I just bought a USB 2.0 256 meg flash memory drive

[RC]

A couple of questions -
What happens If I compress the drive? Do I screw anything up? Can it be undone?
And what happens if I format it? Supposedly I can boot from it if I load the correct files. Can I still do that?

I just don't want to make another useless junk drawer item out out of it.

[Atlant]

1. Don't boot from it.

You can compress it; no problem.

But don't boot from it. The Flash ROM can only be written a limited
number of times before it wears out. It's 10,000 to 1,000,000 times,
which sounds like a lot, but can be used up amazingly fast when
used as a system disk.

Atlant

[DS1]

2. Good advice about non-system drive

however I'd shy away from compressing it, but that's just my opinion.

[RC]

3. Thanks

I'm just trying to find out a few things about it. Information beyound 'plug it in and use it as a big floppy' is scarce.