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: 5, Insightful) by mmcmonster on Monday March 03 2014, @10:42AM
The problem is for avoiding simple mistakes on any OS.
ie: You want to burn an ISO onto a USB stick. The application only shows the removable drives as options so you don't overwrite /dev/sda or something stupid like that. Not possible anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @12:38PM
Perhaps Sandisk did not realise how many things are not possible when a USB drive no longer detects as external. Perhaps some real world testing with the OS they were certifying for would have helped..
(Score: 1) by morgauxo on Monday March 03 2014, @03:03PM
At least until if/when devices that DO register as removeable become rare I would continue to only list the "removable" ones by default. Then there could be a checkbox that allows all devices to be seen preceded by a "continue at your own risk" popup.
Also, do these devices have some sort of other identifying information? Like the USB manufacturer/device id? Maybe there can be a whitelist to make these devices show up. It's far from ideal but it's better than ingnoring the problem.