Almost everyone uses USB flash drives now. It's simple and reliable way transfer and storage of information. But the malfunction of these devices has become a common problem for many users. Below are all possible reasons problems and solutions for them.
First, simpler and more effective ways to solve the problem will be described, so you should follow the recommendations in order. But do not forget that some problems, such as severe physical damage, cannot be eliminated.
Reasons why the system does not recognize the device
To operate a USB device, it has a built-in special controller. If there is a certain failure, it may become blocked, which will prevent the computer from recognizing the flash drive.
The reason for the failure may be a power surge, sudden removal of the flash drive, incorrect formatting, etc. Violations of this type can still be corrected, but in case of mechanical or thermal damage, it is impossible to restore the operation of the flash drive.
You can understand that the flash drive is not detected by the computer by the following factors:
- The USB device is connected, but the computer says “insert disk”;
- The message “Device connected, not detected” pops up;
- issues a request to format the flash drive;
- a data reading error message appears;
- The indicator on the drive is on, but it is not displayed on the computer, etc.
The cause of the failure may also be:
- non-working computer USB ports;
- outdated drivers;
- viruses on the device;
- settings failures in BIOS;
- different file systems of the USB device and computer;
- assigning the letter of the connected flash drive hard drive etc.
Driver check
First of all, you need to check whether the driver is installed correctly on your computer.
To do this, go to “Disk Management”:
Now try removing and inserting the USB device and see if it appears in this window. If the flash drive is displayed and the status is indicated as “Good”, click on it right click mouse and select “Make partition active”.
If there is a problem, the status will show "Not allocated", "Not initialized" or "Unknown", which means that the device is damaged.
The system may assign the wrong letter to the flash drive, which will also prevent it from being recognized. Right-click on the device and select "Change Drive Letter" and assign a different value:
The flash drive driver itself needs to be checked in Device Manager:
- start;
- control Panel;
- device Manager.
If the driver for the flash drive is not installed, yellow question marks will appear next to one or more USB devices.
Computer hardware errors
When the PC does not detect a new flash drive, insert it into different USB ports. If all ports are operating normally except one, the cause of the problem is a problem in that port.
The same problem can arise when connecting a flash drive not directly, but through a USB hub or extension cable. Try connecting the device directly to the USB port. If everything works, then the adapter is the cause.
It happens that many devices are connected to the computer via USB, then the ports may not have enough power to operate the flash drive. Disconnect other devices from the ports one at a time, leaving only the mouse and keyboard. If the USB drive now works, then the problem is due to lack of power.
Photo: USB hub transformer Apacer PH150
In this case, it is better to install a more powerful power supply or USB hub with a separate power source. But if the size of the flash device is very large, older laptop models simply will not handle its power. With this option, it is almost impossible to solve the problem.
Another problem is heating connected USB— devices. The malfunction may be a short on the device board.
You can check this on another computer - if it continues to heat up, then the USB drive is faulty. And if everything is fine in other places, then the computer port itself may short out.
If the flash drive and USB port are working properly, the indicator on the device will light up. Then the cause of the problem is systemic, not hardware.
Video: Recovering a flash drive that is not recognized by the computer
Virus check
Then why is the flash card seen by the computer, but not read? One reason may be a virus that infects boot file USB drive. Because of this, the device either does not boot at all or is immediately blocked by the antivirus. And if it is displayed, it displays a warning “Access denied” when you try to open it.
First of all, you should destroy the infected boot file “autorun.inf”. To do this, enter the address of the flash drive in Explorer (for example, G:/):
- "Service";
- "Folder properties";
- "View";
- “Hidden files and folders”;
- "Show hidden files and folders."
The download file will now be displayed. It must be removed and data from the entire device scanned with an antivirus.
If the flash drive does not open through Explorer, use the command line:
Setting up USB in BIOS
The flash drive may not be recognized due to USB ports being disabled in the BIOS. This happens very rarely, but it's best to check your settings just in case. Please note that no device will be recognized in a disabled USB port, so if others work fine, then skip this step.
To enter the BIOS, restart the computer and press the Del or F2 button while turning it on. Different PCs may have different keys, so look at what is written on the screen (approximately “Press F2 to enter Setup”). If a blue table with settings opens, then everything is correct - you have entered the BIOS.
Now you should find the menu item in which the inclusion of USB is regulated. Its name may vary, but most often it is the Advanced (Peripherals, Integrated Peripherals) tab:
In it, look for the item USB Configuration/Controller, etc. There are a lot of BIOS menu options, so it’s quite difficult to specify the exact item. But the word USB must be present. Now make sure that USB support is “Enabled”, if not, then switch them:
Some BIOS versions not only regulate how the controller turns on, but also indicate its operating mode - V1.1 or V1.1+V2.0 (there is already 3.0). Choose the option that supports all directions (V1.1+V2.0). Save the settings and exit the BIOS (most often the F10 key).
USB drive is not detected by the system due to errors
After formatting, which may not have been entirely successful, the operating system may not see the flash drive due to errors. This can be checked in the “Disk Management” item, the entrance to which was described above. If the flash drive says “Good”, but it is still not visible in Explorer, the cause may be a formatting error.
This can be eliminated by new formatting. Right-click on the device and select “Format”. The flash drive should now display and work without errors.
Different file systems of flash cards and computers
To restore the operation of a usb flash that is not detected in the PC, you need to change file system, due to which there may be a conflict in the computer. The file system of the latter is most often NTFS, while the flash device is FAT32. In the Disk Management window, you can see the file system types of different PC media.
Correct formatting solves the problem. For this:
In the window that opens, check the compliance of the specified capacity and the parameters of the flash drive. Specify the file system NTFS and check the box next to “Fast (cleaning table of contents)”. Now click “Start”:
Confirm your actions:
After the process is completed, the system will notify you:
Photo: formatting completion message
Required OS updates for operation
When Windows XP is installed, the flash drive may not be recognized due to outdated updates required for its operation. However, some flash drives can work in PC USB ports, while others cannot.
Major updates required for normal operation USB devices:
- KB925196 – incorrect recognition;
- KB817900 – port operation stops after the device is removed and reloaded;
- KB968132 – errors when connecting several flash drives;
- KB88740 – Rundll32.exe error;
- KB895962 – stops the USB device after turning off the printer;
- KB871233 – the flash card does not work after the PC wakes from sleep or hibernation;
- KB314634 – support only older USB devices;
- KB312370 (2007) – USB 2.0 support.
Recovery methods
When no problems are found with the system, you can use special programs on restoration:
- ChipGenius – determines the manufacturer and other information about the device;
- AlcorMP – reflashes usb flash controllers from most manufacturers;
- JetFlash Recovery Tool – flashes flash drives from Transcend.
If your computer says "Insert disk" when booting up, the problem may be outdated drivers that should be deleted.
For this:
- When the computer is turned off, disconnect all USB devices (except the mouse and keyboard);
- turn on the PC;
- download the DriveCleanup program;
- Depending on the OS version, copy the 32-bit or 64-bit “drivecleunup.exe” to the C:\Windows\System32 folder;
- go to command line and write “drivecleunup.exe”;
- drivers will begin to be uninstalled:
After this, restart your computer. Insert the flash drive and the system will find new drivers for it.
A flash drive may not be detected for many reasons, the main of which are a malfunction of the device or USB port, as well as system errors, most of which can be eliminated with proper formatting and driver installation. Some programs can also help restore USB flash, so you should follow the instructions in order.
It has happened to many users that you insert a flash drive into the computer, but it identifies it as an unrecognized device and does not open it. This, of course, is very unpleasant and frightening, especially if the media contains very important and necessary data. And the question arises: is it possible to restore a flash drive?
In principle, it is possible if the media stopped working not due to any physical intervention.
I’ll tell you right away that there is no universal program that could restore a damaged flash drive. Each device has its own utilities. The probability of success is sufficient to try it.
Flash drive identification
So, before you restore a flash drive that the computer does not see, you need to identify it. We need VIP data, PID and memory chip information. If you know them, then good. If not, then you will need a program that is very easy to manage.
By connecting the flash drive to the computer and running the CheckUDisk program, we get the necessary data.
Flash drive recovery utility
To restore a flash drive, we are primarily interested in the VID&PID line. In my case, it has the value Vid_0951&Pid_1665. Therefore, on the flash drive the VID is 0951, and the PID is 1665. With this data we go to the site, which is free and mostly in Russian.
Here we will see where the received data should be written: in the VID and PID lines, respectively. We write and click “Search”. The site will find all flash drives that have such identifiers, and most likely there will be a lot of them.
Therefore, you may need other data from CheckUDisk in order to find your flash drive in this list. For example VendorID or ProductID.
To make it clearer, I will give a translation of the columns of the table in which you will look for your flash drive:
- Flash vendor – flash drive manufacturer;
- Flash model – flash drive model;
- Vid and Pid are the identifiers that we obtained at the very beginning;
- Chip vendor – chip manufacturer;
- Chip model – chip model;
- Memory chip – chip memory;
- Size (gb) – size in GB;
- Utils – A utility that can solve your flash drive recovery problem.
As I already said, if it is difficult to find a flash drive in the list by VID and PID, then use other CheckUDisk data, for example, information about the manufacturer or chip, or capacity (you should know this if this is your flash drive).
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And, as has already become clear, to restore a flash drive you need a utility, which can be downloaded from the link in the Utils column of the list table. These programs are usually simple, and the whole thing comes down to pressing one button.
Hello everyone dear friends! One of our visitors had a very interesting problem after moving to a new operating room Windows system 10.
The problem was that when connecting any portable media devices such as a flash drive or HDD, Windows simply didn’t see it.
It is worth noting that this problem also occurs with earlier versions of Windows 7/8/8.1.
Today we will try to figure out this problem and help not only our friend, but also everyone else who has a similar situation.
Windows does not see the flash drive - reasons
So, let's first figure out what could be causing this problem.
There are four reasons in total:
- In Windows, the USB port driver is installed incorrectly or the driver is disabled;
- Inoperative/defective USB port in the building itself;
- Crooked installed drivers the flash drive itself;
- The flash drive is simply broken (its physical body is damaged);
- The flash drive was formatted incorrectly.
Let's look at each of the reasons separately.
Problems with port drivers
Of course, first you should check what exactly the reason is: in the flash drive or in the computer.
To do this, you should try several different ports. If, after connecting to at least one of them, the flash drive appears, then the problem is in the PC. If not, then the problem is with the flash drive itself.
You can also verify this by going to disk management. You can enter this section of the management console by pressing the Win+R key combination and entering this code without quotes into the window that appears: “diskmgmt.msc”.
If, after opening Disk Management, you see that the removable disk is displayed in the program, then most likely there is a problem with the media itself.
You should definitely try connecting the flash drive to another computer.
What to do if the flash drive is not seen by any port?
You should make sure that the ports are enabled and the drivers are installed correctly.
To do this, open the Taskbar, find Hardware and Sound there, and in the “Devices and Printers” section select Device Manager (there is another way: Win + R and enter devmgmt.msc).
After opening Device Manager, we are interested in the “USB Controllers” tab. All devices on your PC that are responsible for accepting the connected USB device will be shown here.
If you see a circle with an arrow pointing down next to at least one of the icons, this means that this device is not turned on.
Right-click on it and select “Engage”. For example, as a Bluetooth radio module.
If you see a yellow triangle next to the icon, this means that the driver is not working correctly or is missing altogether.
In this case, you will have to use the standard driver update and installation assistant.
First you should try updating the drivers. To do this, right-click and select “Update drivers...”.
If the program says that the drivers were not found, then you will have to look for the drivers yourself on the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard.
If, after all the above steps, you find that one of the ports still does not work, then the problem is probably that the port’s contacts have simply come off the motherboard (the result of careless handling of the computer).
In this case, you will have to keep the computer in service center or a master so that he can solder for you new usb port.
Problems with flash drive drivers
Now let's move on to the point of flash drive driver curves. Here you should do the same thing as with the USB port.
You can also update the driver from the “Disk devices” subsection.
But first, try formatting the flash drive. This can really help.
WE WARN that all information on the USB drive will disappear (erased), so you perform all actions at your own peril and risk.
So, go to disk management (remember: Win+R> diskmgmt.msc). Click on removable disk right-click and select “Format...”. We select the FAT32 file system and the default cluster size.
In the volume label field you can enter anything: this will be the name of your flash drive in the future.
If quick formatting doesn't help, try unchecking this box. The process will take longer, but deeper.
Now let's move on to reinstalling the flash drive drivers.
Without hesitation, immediately go to the official website of the manufacturer of your flash drive and download the driver for it (usually the drivers are on the Support tab).
When you start installing the driver, you may be asked to remove it first (or maybe reinstall it right away). Do this first, and then install the driver again with the same program.
Checking the drive for errors
This can be done using the built-in capabilities of the operating system.
Right-click on the USB drive and go to the “properties” section.
Go to the “Service” section and click “Run check”.
Check two checkboxes and click “Run”.
After completing the check, click “Close”.
Find out the VID/PID of your flash drive
If the computer still does not recognize the flash drive, then most likely there is a problem with the data located on it.
When you connect a new device, the computer saves all the data about it in the registry, but sometimes registry cleaners try to fix a registry that is already working normally.
We should delete the value of the flash drive in the registry. To do this, press Win+R and enter regedit in the field.
We press Enter and the registry menu pops up in front of us.
We look for these two branches in the registry:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB;
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR.
In these branches, you should delete all folders whose names contain VID/PID. VID is the manufacturer ID and PID is the device ID.
If you know the VID and PID of a specific broken flash drive, you can delete only the corresponding folder.
Deleting these folders will not affect USB operation drive, but the computer will try to read its data again when connected.
You can find out the VID/PID of your Flash memory using this Chinese program, like ChipGenius or its simpler analogue CheckUDisk.
These programs can detect device data even if it is not recognized by the computer.
Mechanical damage and ways to eliminate it
If this does not help you, and the Flash drive is not recognized by any of the ports or computers, then the problem is probably that the device is simply broken.
This is due to careless handling of it (everyone likes to sharply pull it out of the port).
You can repair the device if you have seen the circuit board of an object at least once in your life.
If you have no idea what the inside of a flash drive is, then I advise you to contact a special workshop.
Many such workshops are equipped with special devices that allow you to access the memory of a Flash drive (correctly called a “memory chip”) and thus read data.
Well, if you have at least some idea about repairs, then you can start. We will be repairing the USB “plug”.
You will need a soldering iron, wire cutters, knife and screwdriver. A magnifying glass would also be useful, because everything on the board is very small.
So, first, unwind the device and remove its contents. Look carefully at the board.
If you see even one scratch, you can immediately take it to a special workshop, because there will be no point in repairing it.
If you do not find any irregularities, then you can move on.
Now you should take the old unnecessary wire from USB plug. Cut the wire a few centimeters from the plug. There will be 4 wires.
Strip them about half a centimeter apart. Solder the wires to the board. To do this, position the flash drive so that its plug is facing you, and the two square holes in the plug are directed upward.
Now we solder the wires to the contacts in strict order from left to right: black, green, white, red. If you solder incorrectly, the device will burn out.
Now insert the soldered plug into the computer, and if the computer detects the flash drive, then instantly backup your data.
In the future, you will no longer be able to use this drive and will have to buy a new one.
If the computer does not recognize the device, then in this case it should also be taken to a specialist.
D-Soft Flash Doctor program
Another reason may be that the USB drive was incorrectly formatted or formatting was interrupted.
In this case, the computer will recognize the device, but will ask you to format it.
This is where D-Soft Flash Doctor can help. The software is very convenient, does not require installation, and you can find it on the Internet. The program is absolutely free.
Flash Doctor looks for errors on the Flash drive bypassing its drivers and fixes them.
The utility can also burn disk images (in case you need a bootable USB flash drive).
Essentially, this utility formats the drive, but as if mistaking it for a regular Plug’n’Play device. After formatting, the device should work.
Recovering lost files
If for some reason you accidentally deleted files from your flash drive, then several programs can help you. One of them is Undelete360.
It can recover files, but only if the USB drive has not been formatted.
Another program, CardRecovery, can only recover files from flash drives. You shouldn't expect more from her.
Another program is PhotoRec. Only professionals can use it, as it is completely Command Line based.
But there is also a plus program that works very quickly and restores any formats.
And finally, everyone's favorite data recovery giant - Recuva from Piriform.
The program is pleasing to the eye and even a novice PC user can understand it. In addition, it is free and there is a version in Russian.
If nothing helps you, then there is only one thing left to do - throw out the flash drive and forget about it, because after so many attempts to restore it, taking it for repairs will cost more than buying a new one.
We hope this instruction helped you. And one more piece of advice: always create backups data from USB drives. See you again!
I would be grateful if you share this article on social networks:Do you have an inoperative USB flash drive or other storage device and are you wondering what program to choose for recovery?
We reviewed the most popular utilities. Which of the above programs is suitable for you and will restore a flash drive with a 100% guarantee?
A one-of-a-kind program will help you extract all the data. Hetman Partition Recovery. It is loved by both beginners and professionals for its convenience, speed and advanced information recovery algorithm. Your files will be found and copied even when the media’s FS is no longer accessible or is damaged.
JetFlash Recovery Tool is a proprietary utility that has the maximum simple interface and support for working with Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA drives. Controlled by just two buttons, you will definitely like it. Do not forget that cleared data cannot be restored, so pre-saving information from a flash drive will not be superfluous.
If you have a need to constantly have a universal program with you, which is convenient to use both on home computer, and beyond, we recommend D-Soft Flash Doctor, its platform does not require pre-installation, it launches instantly on any PC. Software Suitable for repair, unlocking,
restoring the volume of the flash drive and its performance.
If you need to recover SD cards, we recommend downloading F-Recovery SD, which has an effective set of simple options for working with damaged flash drives from digital cameras and other portable devices. From the point of view of a professional approach to Flash drives, it will be interesting to use the Flash Memory Toolkit; the application contains a whole range of additional functionality that can test flash drives; in addition, the program works with any version of the Microsoft OS.
Recognize maximum amount various types Flash Drive flash drives, among the above utilities, and also quickly restore the drives’ performance, the formatting utility and USB recovery Disk Storage Format Tool, which has a very clear and user-friendly interface. Repair program USB flash drives Disk Storage can quickly recover damaged data hard sections disk even if problems with the flash drive firmware are detected.
If no flash drive recovery program has helped, we recommend checking the status of the memory controller using the ChipGenius utility. The program works with USB, micro SD, SD, SDHC and USB-MP players from Kingston, Silicon Power, Transcend, Adata, PQI. Further actions to correct errors and recover lost data are only advisable if
The flash drive is detected in Chip Genius.