Using the hard drive as a flash drive. Removable USB drive as a hard drive in Windows. Making a hard disk partition active

Have you purchased a new, fast solid state drive (SSD) and your old one is lying around? Give it a new task and use it as an external storage device. To do this, you only need a case with a SATA controller; it is available for both 2.5" and 3.5" models. For the latter, a power supply is required, while compact drives have enough power supply through the USB port.

Labor intensity: average, costs: 600 rubles.

Mini NAS on router

In all home network need access to the same data? You don't need expensive and bulky network-attached storage (NAS) for this - a USB drive can do this task if it is connected to your router. Newer devices are equipped with the corresponding port.

First you need to format the USB drive from under Windows OS in file system NTFS and then just connect it to the router. In this case, the latter must have USB port and it must support the appropriate functionality. Now by typing in address bar browser address 192.168.1.1 (or similar), you will be taken to the user interface of the router.

Go to the " USB settings | General access to storage device" (for TP-Link routers, for other devices, the name of the menu items may differ) and make sure that the disk starts up.

To access data on your home network, it will be enough in Windows Explorer to type an address like "\\192.168.1.1\Volume1". A permanent connection is achieved by right-clicking on the folder you plan to allow access to and selecting Connect network drive».

Labor intensity: low, costs: no

Flash drive instead of a password

There is also a practical use for a small USB flash drive. For example, when you sign in to Windows, you can unlock your computer without entering a password. To do this, you need the Rohos Logon Key tool (1450 rubles), Predator (650 rubles) or free USBLogon (http://www.rohos.ru/products/rohos-logon-free/).

After installation, you need to select the connected USB drive and configure the security settings. After entering Windows password flash drive is ready to go. Unfortunately, working with USBLogon is complicated by the German-language interface, but even without knowledge of German, it is easy to figure it out.

Labor intensity: average, costs: no

flash drive for emergencies

If the computer no longer works as it should, a bootable USB flash drive comes to the rescue. The Sardu tool (http://www.sarducd.it/) installs up to 20 different antivirus programs, and also provides various versions of Linux and other first aid software.

> Preparation: in the left sidebar, the selected software is listed by category. Check the required programs. We recommend choosing multiple antiviruses and a Linux version (e.g. Ubuntu).

> Flash drive creation: on the right sidebar, click on the symbol with the USB drive. You can start creating bootable flash drive.

> Use in an emergency: to use a bootable flash drive in case of an "accident", you need to change the boot sequence from the drives to BIOS Setup.

In this case, you should set the boot priority from USB to HDD. Then choose from the list necessary program. Don't forget to revert your BIOS changes after "repairing" your computer.

Photo: manufacturing companies, racum/Flickr.com

To repair a video chip in an old laptop, you need a lot of money, and this repair is not worth such costs. But it is perfect for making some other useful things out of its working parts, which we are going to do in other things now.

On our video you can see how easy it is to make such an external HDD and the principle of its work.

For work we need:
- laptop;
- screwdriver;
- box for external hard drive.

box for external hard A disc can be purchased at any electronics store; a cable and a case are usually attached to it.

We begin to disassemble the laptop to remove the hard drive from it. To do this, turn the laptop over and remove the battery. Using a screwdriver, unscrew the screws near the hard drive cover.

The hard drive is on a sled that needs to be unscrewed, they are held on by four screws. Now the hard drive is separated, in this case it goes to 160GB.

We put the laptop aside, it will not be useful to us yet.

Now we disassemble our box in which we will hide our hard drive. She understands quite simply. Inside the box is a scarf into which you need to insert a hard drive. After that, just close the box with a lid.

Now we connect the cable that came with the box in the kit, and insert it into the USB connector of a computer or laptop.

There is an additional connector on the cable, which, in fact, is not needed at all. It was needed only for very old computers.

When connected to a computer, it takes some time for it to recognize external hard disk. After that, a new corresponding icon appears in the folder of the working computer, by right-clicking on which you can see the properties of the connected device, its volume.

When there is not enough free space on the hard drive, and it is impossible to free it, you have to consider various options for increasing the space for storing new files and data. One of the simplest and available ways is to use a flash drive as a hard drive. Many medium-sized flash drives are available, so they can be freely used as an additional drive connected to a computer or laptop via USB.

A regular flash drive is perceived by the system as external portable device. But it can be easily turned into a drive so that Windows will see another hard drive connected.
In the future, you can install an operating system on it (optionally Windows, you can choose among the “lighter” options, for example, based on Linux) and perform all the same actions that you do with a regular disk.

So, let's move on to the transformation process USB Flash to an external HDD.

In some cases, after performing all the steps listed below (for both bit depths of Windows), you may need to reconnect the flash drive. First, safely remove the USB drive, and then reconnect it so that the OS recognizes it as an HDD.

For Windows x64 (64-bit)

Download and unzip the archive.
Plug in flash drive and run "Device Manager". To do this, simply start typing the name of the utility in "Start".

Or right click on "Start" select "Device Manager".
In branch "Disk Devices" select the connected flash drive, double-click on it with the left mouse button - they will start "Properties".
Switch to tab "Intelligence" and copy the property value "Hardware ID". You do not need to copy everything, but up to the line USBSTOR\GenDisk. You can select lines by holding Ctrl on the keyboard and clicking the left mouse button on the desired lines.
An example is in the screenshot below.
File F2Dx1.inf from the downloaded archive you need to open with Notepad. To do this, right-click on it, select the item "To open with…".

Select Notepad.
Go to section:
You need to remove the first 4 lines from it (that is, the lines before %attach_drv% = f2d_install,USBSTOR\GenDisk).
Paste the value that was copied from "Device Manager", instead of the deleted text.
Before each inserted line, add:
%attach_drv% = f2d_install,

It should look like the screenshot.
Save the modified text document.
Switch to "Device Manager", right-click on the flash drive and select "Update Drivers...".
Use the method "Search for drivers on this computer".
Press "Review" and specify the location of the edited file F2Dx1.inf.
Confirm your intentions by clicking on the button "Continue installation".
When the installation is complete, open Explorer, where the flash will be displayed as "Local Disk (X:)" (instead of X there will be a letter assigned by the system).

For Windows x86 (32-bit)

After that, you can partition the flash into partitions, install an operating system on it and boot from it, as well as do other actions, as with a regular hard drive.

Please note that this will only work on the system where you have completed all of the above steps. This is due to the fact that the driver responsible for recognizing the connected drive has been replaced.

If you want to run the flash drive as an HDD on other PCs, then you need to have an edited driver file with you, and then install it through the "Device Manager" in the same way as indicated in the article.

Windows users with a standard set of knowledge about the capabilities of the operating system are unlikely to have to deal with the need to split the memory of a USB drive into two halves. However, such an operation may be necessary in case of recording certain Windows versions on a flash card with the possibility of subsequent installation or reinstallation of the system.

The USB flash drive as such has almost completely replaced compact discs due to the following reasons:

In general, splitting a flash drive into two parts will be needed for many purposes. The end result of such an operation is the recognition of a flash card by a computer as one of hard drives. Fortunately, for this you do not need special knowledge: just learn about the following methods.

How to make a flash drive a hard drive?

On this moment the following options for dividing a flash drive into two parts are known:

usage special programs or so-called utilities. They should be looked for on the website of the brand, whose authorship belongs specific model USB drive. Download from third party resources can be not only unsafe, but also meaningless;
driver replacement. In this case, the digital signature is verified initially installed driver flash drives. As a result, the user needs to save the driver without this signature;
installing the Hitachi Microdrive driver. Drivers for cards from this manufacturer will help to divide drives of almost any other brand into two parts.

All this is quite simple and, moreover, free ways which are worth considering in more detail.

Using utilities

With the help of such a program, you can not only turn the drive into a hard drive, but also achieve the opposite effect. The most famous utility of this kind is Lexar Bootit.

With its help, it is possible to store the most common operating system - Windows, regardless of the version of the latter.

How to install the Lexar Bootit utility?

Download the archive with the program from the official website of the brand. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the mentioned site contains versions for both macbooks and personal computers.
Run the program. A prerequisite is to run it with administrator rights.
Next, the user will be presented with a choice of portable devices. Accordingly, it is worth stopping the choice on the flash drive that you plan to split.
Click on the "Flip Removable Bit" button.
Confirm the actions taken.
Remove the flash drive using safe removal, and then reconnect. In the “Volumes” tab (“Capacity”), opposite the “Type” characteristic (“Type”), “Basic” (“Main”) should be affixed.

In case of problems with the functioning of the utility, it is recommended to restart Windows. As a rule, in this case, the "transformation" of the card into a disk occurs within a few minutes.

Replacing drivers

This operation is considered more complicated, but in case of inaccuracies with the previous method, it can be a worthy replacement.

How to install a third party driver instead standard version the flash drive itself?

Find the required flash drive in the "My Computer" tab.
Right-click to open the menu and select the "Properties" line.
In the fourth tab "Drivers" ("Drivers") select the button "Resume Driver" ("Update Driver").
In the next window, select the location of the utility.
Next - select the previously downloaded driver and confirm with the "Next" button.
After that, a warning window will appear in front of the user. The system will notify you that the driver is not digitally signed. Among the two options offered, it is worth choosing "Install this driver software anyway".

This completes the installation process. Be sure to restart the computer itself and reconnect the flash card.

Installing the Hitachi Microdrive Driver

In this case, we are talking about the so-called filter driver. This method is considered one of the most reliable and, importantly, safe.

How to install the Hitachi Motodrive filter driver?

Determine the type of your operating system - 32-bit or 64-bit. To do this, open the Control Panel, and then the System tab. The bit depth of your computer will be indicated there.
Download the Hitachi Microdrive driver depending on the information received. Accordingly, the download should be carried out from the official website of the mentioned brand.
On the flash drive icon in "My Computer", go to the "Properties" menu using right button mice.
Open the "Hardware" tab, click on the "Properties" button.
In the very last tab "Details" click on the button and select "Device Instance Path" from the list. Next, copy the code to the clipboard.
Next, open the downloaded driver. You can use any type of text editor to open it.

Important! For a 64-bit system, open the "cfadisk" file.
The user is presented with two lines, each of which contains the word "Disk". The data after this word should be replaced with the code you just copied.
After the manipulations, the file must be saved.
Go to the “Drivers” tab, select the “Update Driver” button, then follow the instructions described in the “Changing Drivers” section.

As in previous cases, the computer restarts.

Video - Turn micro SD into HDD hard drive Windows 10

Many users may have noticed that any programmer who comes to fix problems related to the system has a . This trick is very useful, because for any problem with the system or hard drive, the user can always restore access to the computer and understand what the problem with the computer is. In this case, not everyone wants to have a system in a computer, where it is easier to carry a small system disk with additional files. Therefore, anyone should know how to make a hard drive out of a flash drive.

But how to turn a flash drive into a hard drive? It would seem that such a process should be difficult and resource-intensive, but in fact everything is carried out quite simply, while the volume and “age” of the flash drive does not matter. The main condition for a flash drive is that it works properly. Also, not only a USB flash drive, but also an SD card is suitable for this role, the process of changing properties is identical.

At the same time, it is worth knowing that multi-partitioning should not be applied to such external media, since many operating systems support only the first partition on non-HDD-type disks. HDD is non-removable media that is installed in a computer. You can remove them, but it takes a lot of time and effort, so people use cards and external drives to facilitate the whole process of transferring information or an operating system right with them.

First you need to make sure that Windows detects the USB flash drive as a non-removable device. In this case, any flash-card has a standard reverse parameter, then you need to start changing. Some do not think at all about the safety of their equipment, so they simply modify the flash drive. But this method is dangerous because many flash drives simply cannot change to the selected parameter, because of which they will break and they will have to be carried in service center. It is much easier and safer to replace the response from the device with the desired result. For this, a special driver is installed. A flash drive instead of a hard drive on Windows 7 will work just like with any other operating system.

Before making a flash drive a hard drive, the device must be connected to a computer, and then determine the type of flash drive.

First option

Open the Media Manager. You can find it using the "Run" button, enter "diskmgmt.msc" here and press "Enter". Now it will be possible to see what type the drive has, removable or non-removable.

Second option

You can also see the type of device by opening the Volumes tab in the properties of the flash drive.

Third option

You can also enter the diskpart command.

So, now the user knows whether the flash drive is a removable or non-removable device in this case.

Second step

If the device is defined as "non-removable", then it can already be used as a hard drive. Otherwise, before using a flash drive instead of a hard drive, its type must be changed to "non-removable". For this, a special filter driver is used, which can easily change the incoming information, changing it to the necessary one. One of the most common and simple filters is the Hitachi Microdrive driver. Thus, the user does not invade the microclimate of the flash drive, while simply deceiving his system, giving it a false answer.

After the media becomes non-removable, the computer will consider it a full-fledged hard drive that can be partitioned, each of them will function simultaneously. The main thing at this point is to download a program that is suitable in terms of bit depth for your operating system.

Third stage

Once the user has been able to trick the computer, the device code can be identified. You can find the code in the "Details" tab, "Device Instance Path".

As a result, it is necessary to copy the information, it will be further manipulated in the Hitachi Microdrive program. When copying, you must remove all information after the second "\".

On a 64 bit system

Now you need to find the cfadisk file in the Hitachi Microdrive folder, where we find the cfadisk_device and cfadisk_device.NTamd64 sections.

In sections, instead of information after "\", we insert the code of our device.

On a 32 bit system

The process is similar, only in the file for the 32-bit version you need to find the "cfadisk_device" section.

Here you need to replace "DISK&VEN_&PROD_USB_DISK_2.0&REV_P" with the device code.

If you want to set your own name for the device, then you need to replace "Microdrive_devdesc" with the desired name, say "USB_hard".

Fourth stage

The last step is to replace the drivers. On 64-bit operating systems before this action, you must disable the verification of the digital signature of the driver so that it does not update itself due to third-party interference.

You need to open the "Drivers" => "Update Drivers" tab. Next, the folder with the Hitachi Microdrive driver is indicated. This driver is selected, it remains to skip the message about the absence of a digital signature, then restart the computer and see the result of the work. The drive has become non-removable.

The driver is uninstalled using the "Update drivers" button.

Here's how easy it is to make a hard drive from a flash drive. This procedure can be carried out by anyone, if you follow the instructions, while the computer cannot be damaged at all, as well as the drive system. If you use a high-quality volumetric external drive with good performance, then there are no questions whether a flash drive can be used instead of a hard drive. In this case, it will cope with the task no worse than hard drives.