Does someone know a flash drive, suitable for Portable Apps, which does tell a Windows host not to be "removable media" but rather a hard drive?
Background:
I am looking for a stick which may contain more than one partition to be seen on a Windows system. One of these partitions would contain a bootable LINUX (with WINE, of course), another one the casper-rw if needed, a third one Portable Apps (useable under Windows or LINUX/WINE), and even a fourth partition might be of interest to separate files for exchange purposes.
LINUX (the distributions I know) doesn't mind the "removable media property" of the stick but windows does. Therefore on windows systems only one partition (at most) on a flash drive will be mounted.
There are some threads in different forums on related topics, many of them old. I never was able to apply a suggested solution to a stick.
A special driver (as suggested too) to be introduced in Windows-systems does not meet my needs because the stick should not be for use under windows on specially prepared computers only.
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There was a superuser question 3 years ago that was similar to this one. I haven't tried any of the solutions mentioned in the answers, but most are suggesting to use a software tool to "flip" the removable disk bit to appear as a fixed drive.
http://superuser.com/questions/61487/usb-sticks-and-multiple-partitions
I'm not responsible for anything that happens (nor the community here), just passing information.
Thank you, gluxon, for trying to help!
I am looking once in a while for a solution to my rather old question. Might it be a tool as you mentioned it, might it be a new stick that answers "no" when it is asked if containing "removable media".
The old LEXAR-tool from 2004 (inofficial?) to which your link indirectly points is no longer supported for years now, and most links to get it are no longer functional. I did get it once and tried it on more than one stick without success (and little damage). Presumably the way stick-controllers handle the thing has changed.
More up-to-date might be the partial solution as described under http://agnipulse.com/2011/11/partition-usb-flash-drive/ but I didn't try it yet because it does not really meet my wants.
There seem to be a lot of threads in different forums in touch of my question. I am not the only one looking for a solution.
Is there someone who knows someone who could tell someone ...
"There is a need to be satisfied. You could make some money if you supply a flash stick which ..."
Your aqnipulse.com link and the link it contains to filter drivers are both excellent solutions to having multiple partitions on a USB stick. And are the most widely used solutions.
Don't forget to your list of desires to add that the 1st partition needs to be bootable so you can boot to Linux.
Ed
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/english.html
if you read through the pages of uwe , you will find all answers.
It is not always simple, as one needs the access to the controller and the known lexar tool was developed for lexar sticks only and it did work on some other sticks with similar controller.
and BTW, there are ways to simulate two partitions, by making two fake drives on the stick each with one partition only. This is used often with encryption tools etc.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland