Two exact same USB flash drives(sticks) not exactly the same

Solution 1:

• The Orange Icon indicates a "removable" disk.
• The White icon inidicates a "fixed" disk.

Both can be mounted andunmounted and will function almost identically.

As far as Mac OS and other Unix-like OSes are concerned, the difference is cosmetic except when trying to create bootable devices. Both are equally fast, both can still be unmounted or ejected.

Unfortunately there is no driver or utility that can fake those flags or change the controller on the drive to indicate that it is a fixed disk or removable disk, it is hard coded into the device's controller by the manufacturer.

Why did Sandisk and others do this? To expand on what @chirality stated:

If your flash drive was created after 2012, there is a high likelihood that it is a Windows 8 certified flash drive, which (according to this) means that it is listed as a "Fixed disk" in disk management, and that write caching is disabled by default. Windows 8 certified flash drives are designed to allow removal at ANY time without damage to the drive's contents. this was designed to support Windows-to-go's "resiliency and unintended removal feature":

The resiliency and unintended removal feature of Windows To Go automatically froze my computer screen upon removal of the drive, giving me 60 seconds to re-insert. If the Windows To Go drive is reinserted into the same port it was removed from, Windows will resume at the point where the drive was removed – without the loss of in process work or data. If the USB drive is not reinserted, or is reinserted into a different port, the host computer will turn off after 60 seconds.

Even more information is available in this Technet FAQ and this Microsoft blog post.

Solution 2:

In mid-2013, SanDisk started producing their flash drives with some hardware/firmware flags that tell operating systems that they are, in fact, fixed or permanently-installed drives rather than removable drives. In Windows, this means that I cannot eject one of my Cruzer Fit drives.

I don't currently have a solution, but it would be fantastic if there was a driver that would just fake those couple of flags.