Windows 10: external hard drive shows up as 'local disk :D' and won't let me access it

So, this has been going for roughly 3 days now, but for some reason, my external hard drive shows up as 'local disk ' and won't let me access it. Whenever I actually try clicking on the drive on file explorer, the error code is never consistent: sometimes it'll tell me 'Parameter is incorrect', other times it'll say 'drive is unreadable and/or corrupted' or something like that, I haven't gotten the error message for 2 days now, other times file explorer will just straight up freeze and other times it'll ask me to format drive to use it. Lately I've been getting the 'parameter is incorrec

:)

 

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

 

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.