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.
(Score: 1) by iNaya on Thursday March 06 2014, @06:01AM
Oh and that thing with Microsoft goons coming around to your workplace - that's terrible. What country/state are you in? Surely that can't be within the confines of the law.
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Thursday March 06 2014, @06:17AM
New Zealand, they would have talked the ceo into it who was the accountant at the time, he was with them, I was out at lunch.