Windows 7: USB external hard disk shows up as internal fixed disk

Couple of hours ago my Windows 7 could not recognize my external USB hard disk (Maxtor Basic). It came up on Disk Management and Device Manager but not on My Computer. However I fixed it (by deleting its line off regedit in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, plugging out the ext. HD and plugging back in). Windows automatically installed the drivers and I could access the drive.

But now Windows shows my Maxtor as a fixed disk drive, instead of "devices with removable storage". I still have the option to "Safely remove hardware and eject media" from taskbar, however I rather have Windows treating it as a Removable USB Storage so that the disk can sleep when not in use. I am pretty sure it has something to do with regedit, so any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to Windows 7 Support Forums, Sactyr.
A word of caution! Its never a good idea to alter your register,
IMHO please review your device manager and check your devices for your disk drives, check for any warnings in the driver area.
I'm attaching my screenshot for comparison as I have a similar configuration.

Hi Adrian, thanks for your reply. I have attached my screenshot. Seems how it should be.

It looks like your NIC is offline.

Yes but that's to do with my WLAN card, and because I am not planning to use for the moment I don't have to fix that driver.

I think I would use my Advanced Power Settings to change my USB device power settings because my USB drives are similarly configured in my Disk manager.

Thank you for that, but is there no way that I can make Windows load it as USB Removable Storage?

Thats beyond my capability.

Hi,
I have my LG 500GB hdd recognized as nonremovable.

I found that formating it as extFAT madeit apear as removable storage.

-pp-