Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Monday March 03 2014, @04:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the its-my-way-or-the-highway-said-the-Borg dept.

An Anonymous Coward belatedly writes:

"Sandisk changed the configuration, beginning in 2012, for all USB drives they make so that in future external USB devices will be seen as physical hard drives. This has been done to meet requirements set by Microsoft for Windows 8 which states that all USB devices must be configured to be recognised as fixed drives (nb. this is possibly related to Windows-to-Go). This has caused havoc for many users as Sandisk drives can no longer be used with Windows Recovery or any program that will only write to USB External devices. Sandisk deleted the support page that described why Sandisk USB drives are now configured as fixed drives, although the blog author includes it in his blog.

Beware any USB pen drive which states it is "Windows 8 certified". The device will not be detectable as an external drive in Windows 8. The HP Recovery Disks page says to avoid any Windows-8-certified USB devices."

One comment on the blog suggests that Sandisk might have reverted to more conventional practices for subsequent USB devices.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Monday March 03 2014, @02:08PM

    by mojo chan (266) on Monday March 03 2014, @02:08PM (#10035)

    As a result you cannot use a standard install dvd to install it.

    Yes you can. I have done this with a couple of my own laptops using standard install DVDs (OEM). Maybe you were using retail discs, but it has always been the case that retail copies would not install with OEM keys going back to 95. If you are wondering why it's because OEM copies are supposed to be non-transferable, i.e. the sticker is stuck to the PC's case and dies with it, while retail copies can be moved to new machines and have less copy protection.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 1) by dwywit on Monday March 03 2014, @10:27PM

    by dwywit (1166) on Monday March 03 2014, @10:27PM (#10287)

    That's the theory. In practice, OEM Win XP would continue to validate itself on a new install. If on the rare occasion it refused, a phone call would quickly get another validation code after speaking to a MS rep. "Customer's machine suffered a power surge and needed a {mainboard/CPU/memory} replacement".

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    • (Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday March 03 2014, @11:24PM

      by mojo chan (266) on Monday March 03 2014, @11:24PM (#10323)

      I must have made hundreds of those calls... As you say, their Indian staff never ever refused to activate the machine.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      • (Score: 1) by EvilJim on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:43AM

        by EvilJim (2501) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:43AM (#10439) Journal

        Same here, didn't get to talk to indian staff though, it's been all keypad presses for at least a couple of years for XP. why would it matter what the disk enumerates as under linux? there aren't any restrictions on running your OS from a USB drive like there are on XP (cant say I've tried installing 7 or 8 so cant comment on those)

  • (Score: 1) by redback on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:48AM

    by redback (1011) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:48AM (#10546)

    How do you get past the window asking for a key then?

    • (Score: 2) by mojo chan on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:57AM

      by mojo chan (266) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:57AM (#10548)

      It picks up the key from the BIOS.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      • (Score: 1) by redback on Friday March 07 2014, @09:21AM

        by redback (1011) on Friday March 07 2014, @09:21AM (#12566)

        Not with a standard disk.

        • (Score: 2) by mojo chan on Friday March 07 2014, @11:28AM

          by mojo chan (266) on Friday March 07 2014, @11:28AM (#12601)

          I reinstalled my laptop from a standard disc and it picked up the key automatically. My laptop doesn't have an actual sticker on it anyway.

          --
          const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)