I understand this change was made for Windows 8 Certification, but as noted in the original post, it makes the drive functionally limited in previous version of Windows, including Windows 7. I purchased two 8GB Switch drives to use with Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB Tool. I’ve used the Switch drives successfully for this before, but these new Switch drives are Windows 8 compatible “fixed drives”, so the Windows Tool does not recognise them as USB drives and cannot use them.
In looking at this problem, I’ve noted several other tools and utilities that cannot use these Windows 8 “fixed drives” as USB drives.
These Windows 8 certified SanDisk drives now have reduced functionality under previous versions of Windows. This is somewhat of a limitation, as most of us are still running previous versions of Windows.
So … I’m off to find another brand of USB drive, one that is still “removable”.
