USB Pen drive

I bought a Disgo USB pen drive (1GB) because I want to create a bootable Linux installation on it.
This is proving more hassle than its worth.

First of all, the pen has some really annoying software built in (a U3 system) which runs and pops up *everytime* you stick the pen in.
Second, the pen has 2 mounted drives:

1 - reports as being a CD-drive CDFS (containing the U3 software)
2 - reports as a 978MB removable disk (which can be formatted)

Anyhow, I'm trying to burn an *.iso to the pen drive but .. no can do.
Whichever software I use (Nero/MagicISO) it only looks at the CD Drive which, being read-only is a no no.

Can you guys recommend a good 1GB pen drive which is bootable?

Oh, and keep yer heads down because I might just throw this damn pen out the window in frustration.

my Toshiba USB 1Gb is bootable...no problem at all with it..

Does it show up as 2 separate drives like mine?

EG,

U3 System (G:) - 4MB CDFS
PenDrive (H:) - 978MB FAT32 Removable Disk

Do you access to all of the storage space?

I'm feeling pretty ripped off because of the U3 system stealing 4MB. I cannot uninstall it either.

Can't you repartition it? Use My Computer -> Manage (Right click menu) -> Disk Management?

Once you've done that, reformat all of it to FAT32 and go get Damn Small Linux. Works like a charm.

My USB drive appears as two drives as well, one being public (with software included, which set to autorun by default, edited the ini file for that), and a hidden one which I put all my important stuff on, and requires the software of the public drive loaded to unlock.

Though odds are I could just reformat it into one as FlameDuck mentioned.

I think you shouldn't use a cd burner to write to the pen.

you could try to install the "feather linux" distribution:
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/
you only need to unzip the distro, copy the files to the pen, then make it bootable with the bootloader "syslinux" from http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php

other useful linus distros for usb keychains are
-damn small linux
-puppy linux
-SPB-linux

Of course, in your Bios you need to set the boot sequence to USB before other drives.

..nope, My toshiba just showing one drive

Toshiba (E:)
and thats all..you can reformat it, change name of drive etc..just as a every normal disc..

I don't think WinXP supports partitioned pen drives(?)
My main problem is, I cannot get rid of the U3 system. The pen drive acts like it has got 2 separate drives. The U3 stuff keeps getting copied over from the 4MB (CDFS) into the 980MB area everytime I insert the pen drive. Which is incredibly annoying!
The 4MB is 'Read Only' and therefore I cannot remove the files.
I tried disabling 'AutoPlay' to stop the software running but my XP installation ignores all my settings (i.e TAKE NO ACTION).

jfk,
Thanks. I'll take a crack at it.
If that fails the things going on eBay ASAP.

Naughty,
Looks like I picked up the AOL equivalent of a Pen Drive.
Behold .. the ugly (and massive) popup window:

you shouldn't care to much about the 4 MB part. There must be a task in the autorun section of windows that allows autostart of the program, simply deactivate it. (Cause windows does not support autostart of apps from USB drives (unlike eg. cdrom) without third party helper tasks installed)

(run MSCONFIG.EXE, uncheck the sucker in the autorun tab)