USB Mass Storage Device vs. Drive Partition

I bough model usb3-sata-u3 to use with a 3.5 Sata drive that I pulled out of a LaCie mini disk that was no longer reliable based on several power supply failures. It is important that I not format the drive because I have years of photos on the drive but Windows 8 is recognizing he drive as part of the C: drive. Is there a way for me to access the drive as a USB mass storage device? I am currently using the USB 3.0 connection.

Hi Joel-

Thanks for posting with your question, I’ll be happy to help.

If I understand correctly that your Windows 8 PC recognizes the drive in the U3 dock as drive C: this is somewhat unexpected since normally this is the drive letter of the boot drive for Windows. Since each letter can be assigned to only one drive, this might be as simple as changing the drive letter in disk manager.

Before making any changes, please let me know if I’m understanding things correctly. If you’re able to post a screenshot of your disk management utility, this will help with clearing up my uncertainty on your current situation.

The .zip I’ve emailed you contains a file that will open in Internet Explorer and shows how to go to disk management and change a drive letter: for now I would recommend just replying with a screenshot so we can make sure I’m understanding you correctly. You can capture screenshots in Windows Vista, 7, and 8 easily with the snipping tool:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wi…

Please let me know if I’m understanding correctly and if you have any other questions.

Best wishes-

Jeff Everett
MCITP Enterprise Support Tech
Plugable Technologies