How to stop Windows 7 from asking to format a disk? [duplicate]

I have this USB flash drive with a Linux partition that I use inside VirtualBox.

Each time I insert it into the USB port, windows keeps asking if it should format it.

Is there anyway to disable Windows from asking that?

Disabling auto-run has not resolved the problem unfortunately. Windows will still check if the disk contains a partition it knows about, and ask to format if it doesn't know it.

Really nice try though, any other ideas?

Solution 1:

Control Panel..Administrative Tools..Computer Management..Disk Management

Right-click on your drive and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths", then choose "Remove".

Solution 2:

You could try using the registry key provided here to disable Autoplay for removable drives...

But, please note: I haven't tested that regkey and can't vouch for what it does, and disabling Autoplay for all removable drives is a bit of a nuclear option.

Alas, that's all a Google search managed to turn up.