USB is an extensively adopted technology that allows us to plug lots of devices into our computers every day. Although it'southward quite easy to ready, sometimes it'due south not all plug and play. What do you lot do when your USB drive is not showing up?

This can be caused by several dissimilar things such as a damaged or dead USB wink drive, outdated software and drivers, partition issues, incorrect file system, and device conflicts. Other causes like faulty hardware, a dead system controller, or USB ports require professional assistance from your device manufacturer or a certified estimator technician.

While it'southward not easy to pinpoint the exact reason why your computer won't recognize the USB stick, you lot can piece of work through various possible solutions until information technology works over again.

We've rounded upwardly some effective solutions that can piece of work when you lot're experiencing USB connection problems. Most of these also apply to unlike devices such every bit deejay drives, mice, video game controllers, and more than, which require a connection via USB.

Also, bank check out our short YouTube video where we become through some of the solutions down below. If y'all're getting a USB Device not Recognized error, we have a solution for that also, so bank check out the link.

How To Gear up a Plugged-In USB Drive Not Showing Upward

  • Preliminary checks
  • Check for device compatibility
  • Update your operating system
  • Windows Troubleshooter tool
  • Use Disk Management tool
  • Effort plugging into a different computer or USB port
  • Troubleshoot drivers
  • Use Device Manager to scan for hardware changes
  • Create new drive volume and assign a drive letter
  • Disable USB Selective Append feature

Preliminary Checks

  • Check That Your USB Device Is On. When you connect your USB stick to your estimator, it should ideally plough on automatically with flashing lights on the unit indicating activeness. Some units accept a dedicated ability cable, or physical power button that you have to plough on manually, for your computer to discover it.
  • Examine The USB Stick For Cracks. It's possible that the wink drive could have been damaged without your knowledge, so check it physically to rule out any issues before trying again.
  • Restart Your Computer. This may be an erstwhile tech support standby, but it fixes a lot of issues, particularly those caused by software glitches. Unplug the USB stick, close downwardly your computer and unplug information technology from the power source. Wait upward to one minute before restarting your reckoner and trying the flash drive once again.
  • Let Your Computer To Load Fully before trying the USB stick over again. Some computers can be wearisome and get overwhelmed by the multiple operations they take to run during startup, and then it's possible that your USB stick might be getting overlooked.

Check For Device Compatibility

If your USB stick isn't meant to piece of work with your calculator, and then it won't show up when you plug it in. In Windows PCs, well-nigh USB 3 devices tin can connect to USB ii ports, which shouldn't be much trouble.

However, with advances in engineering science, a USB three device may crave a more powerful and compatible port to piece of work. Bank check your device'south instruction transmission or packaging for compatibility data earlier trying again.

Update Your Operating Organization

If you're using Windows, updating the operating system comes with important files that support different hardware and devices, plus fixes to any errors y'all may encounter.

  • Open Settings > Update & Security.
  • Click Check for Updates. If in that location are any pending updates, download and restart your calculator earlier trying your USB stick again.

Use Disk Management Tool

This tool checks whether Windows volition detect your USB stick. It also shows you all the difficult disks continued to your PC, and you tin review data similar partitions, sizes, and more than.

  • Plug in your USB stick and right-click Start > Disk Management.
  • Check for your USB stick under principal or secondary disks. If it doesn't contain partitions, information technology'll appear as Removable.
  • If you lot run into it in the Disk Management utility, y'all tin create a new volume and assign a bulldoze letter. This way, you can sectionalization or format the wink drive to make it easily detectable past other devices, including your PC.
  • If your USB drive is not showing up, it could be a driver or hardware issue, or the drive is dead.

Try Plugging Into a Dissimilar Computer Or USB Port

Unplug the USB stick from the current port and computer, and endeavor plugging into a different computer and/or USB port. If it works on the new USB port or reckoner, the USB port may be damaged or dead, or the computer itself may have a problem.

A faulty, damaged or dead USB port presents issues such as failure to detect USB drives or displays error messages. Check if the port is clean, dust-gratis, and firm. If information technology'southward moving up and down or feels loose, so it's faulty/damaged.

If you're using a USB hub, unplug the stick from the hub and plug it directly into your computer. Some hubs have insufficient power for external drives to part, which may be the example with yours.

If the USB drive isn't showing up fifty-fifty after trying a different port, figurer, or checking in Disk Management, the drive is probably dead and needs to be replaced.

Troubleshoot Drivers

You lot can troubleshoot commuter bug using Device Manager, especially if your USB stick is detected by a unlike estimator other than the one you're using, signaling a driver trouble.

  • Correct-click Start>Device Manager.
  • Expand Disk drives and bank check for a yellow exclamation point next to whatever of the listed devices. If there's 1 or more than with this mark, then the device(s) has a commuter effect.
  • Correct-click on the problematic device and select Properties to see the related mistake message. You can search for the error online to observe a solution to the trouble

You can too try the post-obit solutions to resolve driver bug:

  • Roll back the driver to revert to recent driver updates and restore the device back to a time when it was functioning properly.
  • Download drivers from the device manufacturer's site from the downloads page, back up folio, or by searching on the site for the right commuter.
  • Update the driver by right-clicking on the driver in Device Manager, select Update driver and follow the prompts.
  • Uninstall the device from your estimator, restart it and wait for it to reinstall the right driver and configurations.

Utilise Device Director To scan For Hardware Changes

  • Correct-click Start and select Device Manager.
  • Click Action > Browse for hardware changes.

Windows volition endeavour to discover your USB stick so you can access it again.

Reinstall USB Controllers

This method helps where the USB driver is unstable or corrupted.

  • Right-click Showtime>Device Manager and click on the Universal Serial Bus controllers to aggrandize the list.
  • Right-click your device and click Uninstall, and then restart your computer to reinstall the controllers automatically.

Create a New Bulldoze Volume & Assign a Drive Letter

If your device appeared in the Disk Management stride, you can create a new drive volume and assign a drive letter. The Deejay Direction tool fixes partition and file system problems with different drives.

Nonetheless, your USB stick may show only Unallocated space, in which case you'll have to create a new partition and so that Windows and other operating systems can utilize it.

  • Correct-click Start>Disk Direction, right-click on the Unallocated space>New Simple Volume and follow the prompts to create a partition.

If you lot still can't see your wink drive, yet it'southward partitioned, brand sure it has a drive letter. Ideally, this should exist automatic, but if you lot removed it manually, the drive won't be detected or accessed in Windows.

  • Right-click the drive's partition and click Alter Drive Alphabetic character and Paths.
  • If information technology doesn't have an assigned drive letter, click Add and pick a letter. If it has a letter of the alphabet, click Change and choose a different 1.

Disable USB Selective Suspend Feature

This is a power-saving setting that helps reduce battery use by cut ability to your USB stick when it's plugged in. To ensure your drive isn't powering down for any reason, disable this feature so that power direction settings don't override the USB controller, which makes Windows not detect it.

  • Click Start>Control Panel and select Hardware and Sound.
  • Click Power Options>Change plan settings.
  • Click Modify advanced power settings.
  • Get to USB settings and expand it.
  • Click USB selecting suspend settings and alter the Plugged in drop-downwardly carte to Disabled (Note: If you're using a laptop, click On battery and change to Disabled in the driblet-down card).
  • Click Employ>OK and restart your computer to event the changes.

If all else fails, you can replace your USB stick as a last resort method, though you tin can do this if the bulldoze is already broken. Otherwise, we promise this guide has helped ease the process, and you now know what to do when your USB drive isn't showing up when you plug it in.