Windows 10: External hard drive is showing up as local disk drive

For some reason it changed from USB Drive to Local Disk.


Now i cant use a Label Name (like MyDrive).
I try to change the drive Letter and still nothing happen. When i plug the USB Driver to an other computer i see it again as a local driver. If i go to Properties -> Label Name and write something nothing happens and the Label Local Driver remains.

When I'm saying that it appears as a local driver let me exaplain it better with the example below...

I have a USB drive that it appeared as "USB Drive" and i can change the Label name, set an icon, etc...

Inside that USB drive i create an Autorun.inf and with this way i can set the name and the icon...




Now i plug the driver (with the problem) and as you see it appeared as a local disk and not as a USB drive


When i open the drive the is no Autorun.inf file and i cant create one (As the Sandisk example above)

Instead there is a folder called "Z_Drive_manager" [ Local_Disk (Z)/Z_Drive_manager ] that include (by default?) the Autorun.inf

I try to change the label or the ico from the AutoRun.inf and nothing changed, also i delete the Autorun.inf but still nothing happened.


What i have done so far and nothing happened

• I try with cmd to fix the disk entering the commant chkdsk Z: /f
• I have change the Drivel letter
• I took the ownership of the driver
• I plug the driver to an other computer and try all the above

I cant move my files to an other drive and so the format option don't suit me.

Thank you


***Original title: Why my external Drive appeared as Local Disk?***

:)

 

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 connects as local disk

Two 2T WD-Passport Ultra external/portable hard drives (only 3-4 months old) connected via separate USB ports to a new laptop running Windows 10. Out of the box they appear in disk manager as "type: external drive." After an OS update in late September,
they suddenly appeared as "type: local disk." A second laptop (one yr old) running Windows 10 with a 1T WD-Passport external hard drive experienced the same issue post OS update. I use a fee-based off-site backup/recovery program that uses one of the external
drives on the first laptop for a mirror image of the internal drive and can not function properly if the disk is seen as a "local disk."

Is this a WD hard drive problem or a Windows 10 issue? How do I fix it? The drives are working properly, have the current drivers, etc. With the exception of this single issue, everything with the OS as well as the drives checks out ok.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.