Windows 10: External drive treated as local disk with same free space.

Please see attached screen grabs.

:)

 

External hard drive is showing up as local disk drive

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



As you have mentioned that the external hard drive is showing as local disk drive instead of a USB drive, it is because the file format for the external hard drive is same as the internal hard drive and that’s why it is showing
up as a local disk drive and not a USB drive.



Also, since you are facing issues while changing the drive letter of the drive, for further clarity on the issue and to guide you accordingly, respond to the questions listed below:

1. What is the make and model of the hard drive?
   
2. Were you able to save or create a file on the hard drive previously?
   
3. What happens when you try to copy and paste the data from the hard drive?
   
4. What was the result of check disk performed on the drive?
   

Since you are receiving the access denied error, I would suggest you to check if the user has appropriate permissions to read/write data on the external hard drive. Refer the article

"Access Denied" or other errors when you access or work with files and folders in Windows, refer the section
I cannot access, change, save, or delete files and folders.



Note:
The above article applies to Windows 10 also.



Please get back to us with the above information to assist you further with the issue.



We await your response.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

External hard drive is showing up as local disk drive

Thank you for the response.

I change the letter of the drive trying to fix the error (the problem existed before that
). Also my external drive was working as an external drive and changed in sometime by itself ( ? ).

The responses from the questions that you made are:

1. MaxTor M3 Portable 1TB | Model:HX-M101TCB/GRM
2. I am still able (like before)
   to save and create files and folders inside the disk.The problem that i mention is that i was not able to create the AutoRun.inf file (access denied)
3. I can copy and paste data from my drive
4. Disk perform showed no error (but it showed as a Label name:
   "nakos" but in the same time when i open my Computer and see the drives the label is as Local Disk
   

The main problem that i have is that my external disk was appeared to my computer and to other computer too as a external disk (with the Label and the icon that i set). Now there is appeared as a Local Disk and ignore whatever
label name i enter. I have set up all the folders, sub-folders and HTML projects to work in this disk with the label that was there before and not as a Local Disk, that's why is important to me to return him in the format like before.

Thanks again

 

Lost space of Pen Drive

Hello,

Thank you for bringing up your query on Microsoft Community.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you.

• 
  Have you tried connecting to a different computer?
  

I suggest you to connect the USB flash drive to a different computer and check.

First back up all the data from your USB drive to another location.

I suggest you to connect the USB flash drive to a different computer and check.

Let us try the following steps, and check if it helps.

Step 1: I suggest you to refresh the drive letter and then try to rescan the drives that are connect to the computer and check.

To refresh drive letter:

• Open Computer Management (Local).
• In the console tree, click Computer Management (Local), click
  Storage, and then click Disk Management.
  
• Click Action, and then click Refresh.
  
• Once you have refreshed connect the new zip drive and to update hardware information, click Rescan Disks instead.
  

Step 2: For unallocated space on USB drive

• 
  Press the Windows key, and type Diskpart.
  
• 
  Click the result to open the DiskPart command prompt window.
  
• 
  In the command prompt window, type list disk and hit Enter.
  
• 
  The removable USB drive or hard disk will be shown under
  Disk 1.
  
• 
  Type in the following commands and hit Enter.
  

select disk 1

Clean

create partition primary

• 
  The first command selects your removable USB drive.
  
• 
  The Clean command deletes all the current partitions present on the USB drive.
  
• 
  The Create primary partition creates a fresh partition and allocates all the unallocated space on this fresh partition.
  
• 
  Type Exit to close the command prompt window.
  
• 
  Unplug your USB drive and plug it back again.
  

Hope it helps.

Let us know the status, we are glad to assist you further.