[H] Flash drive(s)

[DHSinclair]

I will soon receive several new USB 2GB flash drives (Crucial and Corsair). 
They are all newest(?) technology, I believe.  I suspect they may arrive 
pre-formatted with "stuff" (programs) I may not wish or need to 
use.  Looking for the collectives thoughts here......... :)

Should I immediately re-format (erase) the new FD's upon delivery before I 
start to use them?

I have been using a Crucial USB (v1.1) 256MB flash drive since Jan 2004. It 
works completely as expected in the USB v2.0 environs of my current 
clients.  This FD is now essential to me in keeping my LAN clients 
semi-neutral to on another, and, keeping critical data I choose NOT to 
store on any of my clients.
I now depend on the FD more than the older floppy drives of old. 
Unfortunately, I have NOT been able to completely walk away from the old 
floppy drives yet.  BIOS updates still seem to work better from a floppy 
drive than from either a local (c:\) directory, or, from a Flash Drive. 
But, I am still testing this function.  In time, I believe the FD will 
eventually kill off the old floppy drive; but, that is JMHO.
Best,
Duncan