Can A Hard Drive Be Designated As Non Removable

Most of the time, when you upgrade or change the hardware on your computer, Windows tends to accept it without a problem. But what do you do if Windows keeps “seeing” and listing a new permanent hard drive as removable? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader Michael Stum wants to know if a hard drive can be designated as non-removable:

Can a hard drive be designated as non-removable?

Is there a way to make Windows treat (designate) the hard drive as a non-removable/fixed hard drive?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor Carrein has the answer for us:

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.

Launch regedit Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\Parameters\Device, create a new REG_MULTI_SZ entry and label it TreatAsInternalPort In the Values Box, enter the port values that you would like to mark as non-removable (i. e. enter “0” for Port “0”, etc. )

I do believe that this setting also depends on your computer’s chipset/drive controller. As such, a different chipset maker might have a different registry entry for this particular configuration.

Image Credit: Glenn Batuyong (Flickr)