Windows 7: Printer being detected as a disk drive

I just noticed that in Device Manager my printer is showing in the disk drive section as a USB device, and in the printer section it is also listed, where it shows my printer as a (DOT4PRINT), and lists a printer as: Printer IEEE 1284.4 compatible.

Is this a problem?

1284 is the OLD parallel port interface. Is that how your printer is connected?

Or is it connected via USB?

Some printers have card readers in them so there will be a "disk drive" that shows up on those. So you may have that but then are missing real printer drivers for the printer which would make us show up as the printer it is supposed to be on a USB interface.

It's connected via usb. I went into Device Manager to look at the disk drive section again, and saw that the printer is there, and a click on properties>details shows
hardware id's as HP Photosmart C4700 usb device.

Try copying a text file to it and see if it prints

But actually, have you installed a driver from HPs website for Windows 7 for that printer? (Assuming they have one)

I had the same problem, aggravated by the fact that this caused Opera to display errror messages every time when starting (message: disk.... not found). I finally solved it by disabling the disk function of the printer. Hope that this may be of use:
[*] Rightclick "My Computer"[*] Go to "Hardware"[*] Select the culprit (The printer showing here as disk)[*] Go to "Properties" > "driver"[*] Click on the "Disable" button

Worked for me, and hopefully for U2.

FWIW: some printers have small smart card sockets and when the software is installed, it activates those sockets which end up as disk drives.

Rich

Yup. The HP C4700 has a memory card slot right on the front panel and it will show up as a USB disk drive in the Drives section in Device Manager.

If you insert a compatible flash card into the slot you can read/write to it.