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Can I change an external drive from a "Hard Drive" to a "removable storage device"?

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June 23, 2010 - 7:12pm
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dalesd
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Can I change an external drive from a "Hard Drive" to a "removable storage device"?

I have a Seagate ST905004EXA101-RK 500GB external drive. I formatted it to NTFS so I could use it with my Windows XP 64-bit machine at work.

The IT department at work is a little nuts, I guess. It seems that all "Hard Disk Drives" (as reported by Windows) become shared drives, but a "Device With Removable Storage" (like iPods and flash drives) remain unshared.

My question is, how do I make this drive report to Windows as a Device With Removable Storage? I do not have administrator privileges, so I'm powerless to change anything on the work computer. But I can do whatever I want to the drive at home.

I'd stick with the iPod, but this external drive is much bigger and faster.

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June 24, 2010 - 8:30am
Darkbee
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doubt there's a solution. sorry.

I'd be curious to see what solutions people come up with (if any) but I'm guessing you'd need some sort of hardware and/or software, or both to be able to do this. Furthermore the software would probably need administrator privs, so it's looking like your out of luck.

Having said that, I remember seeing on these forums a post about going the other way and making a removable drive appear as a fixed drive but it did require hacking around in the Windows registry.

As always, a word of caution when trying to circumvent company policy, you leave yourself open to the disciplinary procedures of your company if they feel you are violating terms of employment. I'm sure there's a good reason the IT dept is doing what they do. Probably because they want to virus scan devices because people are bringing in to work all manner of virii infested warez.

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June 25, 2010 - 3:26pm
Mir
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IDE/SATA to USB

thats a quick way.

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June 25, 2010 - 3:40pm
(Reply to #3)
dalesd
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But it already is a USB

But it already is a USB drive.

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June 25, 2010 - 6:18pm
(Reply to #4)
Mir
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if they have that policy for

if they have that policy for ntfs then you are screwed. windows doesnt like any of the alternitives that would work with a solid 499gb partition.

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