On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 10:43:48 -0500, FromTheRafters wrote:

 
> It could be a feature of the device and support software installed on
> the computer. I formatted a drive to 'get rid of' the 'convenient
> feature' on a recently obtained WD Passport USB drive.

FTR, following your comment, if the USB is a Western Digital, it may have 
installed Smartware by default on the computer when the user first 
inserted the drive. This takes over permission of the USB drive and the 
user can only read and write it when Smartware is active. WD has a 
removal page for this *feature* which activates without any user 
permission at least on my old XP system. Removal is fairly straight 
forward.

Details for removal are at support dot wdc dot com /knowledgebase/answer 
dot aspx?ID=5373

Thane
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