Printer shows as a Removable Drive

[TVeblen]

I have an Epsom A810 printer, connected to desktop PC by USB.

The printer has a USB port for loading pictures to the printer from a thumb drive. Thing is, this port makes the printer show up in Disk Management and My PC as a removable drive.

But it is not a drive at all. I can't access the files on the thumb drive through the printer, so it functions as a phantom drive.

Does anyone know of a method to stop Windows from recognizing the printer as a removable drive?

 

[Mellon Head]

The printer works as normal, right?

I'm wondering if there might be a driver missing somewhere. Does the phantom drive show up in Device Manager, under USB?

 

[TVeblen]

A lot of people are telling me that this behavior is normal. If the printer has a card reader or a USB port then Windows will recognize it as a drive.
So I'm guessing that unless I can disable that feature on the printer then it is the way it has to be.

Oh, sorry.
Yes the printer works well. It is just a personal annoyance.

 

[G Force]

A lot of people are telling me that this behavior is normal. If the printer has a card reader or a USB port then Windows will recognize it as a drive.
So I'm guessing that unless I can disable that feature on the printer then it is the way it has to be.

Oh, sorry.
Yes the printer works well. It is just a personal annoyance.

If it makes you happy, you can change the Icon that is displayed if you try using Tune Up Utilities 2015 and try their Windows customization feature.

 

[ComputerGeek]

Not much you can do about Disk Management.

Try setting Folder Options to "Hide empty drives in the Computer Folder"
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/6969-drives-hide-show-empty-drives-computer-folder.html

/* EDIT */
Syntactically, though, I believe Windows is recognizing your printer as a printer and recognizing the USB slot on the printer as a Disk, yes? It's the USB disk slot that shows up in Disk Management and Computer Folder. Your printer is in Devices and Printers and as a printer in Device Manager.

 

[derekimo]

Try setting Folder Options to "Hide empty drives in the Computer Folder"
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/6969-drives-hide-show-empty-drives-computer-folder.html

I think he is trying to avoid that,

Not a problem, just an annoyance.

To me that printer is not a drive and shouldn't be treated as such. Would love to be able to have it ignored (without ticking the box to tell Windows to ignore ALL empty drives).

It doesn't cause any harm and I'm good at ignoring it, but I always want COMPLETE CONTROL!

Printer shows as removable drive - Windows 10 Forums