Cheers

[staffsMike]

I don't know much about u3 flash drives but it sounds more like you need some decent internet security..kaspersky is very good..i've been using it for a couple of months now.

[aidanjt]

Or an operating system that doesn't have the virus feature built in.

[Workaholic]

I don't know much about u3 flash drives but it sounds more like you need some decent internet security..kaspersky is very good..i've been using it for a couple of months now.

I was actually looking at free to use ones for personal machines. Main reason is because I have a few computers of my own then all my uncles, aunts, and cousins to fix when they die!
Kaspersky to buy would be VERY expensive for all these computers!

[Thorsson]

I'm not aware that any flash drive has a write protect, but the password-protected, encrypted files would be hard to infect on a U3 drive.

AVG free version is a pretty good anti-virus. Better than Avast IMO.

[staffsMike]

Well I bought a 3 user liscence of kaspersky net sucruity for £15 off amazon..

but avg and zone alarm works quite well as a free alternative. Are you using any firewalls?

It just seems like what you want to do is a very difficult way around a problem which should be avoidable in the first place...







..by not going on so much porn!!

[Agent]

Easiest way to do it is a USB-SD card reader and a SD card (which have a switch on for write protect)

http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA2018.htm
From our friends at the LED shoppe

[amjedm]

AVG free version is a pretty good anti-virus. Better than Avast IMO.

I'll second that.

Easiest way to do it is a USB-SD card reader and a SD card (which have a switch on for write protect)

http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA2018.htm
From our friends at the LED shoppe

Similar card reader available at Poundland.

I bought one some time ago but not used and when I last looked (last week) were back in stock.

[Agent]

Similar card reader available at Poundland.

Cheers for that mate, have wanted one for a while. Will pop in when im up town next

[amjedm]

Cheers for that mate, have wanted one for a while. Will pop in when im up town next

You're welcome.

I popped in at lunchtime to look for other bargains and had a quick look at the card reader - couldn't see a write protect button . Will see if I can find the card reader I have at home.

[Agent]

I've not come across a card reader with write protect on, but SD cards have a little switch that's handy sometimes

[amjedm]

I've not come across a card reader with write protect on, but SD cards have a little switch that's handy sometimes

I should have read your post above with a bit more attention

[Workaholic]

I'm not aware that any flash drive has a write protect, but the password-protected, encrypted files would be hard to infect on a U3 drive.

AVG free version is a pretty good anti-virus. Better than Avast IMO.

I'm fairly certain that I've read somewhere that Avast actually had a better catch/detect rate than AVG....
Anyway my main computer is using the two side by side (as a special precaution)

Easiest way to do it is a USB-SD card reader and a SD card (which have a switch on for write protect)

http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA2018.htm
From our friends at the LED shoppe

Good idea as SD card are cheaper.

[Thorsson]

I'm fairly certain that I've read somewhere that Avast actually had a better catch/detect rate than AVG....

Not in the Computer Shopper tests. Avast did pretty badly.

[amjedm]

I'm fairly certain that I've read somewhere that Avast actually had a better catch/detect rate than AVG....

Last month's PC Pro Anti Virus Lab - AVG Free 83%, Avast Home 70%

I was initially installing Avast on PCs I was setting up but it had to be registered after 90 days.

I installed Avast and AVG on an infected PC and found AVG would beat Avast when detecting viruses.

Not in the Computer Shopper tests. Avast did pretty badly.

Spot on

[Workaholic]

RIGHT

for all you NON-BELIEVERS out there here's a photo of a flash drive WITH a write protect switch
See the little gap/hole just to the middle ish. Left of in use LED, pretty much directly underneath the "ey" letters!

Forgive the wear and tear / colouring (its a very old one I have lying around which is actually dead, only 16MB btw)