Windows 10: external hard drive has been changed from "freeagent disk" to "local disk" with all my...

i hope this is the right community, sorry if it isn't.. i literally didnt do anything to this hard drive. didn't add anything to it (except my work files) , then when i plugged it in, it changed its name to local disk and all my files were gone. i don't know how this happened but i am beyond frustrated because i have important stuff on that disk. It seems that everything i try on the internet doesn't work.. or maybe I'm not doing something right. I cant try it in safe mode because the safe mode says my password is incorrect when i try to log in and i damn sure know my password so i stopped trying that. the disk's correct name shows up in my device manager under disks drives, but under disk management it shows up as local disk. i don't know what to do right now i need all my files back. please help.

i also can open the disk from disk management just fine, but it says that the folder is empty

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:)

 

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 connects as local disk

The hard drive(s) check out perfectly, including using the troubleshooting methods you cite. I can repeatedly remove, reconnect, read/write/delete/restore files to these drives, yet ... they appear as "local disks" and can not be changed otherwise. As
I mentioned, this is a problem for software that requires an "external disk" device for certain processes.

This morning, I checked several other similar portable external hard drives mounted on numerous computers at my work place and found "local disk" to be the case for every system that utilizes Win7, Win8, or Win10 as the OS (maybe WinXP, but I didn't have that
OS to look at). Google searches for this topic allowed me to discover that Microsoft has made this "local disk" bit configuration in the external drive hardware a requirement for Microsoft certification. Is this true?

Thanks for your assistance.

 

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