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Sandisk USB Devices No Longer External

posted by janrinok on Monday March 03 2014, @04:30AM   
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.

• Re:It's to remove OS freedom Re:It's to remove OS freedom (Score: 5, Insightful) by zafiro17 on Monday March 03 2014, @11:31AM

  by zafiro17 (234) on Monday March 03 2014, @11:31AM (#9980) Homepage

  Tablets aren't evil. Software creators that try to force pre-selected computing paradigms in order to work around their sh*tty software are evil. Actually, let's keep subjective things like good and evil out of this.

  They aren't evil. They just suck.

  This is a case of not being able to write software, so using your leverage to force hardware manufacturers dance around your incompetence. And it's pathetic.

  --
  Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey

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• Re:It's to remove OS freedom (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 03 2014, @05:20PM

  by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 03 2014, @05:20PM (#10121)

  Sorry, but you're wrong: they are indeed evil. Let's look at the definition of "evil", from Wiktionary:

  evil (comparative eviller or eviler or more evil, superlative evillest or evilest or most evil)

          Intending to harm; malevolent.

                  Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil?

          Morally corrupt.  [quotations â–¼]

                  an evil plot to kill innocent people

          Unpleasant.
          Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.  [quotations â–¼]
          (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.  [quotations â–¼]

                  an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop

          (computing, programming, slang) undesirable; harmful; bad practice

                  Global variables are evil; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.

  Many of these points apply to this situation. Forcing a pre-selected computing paradigm in order to work around shitty software (or worse, using your leverage to force hardware manufacturers to dance around your imcomptence) is undesirable, and demonstrably harmful. It's obviously a bad practice. It's also unpleasant. You could even argue that it produces or threatens sorrow or distress. I might even go so far as to say their practices are morally corrupt.

  Any of these meets the definition of "evil". So yes, they really are evil. Let's call a spade a spade, instead of trying to euphamize things. Microsoft and the tablet makers really are evil, according to the very definition of the word.

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