robgrafton , when Vista asks to install the driver for the player, direct the installation to the Windows\System 32\drivers folder. See if this is able to solve the problem.
The memory hack is not due to Vista, but a spoof that tricks all Windows based OS into thinking the capacity is larger.
Since you can't install MP3 Utilities to Vista, try formatting via Ubuntu instead. Try this guide here
http://www.3till7.net/2007/04/19/how...our-pen-drive/
Or alternatively, see this thread for the steps posted by another member
http://www.mympxplayer.org/linux-support-vt7351.html