USB Flash Disk

User's Manual

Index

1. Introduction

2. Package Contents

3. Specifications

4. Product Shape

5. System Requirements

6. Basic Functions

7. Partition Type (Advanced Functions)

8. Advanced Functions Software Operation

9. Troubleshooting

Appendix A. Driver installation

1. Introduction

This product provides a fast and easy way to add more storage space to your PC. The Plug & Play feature provides you with greater convenience while on the go. This product easily connects to your PC or notebook using the USB interface, and it can even be disconnected and re-connected while the computer is running.

2. Package Contents

• USB Flash Disk
• Quick Start Guide
• Driver CD (User's Manual inside)

Note: 

If any of these items are missing from the retail package, contact your supplier immediately.

3. Specifications

3.1. Features

• Fully support USB Specification, Version 1.1
• A true "Plug & Play" connection that supports hot swapping function.
• Draws power directly from the USB port; no external power or batteries required.
• Data Transfer rate of up to 12Mbps at "Full Speed".
• Includes a write-protect switch. (Optional)
• Compact, lightweight, and ultra low power consumption.

3.2. Specifications

• LED indicator while drive is in use and transferring data
• Erase cycles: 1,000,000 times
• Read speed : 1000KBps. Max
• Write speed : 920KBps. Max
• Shock resistance: 1000 G (maximum)
• Data retention up to 10 years

3.3. Certification

• Safety Compliance : FCC and CE class B

3.4. Environment Operating Ranges  

• Operating Temperature : 0ºC~ 50ºC
• Storage Temperature : -20ºC~ 80ºC

3.5. Power Consumption

• Power consumption: Write 36.0mA, Read 33.0mA

3.6. LED Indication

• LED indicator while drive is in use and data transfer

3.7. Driver Support

• Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP

• Mac OS 9.0 and above

• Linux 2.4.0 kernel version

4. Product Shape

Write-Protect Switch  (Optional)

If the switch is at the “” position, the device will be in write protection mode. You cannot write in any data to the drive, but you can still read the files or data in the device.

5. System Requirements

The following system requirements must be met to install and operate the device and the application software (UMSD), refer to section 8.Advanced Functions Software Operation.

Computer Model                IBM PC/AT Compatible, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMAC or iBook

OS                                          Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux 2.4 or higher, Mac OS 9.0 or higher

Interface                                USB

Free Hard Disk Space       3 MB above

Notes:

• Windows 98 SE does not support a Mass Storage Driver by default. You must install the driver bundled with the product.
• The product uses the default driver in most cases. This will change once you run the application software bundled with the product. The "Setup.exe" program install the vendor's driver automatically, then the application software will work properly.
• The application software can only run with Microsoft Windows OS. 
• However, the UMSD basic function could be supported in all OS listed above.

6. Basic Functions

6.1. Plug and Play

When you plug the device into the USB port of your computer, you will see a  “Removable Disk” icon in the file manager window.

In Macintosh, once you plug the device into the USB port. You will see the disk icon on the “Desktop”.

In Linux OS, you can follow the following instruction to “mount” the device,

• Execute cd /etc/sysconfig/ ( cat /etc/sysconfig/hwconf | more ).
• Check the device information in hwconf, write down the mount point.
• Make a directory in /mnt (ex: mkdir /mnt/usbHD ).
• Then, execute mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbHD (if mount point was .dev/sda).

6.2. Read and Write

You can read, write, copy, and delete the files and data on the USB disk the same way as the files and data on the hard disk.

6.3. Write-Protect Switch (Optional)

When you put the write-protect switch to the "" position, you cannot write any files or data to the device. However, you can still view and read the files and data in the device. You can switch the "Write-Protect" switch even if the device is plugged in under Windows and Mac OS. But due to Linux OS limitation, the write protect switch will not work on-line.

6.4. Unplug

You can remove the device after you finish any action with the device. However, in Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, please follow the safe removal procedure. You can find a safe removal icon in your computer's system tray.

Double click the “safe removal” icon; the “Unplug or Eject Hardware” window will be pop up. You can select the device you want to remove. Then, click the “Stop” button. After that you can safely unplug the device from the USB port of your computer.

When you want to remove the device, please make sure the LED is not flashing quickly. If the LED is flashing quickly, that means there is some traffic between the OS and the device. Do not remove the device during this event. Otherwise, it may cause some damages to the data or files or possibly to the device.

                                        

If you do not follow the safe removal procedure in Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP system, it may cause data lost due to the write cache issue.

In Macintosh machine, you can drag the "removable disk" icon and put into the trash. This action will perform the “Eject” function.

In Linux OS, please follow the “umount” command procedure to un-mount the device.

7. Partition Type (Advanced Functions)

We can partition the device into three types of disk. We will use the following terminologies in this guide,

In UMSD, you can select the following partition combinations:

1. Single Public Area                             Make the entire device's area accessible to everybody.

2. Security Area                                      Divides the device area into two partitions in the same LUN, a Public Area and Security Area. The Public Area can be accessed by everybody who use the drive. The Security Area can be accessed “Only” with a password.

3. Public Area Plus Security Area      Divides the device area into three partitions in two LUNs, Public Area and Security Area in LUN0, and Public Area in LUN1. It has to use multiple LUNs driver to operate. The partition status was showed in the following figure. The partitions in LUN 0 will perform as described in the above item 2. The partition in LUN 1 will perform as described in the above item1.

This figure shows the detail operation of single LUN.

This figure shows the detail operation of multiple LUNs.

This table shows the function description of the three partition types.

8. Advanced Functions Software Operation

8.1. Installing/Uninstalling the Application Software

Installing the software:

If you are installing the application software onto Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you must first log on as the administrator and then install the application software.

1. Find the “UMSD.exe” program. You can find the program on the Driver CD.

2. Double-click the "UMSD.exe" icon.

Uninstalling the software:

Notes:

• The USB driver only needs to be installed the first time the USB Flash Disk is connected via the USB port. Installation is not required from the second time on.
• Do not cancel the installation during the procedure. The USB Flash Disk may not operate correctly if the installation is incomplete.
• Read the “Troubleshooting” Section if the installation cancels itself during the procedure, if the installation did not proceed as described, or if you feel that the driver are not properly installed.

Installing the USB Driver:

For some Windows systems, users should log on as the Administrator before installation.

Once you have attached the device to the computer. The OS will find the correct driver or the “Add New Hardware Wizard” dialog will appear after a moment. You can do the installation of the Driver manually (Refer Appendix A section). Or just use the “UMSD.exe” program to do the driver installation.

8.2. Using UMSD.exe Program the First Time

Because UMSD.exe can only handle one USB Flash Disk at the same time, you will not be able to use all the functions of UMSD.exe, like “Resize”, “Change Password”, or “Log In”, etc., you can insert more than two UMSD devices. If you want to use the functions of the program, please remove all other USB Flash Disk. Otherwise, the UMSD.exe may not perform properly, or may even cause data loss.

After you install the software and driver correctly, the UMSD icon will appear in the system tray automatically.

or

The display will depend on the status of the device.

1. You can use the right button of your mouse to pop up the selection menu as seen in the following figure. You can then select the function you want.

2. Or you can double click the icon in the system tray. The UMSD manager window will open up as shown.

As described in the “Partition Type” section, you can “Resize” your USB Flash Disk.

The “Resize” action will erase all the data or files existing on the device. The action is irreversible. You should backup all the important files or data. You should also close all of the active programs and windows open on your computer.

1. Click the Resize button in the UMSD manager window. The following “Resize Partition” window will open.

2. Select the partition type you want.

3. If you select the “Public Area Only”, then click the [OK] button. The “Confirmation” window will pop up. Please make sure you already backed-up all the important files or data.

4. If you select the “Security Area”, then the following “Security Area Resize” window will pop up. You can drag the scroll bar in the middle of the window to set the size of the “Public Area” and “Security Area”. Or you can type in the size of each Zone you want in the “Size” window. You can set the password for accessing the security area in the “New Password” window. The maximum size of the password is 8 characters. You can key in the hint of your new password in the “Password Hint” window. This hint will be displayed when you click the “Hint” button in the “Unlock Protect” window. The maximum size of the Hint is 32 characters. After you finished with the settings, click the [OK] button. The “Confirmation” window will open. Please make sure you already backup all the important files or data.

5. If you select the “Public Area + Security Area”, then the following “Public/Security Area Resize” window will pop up. You can drag the scroll bar in the window to set the size of each area. First, please set the size of the “Public Area” of LUN1. The minimum size for each area is 1MB. The maximum size of the “Public Area” of LUN1 is 1/4 of the total size. Once the size of the “Public Area” of LUN1 is set, the scroll bar of the “Public Area” and “Security Data Zone” of LUN0 will be set in the middle automatically. You can also type in the size of each Zone you want in the “Size” window. You can set the password for accessing the security area in the “New Password” window. The maximum size of the password is 8 characters. You can key in the hint of your new password in the “Password Hint” window. This hint will be displayed when you click the “Hint” button in the “Unlock Protect” window. The maximum size of the Hint is 32 characters. After you finished the setting, click the [OK] button. The “Confirmation” window will open. Please make sure you already backup all the important files or data.

6. Once the resize is finished, the following message will open.

7. After you finished “Resize”, the “Setup.exe” program will be copied into the “Public Area” (in LUN 0) automatically. It is removable, however, it is needed when you insert your device into another computer. It will install the UMSD software for you on the new computer.

8.4. Login the Security Area

If you partition the device with security, you can execute the following “Login” function to access the security Area.

1. Double click the "UMSD" icon in the system tray or click the [Login] button in the UMSD manager window. The “Unlock Protect” window will open.

When you perform the login and logout action with the device,  make sure there is no application or programs running or any documents open connection on the device. If so, it will cause data lose or damage.

2. Key in the password in the “Password” area.

• You can create the password hint using the “Resize” or “Change Password” functions. Once you have created the password hint, you can click on the “Hint” button in the “Unlock Protect” window to help prevent you form forgetting the password. The Hint will be displayed for three seconds.

• If you key in the wrong password, the following message will be shown.

• You had three attempts to input the password. After third try, the following message will pop up. And you have to unplug and plug the device back in to perform any actions.

• When you use the login or logout action, please make sure you close all the programs or documents open connected to the device. If there is an application open, a program is running, or document open connected to the device, the following message will appear. In Win2000, even if the “file manager” has accessed the device, it will be treated as “busy”. You have to close the file manager in order to “Login” (NOTE* not all the connections could be checked in every OS, so results may vary). 

3. Click on the “OK” button.

4. Once the file manager window that contains the “Security Area” has opened, you can perform the operation you want in the Security Area. The file manager window will look like the following figure. The background is colorful.

8.5. Logout the Security Data Zone

1. Double click the "UMSD" icon in the notification window or select the [Logout] button in the UMSD manager window.

When you perform a login and logout action with the device make sure there are no applications or programs running, or documents open connected to the device. If so, it will cause data lose or damage.

• When you perform a login or logout action, please make sure you close all the programs or documents open connected to the device. If there are applications running or documents open connected to the device, the following message will appear. In Win2000, even if the “file manager” has accessed the device it will be treated as “busy”. You have to close the file manager in order to “Login” (NOTE* not all the connections could be checked in every OS, so results may vary).

2. Once the file manager window that contains the “Public Area” has opened, you can perform the operation you want in the Public Area.

8.6. Change Password

User can change password and key in the password hint using the “Change Password” selection in the UMSD menu. You can only select this item in the “Security AP Zone”.

1. Click the UMSD menu in the notification window using the right button of your mouse and select the [Change Password] selection of the UMSD menu. The following “Change Password” window will appear.

2. Make sure the “Write Protect” switch is at the “OFF” position.

3. Key in your current password in the “Current Password” area.

4. Then, key in your new password and confirm in the “Confirm Password” area.

• The maximum size of the password is 8 characters.

5. You can key in a hint of your new password in the “Password Hint” window. This hint will be displayed when you click the “Hint” button in the “Unlock Protect” window.

8.7. Boot-Up Function

The Boot-Up program in “Utility” manager window will build up the device as a bootable disk. Before you run the program, please prepare the following,

1. This program can run under Windows 98 SE, ME, and XP. (The program isn't supported in Windows 2000.)

2. Please disable any running anti-virus programs before doing the procedure.

3. Make sure your Windows system folder is located on the C: Drive.

4. Make sure the "write-protect" switch is in the "OFF" position.

5. This program only deals with one device at the same time.

6. Make sure your UMSD is in "Public Area" if it is using the "Security" function.

7. If you want to make your device into a bootable USB HDD, you can’t make the device as a “Security” one. This option is only supported in Windows 98 SE.

If you perform the “Log In” action with your UMSD located in the “Security Area” and run the Boot-Up function, it will the “Log Out” and erase all the data in “Public Area”.

When you are ready to proceed follow these steps, please note that the procedures for Windows XP are different from Windows 98 and ME. This program cannot be run in Windows 2000.

Windows 98 SE and Windows ME:

1. You can click the [Utility] button in the UMSD manager window to execute the Boot-Up utility.

2. The following window will be shown.

3. You can select the type of the boot up method, USB ZIP or USB HDD. The USB HDD is only for Windows 98.

• If you select “USB HDD”, the computer will display the  prompt after you have booted from the device.

• If you select “USB ZIP”, the computer will display the  prompt after you have booted from the device.

• If your device is using the “Security” function, only USB ZIP can be selected.

4. After the selection, please click on the “OK” button. The following warning message will appear. The data in the “Public Area” will be lost. If this is OK then click on the “OK” button to continue the process.

The program will perform a format. The existing data in the “Public Area” will be lost.

5. After the process was done, the finish message will be showed.

Windows XP:

1. Please make a bootable floppy first. Insert a disk into the floppy drive. Then right click on the of 3.5” floppy icon in the “My Computer” window. Select “Format” then left click.

2. Tick the “Create an MS-DOS startup disk” option to create a bootable floppy under format options. Then, click on the “Start” button.

3. Create a directory called XP_Bootable in the root directory of your computer's system disk.

4. Go to "Start" menu, click "Settings", "Control Panel", enter "Folder Options". Select "View" tag, select "Show hidden files and folders" item under "hidden files and folders directory" and cancel the item "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". 

5. Copy all the files in the floppy to the XP_Bootable directory. There should be total 15 files copied in this procedure.

6. Click on the [Utility] button in the UMSD manager window. Then, select the USB ZIP. Click on the “OK” button.

7. After the process is done the finish message will be displayed.

8.8. Error Messages:

When this message appears, the possible cause is your Windows OS installation is in completed. (Please make sure the path \WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD in Windows 98,  \WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD in Windows ME, or \XP_Bootable in Windows XP is exists)

When this message appears, please make sure the “Write-Protect” switch is in the “OFF” position.

When this message appears, please make sure the capacity of the “Public Area” is large enough.

Notes:

1. After you finished the program, you will see different disk properties when you select different disk types. For example, if you select it as “USB HDD”, you will see the hard disk icon in the file manager window. If you select it as “USB ZIP”, you will see the removable disk icon in the file manager window. However, only Windows 2000 and above can identify the difference. In Windows 98, you will just see the “Removable Disk” icon.

2. After you finish running the program the device contains the files necessary for boot up functionality. Please don’t remove any files from this area, it will cause failure when you perform a boot up of your computer.

3. When you want to use the UMSD to boot up your computer, please select the appropriate setting of the BIOS. Please refer to the user manual for your motherboard.

4. Because to the BIOS design of each motherboard is quite different; we cannot guarantee the boot up device will work for every computer.

5. Award has changed their BIOS spec. since March, 2002, and the boot up procedure is now different. We cannot identify if the BIOS is new or old and it should be known that this boot up utility is not suitable for Award’s new BIOS if its using the USB ZIP boot up option.

8.9. Recover Disk:

If your device becomes damaged, you can use this utility to recover the device. It restores the device back to its initial status. However, if there are some bad blocks in the flash memory that are discovered after you run this utility with scan option, its size maybe less than the initial size.

1. After you click on the [RecoverDisk] in [Utility] portion of UMSD manager windows, the following window will be popped up.

The “Recover Disk” action will erase all the data or files existing in UMSD. The action is not reversible. You should backup all the important files or data before continuing.

2. You can tick the box next to “Scan Disk” for the “Read/Write” testing of each block. It will take a long time for each block to scan. You can estimate the time will take. It will take about 1.5 minutes for each 16 MB.

• If you tick the box of the “Scan Disk”, the “Scanning Disk” process will follow the “Low Level Format”.

4. Once the job was finished, the following message will be displayed as in the following figure.

9. Troubleshooting

Q1. The USB icon doesn't appear on the taskbar, how can I unplug my USB Flash Disk?

A : You can either remove the USB Flash Disk when the LED is blinking slowly. Or you can right click on the device icon shown in "My Computer". Select "Eject". Then you can safely remove the device.

Q2. What is the function of the LED?

A : When the USB Flash Disk is inserted into the USB port and the LED lights up, it means that the computer has detected the USB Flash Disk device. When data transfer between computer with USB Flash Disk that the LED is blinking quickly.

Q3. What should I do if I do not see the removable disk in Windows Explorer after I have inserted the USB Flash Disk?

A : First please check whether you have installed the driver onto your system, then check "Device Manager", whether "USB Mass Storage Adapter" appeared in the "Universal Serial Bus Controller", if it has a yellow mark, please remove it and reinstall the driver, if there's no yellow mark, please restart your computer.　

Q4. Can the USB Flash Disk be used as a boot-disk?

A : Yes. Some BIOS versions currently support USB devices as a bootable device. It is recommended to contact your BIOS vendor to check for capability. Please refer item 8.7 to know how to make a boot-disk.

Q5. Can I transfer data from a Macintosh to a PC?

A : Yes, both the Macintosh and PC can read information from the device. In order to use the files you are transferring, you'll need to have the relevant application program on the host computer.

Q6. What kind of data can be stored on the USB Flash Disk?

A : You can save any type of files on the USB Flash Disk, whether they are text, graphic, program, music or multimedia files.

Q7. Can the USB Flash Disk be used under DOS environment?

A : No, because DOS does not support USB devices, so the device cannot be used under DOS environment.

Appendix A. Driver installation

No driver required for Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS 9.0 and above. Driver is only needed for Windows 98/98SE. (UMSD software includes driver, you don't need install this driver again if you had setup UMSD already.)

For Windows 98/98SE installation

1. Insert your USB Flash Disk into your computer's USB port and power on your computer. Windows 98 will recognize the device. then click the "Next" button.

2. Select "Search for the best driver for your device. (Recommended)." and click the "Next" button.

3. Please insert the driver CD and select item "CD-ROM drive", then click the "Next" button.

4. Windows will search and recognize the driver of the device, click the "Next" button.

5. Windows will automatically copy the driver and related files into the system. After copying the driver files, installation is completed, and click the "Finish" button.

6. Now, you can use the USB Flash Disk on your computer.