Read, what to do if Windows does not display the connected device... How to restore operation to such a device, if the reason is in it. A flash drive or any other USB drive should be automatically detected by the computer and displayed in the explorer and the "This computer" folder after connecting to the USB port.

Content:

Diagnosing the problem

The first thing to do if the connected USB disk not displayed in file manager Windows need to check tool Disk management.

To open Disk management in Windows 8/10, right click on the menu Start and choose "Disk Management"... In Windows 7, press the Windows key + R key combination to open a dialog box "Run" and enter the command in it diskmgmt.msc.

Check the list of drives in the window Disk management and find the USB drive that is not detected. It should show up here even if it is not in the folder "This computer", and match in size. It is sometimes defined as "Removable device" but not always.

If you do not see your disk or flash drive even in Disk Management, then try the following:

Turn on the disc, if available. Some external hard drives have a separate power cable or are powered on with a dedicated key.
Connect your device to a different USB port. Disconnect the USB flash drive from this USB port and connect to another. One of the USB ports on your computer may be out of order.
Connect your device to your computer without a USB hub. If the flash drive is connected to the computer via an extension cable or USB hub, try disconnecting it from it and connecting it to the computer directly. Perhaps the reason is in the hub.
Try another computer. Connect the USB flash drive to the USB port of another computer, and see if it is detected by it. If the device is also not detected by another computer, then most likely the problem is in it.

Solution

If the problem options described above do not apply to your case, then your problem will most likely be solved in one of the ways described below. Depending on what you find in Disk management, there are options for solving the problem with the definition of an external storage medium.

If Windows sees the disk, but cannot read it, then this means that it has a file system that it does not support. In this case, the operating system will prompt you to format the disk before using it. But don't rush to do it! This will destroy all of your data.

If other computers see the flash drive, but yours does not

If other computers detect your USB drive, but yours does not, then most likely there is a problem with the device drivers.

To check this, open Device Manager and look for items Disk devices and USB controllers... Look for any devices marked with a yellow exclamation mark in these sections. If there is such a device, right-click on it and select Properties... The properties will contain information about the error and the state of the drivers.

To fix the driver problem, right-click on the device, select Properties / Driver / Refresh.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management

If the disc is visible in Disk management, but it does not have a letter, then it is for this reason that it may not appear in Windows Explorer. In order for the system to start displaying it in Explorer, a letter must be assigned to such a disk.

To do this, right-click on it and select "Change drive letter or drive path"... If there is no such item in the pop-up menu, then this may be due to the absence or unsupported type of file system of the storage medium.

In the menu that opens, you will see that the drive has no letter assigned - assign it. To do this, select Add / / Ok.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management, but it is not mapped

If the disc is visible in Disk management, but it is Not allocated, which means that it is not formatted. In order for such a disk to become operational, right-click on it and select Create Simple Volume.

Select the maximum suggested partition size and assign a system suggested drive letter. After that, the disk will be normally detected by the system and ready for use.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management but cannot be formatted

If, for some reason, the disk cannot be formatted, then to restore its performance, it can be completely cleaned up, and then re-create the partition.

Note... As a result of such manipulation, all data from the disk (as well as a flash drive or memory card) will be irretrievably deleted. Therefore, worry about their safety in advance - scan a disk or flash drive using Hetman Partition Recovery, and save your data to a convenient place.

To clean up the disk open Command line as administrator and clean it up using the diskpart command - "Clean".

Taranishin Sergey

31.07.2012

Good day!

Broken Compact Flash 32 Gb Selicon Power card. The computer does not detect it through the reader and various data recovery programs do not see it, and the camera suggests formatting it. A failure occurred while copying files from a flash drive to a computer, copying hung on one file and after turning off the copying process, she stopped seeing at all. Problems in operation were discovered even in the camera, when it was unable to display several photos. The card is new, just bought and the very next day there was such a nuisance. What do you recommend to do? you really need to read the data.

Judging by the symptoms described, it is possible to remotely diagnose so-called "physical" problems with the memory card with a high degree of probability. Some citizens who want to restore the flash drive, when they hear such a diagnosis, begin to assure that there was no physical impact on the card, it was not dropped, it was not broken, etc. But that's not the point. In this context, "physical breakdown of Compact Flash" means a failure at a non-logical level, when the entire LBA volume is available for operation and a snag in the MBR sector, BOOT or metafiles, but a malfunction of the microcontroller, NAND memory cells or the internal firmware of the flash drive in terms of translation tables responsible for the correlation of physical sectors into logical ones.

The fact that the computer sees the USB flash drive, but the data is not available even for programs for recovering files from memory cards or other media that work with devices at a low logical level, suggests that the problem lies not in the breakdown of power circuits. In such a situation, there are two options for action.

Option one, "advanced". It is necessary to determine the type of microcontroller, find the manufacturer's utility that is responsible for the repair, and without fail modify it by cutting out or disabling the part of the code that initializes the post-repair diagnostics of the flash drive, which is expressed in the write / read cycle (s). If you do not do this and just try to fix the memory card with such a utility, then the information will be irretrievably lost! Such a programmatic approach to data recovery from CompactFlash is not always possible, but sometimes this method works, saving time that takes ...

The second option is to dismantle NAND memory chips, install them in a reader (reader), read dumps, eliminate internal transformations and final image assembly with subsequent ECC error correction. You can read more about hardware recovery of flash drives in the articles: recovering a USB flash drive that is not detected by the system and recovering a kingston flash drive.

How to recover an SD card or USB flash drive if the computer does not see them, does not read or write data? Problems with flash drives are rarely caused by normal wear and tear. Most often, the reasons for problems with them are users ignoring the rules for safely removing the device, experimenting with various software in which these flash drives participate, as well as their initially lousy quality. Below we will consider a list of possible actions carried out in the Windows environment that can solve the problem, unless, of course, the reason lies in mechanical failure. And we, friends, will go from simple to complex.

Recover SD cards and USB sticks in Windows environment

Note: below we will only talk about restoring the performance of flash drives, but not about saving the data stored on them. This is a separate topic, and on this account there is on the site, you can still use this program for. Most of the following methods for recovering SD cards and flash drives will lead to the loss of their data.

1. Hardware lock

SD cards, microSD adapters and flash drives can be hardware protected from writing data or even blocked for reading. On such devices there is a lock switch, which must, accordingly, be set to the "Unlocked" position.

2. Problems not related to the drives themselves

Problems with SD cards and flash drives can be caused by the Windows security policy. You need to find out if access to removable drives is blocked (completely or in terms of writing data to them) by the computer administrator. You also need to check the card reader or USB ports on your computer. If everything is in order with the latter, the card reader reads other SD cards, but problems still arise with the flash drive, no matter how you connect it to other USB ports, let's move on.

3. Windows Explorer

Standard formatting using Windows Explorer can help in simple cases such as unsuccessful writing data to a USB flash drive. Or when a smartphone, tablet, camera or other device cannot cope with this operation for SD cards for some reason. In any of the relevant Windows versions in the explorer window on the drive, call the context menu, click "Format".

We leave the original file system and first try a quick format.

If it fails, we repeat the operation, but with full formatting (uncheck the fast one).

4. Windows Disk Management

The formatting procedure can be attempted in Disk Management. To run this tool in the system search field, enter:

diskmgmt.msc

In the disk management window, focusing on the size of the drive, we are looking for it among the drives connected to the computer. And in the context menu called on it, start formatting.

Full formatting can be selected right away.

If the flash drive has a partition structure like a hard disk, you must delete each of these partitions. This is done using the option in the context menu "Delete volume".

And then, in place of the resulting unallocated space, you need to create a single section. To do this, in the context menu on this very unallocated space, start the operation "Create a new volume" and follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard.

5. Programs for low-level formatting

Standard formatting tools may not help in difficult cases, for example, when flash drives appear (in the same Explorer or Disk Management) as unrecognized devices with the RAW file system. The latter means that either the Windows environment does not understand the file system of the drive, or the file system does not exist as such in principle. Actually, this is what causes problems with a flash drive or SD-card when it works on other devices, with other operating systems. In such cases, third-party Windows programs designed for the so-called low-level formatting will help you restore the USB flash drive.

In fact, low-level formatting is a procedure that is carried out either in the production environment of manufacturers of flash devices, or in serious narrow-profile services. All sorts of Windows software claiming this kind of operation actually does normal full formatting, but with different mechanisms than the operating system uses. Such programs do a good job of dealing with flash drive problems if these problems occur at the file system level. Let's consider two of these programs.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

Shareware portable program HDD Low Level Format Tool can format different types data carriers, in particular, SD cards and USB sticks. After unpacking the archive with the program, launch it, agree to the license terms.

We choose free use.

Directly in the program window, indicate the problem drive and click "Continue".

We confirm the decision.

We are waiting for the completion of the operation and check the operation of the media.

SDFormatter

http://flashboot.ru/files/file/355

Completely free small program SDFormatter - another tool for the so-called low-level formatting. Works with both SD cards and USB sticks. Install SDFormatter into the system, run it, and indicate the problematic flash drive in the "Drive" column. Click "Format".

The program wants to be convinced of the seriousness of our intentions, we press “Ok.

Asks not to touch the drive while the operation is in progress.

Upon completion, we test the USB flash drive or SD card. If it does not help, we repeat the operation with the settings for the complete rewriting of sectors (nothing more than full formatting). Click "Option", choose "Full (OverWrite)". And also click "Format" at the bottom.

If using the above methods failed to reanimate the flash drive, and it is still under warranty, you must stop at this stage. And do not take any more action, except to contact the seller with a request to replace the device. All the actions that are described below should be resorted to only when, in fact, there is nothing to lose. The instructions below apply to USB sticks, SD cards, and MicroSD cards. However, in the case of the latter, the probability of recovery is extremely small.

6. D-Soft Flash Doctor

D-Soft Flash Doctor carries out the so-called low-level formatting, and along the way also detects damaged sectors (cells). Well, and, accordingly, knows how to block them and replace them with backup ones. The program can help when flash drives or SD cards have difficulties reading individual files that have fallen on damaged sectors. The program is free, portable. I did not find an official site, but it can be downloaded for free on the Internet.

In the D-Soft Flash Doctor window, the first step is to run an error scan.

In my case, there were no damaged (broken) sectors.

But if in your case, friends, the scan results are different, and bad sectors are found, we start the recovery process.

In the window for carrying out this operation, it is promised that the process will not last longer than 10 minutes, but in fact, reassigning bad sectors on a drive with a volume of more than 4 GB can take quite a long time. So it is better to start the recovery operation at night.

7. Re-flashing the memory controller

Programs for the so-called low-level formatting or their analogs, which in any other form declare the function of reanimating all types of SD-cards and / or USB-flash drives, are powerless in the event of a software failure of the controller, when it needs to be flashed. This problem can have different symptoms, but more often it is either the computer does not fully see the drive, or it sees, it can even read the data, but cannot format it by any means. In particular, due to write protection, despite the fact that the hard drive is not locked.

Over the past few years, flash storage media have become very popular and are used by us, literally, every day, due to their advantages over disk media. It is hardly possible to overestimate its usefulness of a flash drive, because you can quickly write information or read it on it, it does not take up much space in a portfolio or bag, and the price segment is pleasantly pleasing.

Despite all the positive aspects, sometimes there are situations when the data cannot be read due to the flash drive itself or the computer. Indeed, at the most important moment, you can lose access to the stored files, and in order to quickly return everything to normal, you need to have certain knowledge. In this article, we will analyze all possible problem situations and find ways to solve why the computer does not see the USB flash drive.

The most common problems why the computer does not see the USB flash drive:

The flash drive itself does not work

This is the worst scenario for a person whose documents are stored on a USB flash drive, because it is practically impossible to bring it back to life. You can disable a USB flash drive by mechanical impact on the device chip or its controller, by shorting the electrical circuit, or by damaging the contacts on the USB board. This is what a USB flash drive looks like after the electrical circuit is closed or moisture gets inside the drive.

Determining if this happened to your drive is easy enough. The very first thing you need to do is check the USB flash drive for mechanical damage, chips, cracks, etc. If it is completely broken, you can look for a replacement at a computer peripheral store. If you doubt its inoperability, you can check it with a practical method.

Connect the USB flash drive to the USB connector of the computer, if the LED on it lights up and on the computer you hear a sound that is typical for connecting a new device, then everything is in order, it makes sense to look for the problem further. If this does not happen, most likely the flash drive is no longer usable.

You can try to take the flash drive to the service center, where the wizard will try to rewire the contacts or replace the controller, but it will be very expensive, and this action will be justified only if you have important documents on it. If no fatal malfunction was detected and the flash drive shows signs of life, try the methods to restore its performance, which will be described below.

The USB port on the front of the computer is de-energized

This problem is very common among desktop PC users. Most computer owners are accustomed to plugging a USB stick into the front USB ports because it's quick and easy.

But there is a situation when, for some reason, during the assembly of the PC, the front panel is not connected to the power system, usually this happens due to the forgetfulness of the computer wizard. Accordingly, your flash drive will not be displayed, despite its complete serviceability.

This problem can be solved in two ways. If you urgently need to use the information on removable media, you can connect it to the back of your computer. The front connectors will still be inoperative, but you will get access to the documents. It is impossible to call such manipulations a full-fledged solution, so we will consider the second option.

Method number 2 involves connecting the power cable to motherboard to the front of the computer. The connection connectors may differ depending on the model of the computer case. But do not be scared, they all have markings and you will not be able to connect the wrong connector due to design features. The most common wires are VCC, D-, D + and GND. Moreover, the color coding of the cable and the connector on the motherboard is the same, but it is better to keep the reference by the inscriptions.

The first step is to gain access to the motherboard, to do this, unscrew the mounting screws on the case and remove the cover. Locate the cable that leads to the bezel and locate the same connector on the motherboard. In the image below, you can see what the connector should look like.

It is not recommended to make the connection yourself; it is better to call the wizard. If you connect the cable and connector incorrectly, you can burn these contacts and even devices. If you decide to connect the front USB connectors, then it is better to tell us the model of your case and motherboard, and we will show you how to do it correctly and explain what the connector and cable look like.

Faulty or disconnected USB port on the computer

Sometimes the problem of unreadable information on removable media is associated not with the problem of the flash drive itself, but with the connector into which it is connected. A certain USB port may be inoperative, and this condition can be caused by trivial damage to the connector pins. Then, not only a flash drive, but also other USB devices will not work in this port.

This problem can be solved by armed with an ordinary soldering iron and minimal knowledge of circuitry. If there is no such knowledge, skill and equipment, then this can be corrected at the nearest service center for a low fee.

However, if no reaction to the connection of a USB device is observed on all connectors, then the problem may lie deeper. Ports can be disabled in BIOS settings.

In order to connect ports in BIOS menu, you need to get there initially. To enter the BIOS in the first seconds of booting the computer, you need to press the corresponding key on the keyboard, which is responsible for calling up the menu. Most often, the F2 or Del key is set by default, but depending on the motherboard company and the BIOS version, it may be different. In the first image that pops up when loading it is indicated.

After you have entered the BIOS itself, we need to go along the following route: “”.

Find the line “USB Controller” so that you are allowed to use the ports, opposite should be the value “Enabled”.

After you have enabled the USB ports on your computer, press the F10 key. This will save the settings you made and exit the BIOS.

The USB connector of the flash drive is dirty

The flash drive is mobile device storage of information and therefore is often carried in pockets, briefcases or as a key ring. Due to such operating conditions, dust and small debris can accumulate in the connector. This does not happen often, but it can cause the flash drive to malfunction. Dust and debris build up on the contact and prevent connections from the contacts in the port on the computer. Such a flash drive may not only not be displayed at all, but also freeze, slowly transmit or read information and not be detected the first time.

To clean the USB connector of a flash drive, arm yourself with a match and a cotton swab. Using a match, remove all debris from the connector, and then moisten a cotton swab with alcohol and wipe the contacts of the flash drive. This will help keep it free of debris and oxidation.

Virus infection

In our time, the issue of the security of the storage device is becoming more and more urgent, because viruses are in full swing. You can visit the site you are used to social network on the Internet and get infected, not to mention downloading files from unverified sources.

Modern computer viruses can also multiply, no matter how strange it sounds. They infect files on your flash drive or computer hard drive, and their number grows exponentially.

Very often, the problem of the inoperability of a flash drive is a virus infection. The drive is detected by the system, you can hear the characteristic sound of connecting the device to the system, but when you try to read the information, you will see the message "" or " Application not found».

Before solving this problem, it is worth installing antivirus software on your computer and conducting a full diagnostics of the files. To access the data on the drive, we need to delete the file with the virus and scan it. To do this, go to the "Start" menu and enter the following phrase "" in the search line.

Click on the found element with the left mouse button. You will see a window with the name "Folder Options" open, here you need to do the following:

Uncheck the " Hide protected system files»
Check the box ""

After that, be sure to press the "Apply" button and only after that "OK", otherwise the changes will not take effect. It should look like this.

After that, go to "My Computer" and go to the folder of the drive itself. There you will see the "Autorun" file, you need to delete it, and check the flash drive for viruses with one of the free antiviruses, the Dr.WEB Cure It utility can handle this perfectly.

Now you can fully use the USB flash drive and no problems should arise. If nothing has changed, then the problem lies in the absence of drivers, we will analyze it below.

Driver failure or outdated drivers

A very common problem is when the computer does not want to display a USB flash drive due to outdated drivers or their system failure. The failure can occur due to a power surge or an unexpected shutdown of the operating system. Or, older computer models may not work with 32GB or larger drives. We can say one thing, the problem is solved only by updating the drivers.

The first step is to go to "". This can be done in several ways, for example, through "My Computer" or find this section in the system search, as we will do.

We go into this menu, after which we connect the flash drive to the computer, and then open the “USB Controllers” sub-tab. Select the line “ Memory device", Click the right mouse button to open the system menu and press" Delete ".

Such manipulations allow you to remove the driver installed on the system for your storage device. As soon as you remove it, feel free to remove the USB flash drive from your computer and reconnect it. Then the driver on the flash drive will be reinstalled and the problem will be solved.

If the problem persists, it may be necessary to update the driver of all USB chipsets, this is quite easy to do. You can use a special disk that came with the motherboard, it contains all the necessary drivers. If you do not have it, download the DriverPack program, it will automatically select all drivers for which there is an update and will carry out this procedure after your agreement.

Moreover, most users have doubts about the correctness of their actions when they learn about the different USB formats. Don't be scared!

Drivers for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 are installed according to the same principle. And the only difference between the ports is the maximum speed of reading and writing information.

Filesystem errors

The computer may also not detect your flash device due to file system errors. Let's check if this is so, go to "", as described above. Now you need to open the sub-tab “ Disk devices", If you see your USB flash drive there, it means it is working properly, and the file system does not perceive it as it should, and, accordingly, does not display it in the explorer. In my case, the flash drive was displayed, which means it is working properly.

To fix this problem, you must format your USB flash drive, but this action has several nuances, so we will consider this process in the next paragraph of the article.

If you do not see your drive there, then the problem lies in the malfunction of the flash drive itself, which means either the controller has burned out, or the contact is unsoldered. Experts in service centers can try to bring it back to life. However, this is an expensive undertaking, it is easier to buy a new one, of course, if important information was not recorded on the faulty one and you need to restore the data on the USB flash drive.

File system conflict

Quite often, the contents of the flash drive are not displayed due to a conflict file systems on the computer and the removable media itself. For example, if the computer operates on the NTFS file system and FAT32 is used on the flash drive, a conflict situation is possible. Moreover, this problem is common not only in Windows, but also in Mac OS. For example, if you format a USB flash drive on your Mac device to the ExFAT system or the standard MacBook file system, then the flash drive is unlikely to be read on Windows devices.

The very first thing to do is find a computer that uses a different file system, open the USB flash drive and save the information that is important to you, because after formatting it will be lost.

To solve this problem, we need to carry out the process of formatting the flash drive. First you need to find out which file system is used on your computer. Go to "My Computer", right-click on the hard drive, open the submenu and select "Properties" in it.

In the window that opens, you will see information about the free and used amount of disk space, as well as find out which file system is used. In my case, the NTFS system is used.

After you know the file system of the computer, we need to format the flash drive to the same system. To do this, right-click on the flash drive and open the "Format" tab.

In the tab that opens, select the file system into which we will format, put a checkmark in front of the "Fast" attribute and click "Start".

A few words about why we are using the Fast attribute. Firstly, the formatting of the flash drive will be much faster. But there is also another side of the coin. If there were any documents on the flash drive, then only with a quick format can you recover this data using special utilities. If you have not checked the box, then the information that was on the flash drive will be lost for you forever.

The flash drive is not formatted

A fairly common problem is when you insert a USB flash drive into your computer (basically, this is a new USB flash drive and its first use), and the operating system gives you a warning, which says that the removable disk needs to be formatted before use. And if the flash drive was used earlier and data is recorded on it, then you will not be able to access them. Moreover, the volume of the flash drive becomes 0, i.e. as if there was nothing there at all, not even a drive.

If you have already used a USB flash drive and this is not its first connection, then try connecting it to another computer, perhaps the problem will go away and you can save the data. But in any case, the flash drive must be formatted. How to do this was discussed in detail in the section "Conflict of file systems".

But I want to draw your attention to two points. So that after formatting there are no problems with the file system (FS), find out which FS is used on the computer and install the same for the drive. And second, if the flash drive had the information you need, then be sure to use the "Fast" attribute, so the formatting of the flash drive will only go through the tables of contents, and the lost information can be returned using special utilities.

A problem with a partition or a USB flash drive is automatically assigned a busy letter

There are situations when the operating system incorrectly detects your removable media. It seems that everything is fine, the device connection is highlighted and the flash drive icon appears in the tray, but you can't use it for its intended purpose.

The problem may be that the system has not assigned the partition a letter under which the removable drive will appear, or it has assigned it, but this letter is already taken, and this results in an address conflict.

The solution to this problem will be the forced assignment of the partition letter that we choose, everything happens in manual mode. So let's get started.

First of all, you need to hold down the key combination "Win + R", a window with the name "Run" will open in front of you.

In the line we need to enter a simple command diskmgmt.msc, which will transfer us to the section for managing disks and drives.

In the opened storage media manager, we need to define our USB device. This can be done simply, disconnect the USB flash drive and reconnect it, the partition that first disappears and then appears is what we need.

In my case, the flash drive is a drive named "20151114_17", you can also identify it by a special icon. Now you need to click on it with the right mouse button, and in the menu that opens, select the item "Change letter".

Now another additional window, smaller, will open in front of us. In it, you must click on the "Change" and "OK" button.

Now another auxiliary window will open, where you must select any letter of the English alphabet, and after clicking on the "Ok" button, the letter will be assigned to the section.

It is worth paying attention to one important point! When choosing a letter to be assigned to a partition of your flash drive, look at which letters are already used by the system. This is very important, because we can not fix the problem, but leave it. This will happen if you, for example, designate a flash drive partition through the letter “D”, which is already assigned to the local disk.

Power supply malfunction or excessive overcurrent of the USB port

This problem is very common in our time. The fact is that the computer may simply not see the USB flash drive due to a faulty power supply. Let's figure it out in order, the power supply consumes electrical energy from the network, and then converts and distributes it to all nodes of the computer. It has a power limit, for example, a 400W power supply will not be able to give you 600W. This means that the consumption of the entire system must be balanced.

Such a problem may appear if you have recently replaced some important node in the system, let it be a processor. Now it consumes much more energy, in comparison with the past, which means that it simply does not reach somewhere, and in this case, this “somewhere” is the USB network of the computer. Accordingly, the power consumption parameter must be calculated in advance, and if such a situation has already occurred, you will have to replace the power supply unit with a more powerful one.

Moreover, the problem may lie in a malfunction of the power supply, it can produce much lower power potential than it was stated and than it was previously. You will not be able to solve such a problem, since you risk the performance of the entire computer. The only solution would be to replace the power supply.

There is one more feature of this issue. Recently, USB devices for computers have become very common, for example, now such devices are powered: a mat for heating a cup, a table lamp, a wireless mouse, a removable HDD, and in addition, the smartphone is also charging. And you still want to connect a USB flash drive, but bad luck, the computer sees it. The fact is that there was an overcurrent on the USB ports. Those. all your devices already consume the maximum amount of current and you will not be able to connect another one. Therefore, in order to use a USB flash drive, you need to disconnect several devices from the USB ports of the computer and then the problem will disappear.

If the computer does not see the USB flash drive in Windows XP

There are many reasons why a flash drive may not be detected in Windows system XP. Moreover, the problem may lie in the very operating system, and in the malfunction of the flash, and even in the hardware of the computer.

If the problem is related to the operating system, then it can be eliminated only by making additional changes in the settings; it is best to do this in manual mode, despite the abundance of special utilities that can help in this matter.

However, if the drive itself is faulty, then the only thing that remains for you is to try to save the data recorded on it. And after that, purchase a new and more reliable device.

If your computer cannot identify the USB flash drive, then it notifies the user with the following signals:

Your flash drive is inserted, and you are trying to access the data on it, the message "Insert disc" pops up.
The system notifies about the mandatory formatting of the drive for further use.
Errors about the impossibility of gaining access to data pop up.
The system may freeze as soon as you plug the USB flash drive into the USB port of your computer.

In this section, we will consider all the most common reasons for the non-functionality of a flash drive in Windows XP and give practical recommendations for solving them. Carefully read the description of the problem, if it is not similar to yours or its solution did not help you, proceed to the next step until the problem goes away. The first thing you need to do is try to determine if the flash drive is working properly. This is indicated by a light indicator located on it. If you connected a drive and it blinks or is on, then the flash drive is working and the problem lies either in the system or in the hardware of the computer.

Try changing the port to which you connect the USB flash drive or even the computer, perhaps only the port or the entire system is faulty, and the flash drive will work properly on another PC. For example, if, when you connect a flash drive to a port, you observe a complete system freeze, this means that this port is faulty and it is better not to use it.

If you are using USB hubs or extension cords and the flash drive is not displayed, the problem may lie in the device itself, and not in the flash drive. If this turns out to be the case, you can take the hub to a service center or try to repair it yourself. To do this, you need a soldering iron, solder and a little experience, because most often you just need to solder one or two contacts and everything will work as expected.

Perhaps the problem lies in the lack of electrical current in the USB port system. To check this, you need to disconnect all USB devices on the computer (camera, printer, lamp, etc.), leave only the keyboard and mouse. If, after such manipulations, the flash drive appears in the system and you can access it, then the problem lies in a weak power supply. This problem can be solved only by replacing the power supply unit with a more powerful one, but the use of a USB hub with its own power source will help to delay the purchase of a power supply unit.

However, if the problem has not been resolved after disconnecting all other devices, the problem with a lack of power supply and an outdated USB port may still be relevant. In other words, on older laptops, you won't be able to open a 36GB or larger flash drive. There won't be any solution to the problem, you can only buy a more modern laptop or computer.

A very common situation is when a user plugs a USB flash drive into the front port of a PC, but the system does not see it. This means that either the ports are not connected to the power supply on the motherboard, or too little power is allocated to them. You can connect the front panel yourself, using the instructions located above in the section of the same name.

Doesn't see the USB flash drive due to Windows XP errors. Troubleshooting

The flash drive may also not be detected due to operating system errors. For example, Windows XP SP2 lacks updates and software packages that provide normal USB operation devices. Moreover, a situation is possible when only a few USB devices can work in one port.

The solution to this issue will be to upgrade the system to SP3 and install the necessary updates. Even a new user can do this, since we only need a couple of clicks, and the system will automatically download, install and launch the update. So, let's get started, we can move in two ways - this is the official download from Windows Update or installing SP3 from a disk or flash drive. The first step is to check which package you already have installed.

Click on the "My Computer" icon with the right mouse button and select "Properties". The following window will open in front of you, where information about your system will be indicated.

To install SP3, we need to allow the operating system to search and update the computer system. To do this, just go from Control Panel to Windows Update.

As soon as you do this, the system will start searching for updates, after which it will offer you to update all at once or select only the ones you need. If you do not understand what update, what changes, then it is better to let the system update completely.

After downloading all updates, the operating system will require you to restart your computer to apply the new settings. Click "OK" and wait patiently. That's all, now you can connect a USB flash drive and use it.

If you decide to choose the updates that should be installed, and not download them all in automatic mode, then here is a guideline for you that will help improve the perception of USB drives by the system.

Driver conflicts in Windows XP

There is also a problem of driver conflict. The fact is that some already outdated drivers can cause errors at the system level; moreover, they can interfere with the normal operation of new drivers. A striking example of such a problem is a situation when a user inserts a USB flash drive into a computer, tries to access data on it, and the system immediately knocks out an error message asking to insert a disc. Or, the system simply freezes, and even assigning an existing letter to a flash drive partition is real.

The reason for these errors is as follows. Let's say you have two flash drives, you connected one of them to the system. In automatic mode, all the necessary drivers for this device are immediately installed. You did the necessary manipulations to write or read files and pulled out the drive. After that, you insert a second USB flash drive, which is completely functional, and one of the above errors pops up. This means that the system is trying to use the already installed driver from the first flash drive to run the second, but they are not compatible.

Reinstalling Windows XP USB Drivers

This problem can be easily fixed in several ways. Reinstalling drivers in automatic mode or manual. Let's analyze a little theory, a driver from one USB device can be mistakenly used by the system to start another USB device. To eliminate these problems, we need to first remove all existing drivers for USB drives, and then reinstall them.

Such a problem may display the message "USB device not recognized", or unexplained processes occur at the system level that block access to data or cause the system to freeze.

Delete via DriveCleanup

You can effectively remove all existing USB device drivers using the DriveCleanup utility. Its advantage is that it searches the entire system for installed drivers and only then removes them.

First of all, turn off the computer, disconnect all USB devices from it in order to avoid conflict situations while the program is running. We turn on the PC, go to the official website of the program and download the executable file. The utility is compatible with any version of Windows, including different bitness. When downloading, pay attention to the version of the file.

Automatic installation

You have removed all drivers from your computer. For the device to function normally, the operating system must have drivers for it. Process automatic installation The driver is incredibly simple, you just need to plug the flash drive into the USB port, and then the installation will start immediately. A window will pop up, which will display the progress of the installation, on some systems this may occur in a mode invisible to the user. Installation is complete within one to two minutes and you can use your device.

Manual installation

Manual installation means installing drivers not directly from the media itself. We can also install drivers for a flash drive from third-party Internet resources, but in order to avoid conflicts, we will install drivers for a flash drive using another computer.

So, we take our problematic flash drive, insert it into another computer, where it is recognized. A prerequisite for this process is the coincidence of Windows versions on both computers. We use the system search and find two files.

By any means we transfer them to the problem computer, whether it is sending by mail or using other removable media. You need to place these files in a folder with the same path that was on the first computer and confirm the replacement when the corresponding window pops up. We reboot the computer and enjoy its performance with FLASH disks.

We have considered only the most common reasons why a USB flash drive is not displayed on a computer. In fact, there are many more of them. Moreover, there are problems that are expressed by other system messages, and their solution is already described in the paragraphs of the article.

The message "Insert disc" appears, even if the flash drive is already connected to the USB port

This system error occurs if the drivers overlap and interfere with the normal functioning of USB devices. In order to fix this error, you need to remove all drivers for USB devices and reinstall them. This process is described step by step in this article.

Disk formatting message

This message appears if you are using a USB flash drive for the first time or a system failure has occurred in it. In addition to the message, you can make sure that it is not usable, because it does not display either free space or occupied space. The solution to this issue is described in detail in paragraphs 8 and 9.

Data error message

This problem pops up in 3 cases. This is a driver conflict, a file system conflict and a failure of the flash drive itself. It is solved by reinstalling the drivers, if it did not help, then quick formatting in order to preserve the ability to recover data on a USB flash drive. See above for step-by-step instructions.

Complete system freeze immediately after connecting the flash drive to the computer

This issue has already been discussed in the article, but I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this error can occur for two reasons:

Driver conflict.
Bad port.

It is easy to check what problem you have, insert the USB flash drive into another port, if the hang continues, then there is a problem with the drivers. Instructions and tips for reinstalling them were given within the framework of this article.

Why the computer does not see the USB flash drive when the indicator on it is on

The contact on the flash drive, which is responsible for the transfer of information, may be damaged. It is possible that there is a driver conflict and the assignment of a busy letter for a partition. If the problem persists, after connecting the flash drive to another computer, try to check the availability of the partition. If everything is in order here, then reinstall the drivers and the flash drive will work.

Error 43 / Error 43

This error immediately stops reading information from a removable device, which means that we will not be able to access the data immediately. There are several problems that Error 43 can cause.

The failure of the device itself is the first of them. Check on another computer to see if this situation occurs again.
Driver Conflict - Solution described above.
Updating the hardware configuration - you just need to roll back the driver version in the Task Manager.

conclusions

We got acquainted in detail with the reasons that can prevent the computer from reading the flash drive and the information on it. Described solutions with step by step instructions will definitely help you get rid of this problem. The unreadable flash drive can only be a verdict if the flash drive is faulty. In other situations, this is an easily reversible process. If you have any questions or you could not find a solution to your problem in the article - leave comments, we will try to clarify the situation together.

Today, one of the most popular digital storage media is the USB stick. Unfortunately, this option for storing information cannot give a full guarantee of its safety. A flash drive tends to break down, in particular, there is a possibility that a situation will arise that the computer will stop reading it. For some users, depending on the value of the stored data, this can be a disaster. But do not despair, as there is an opportunity to get lost files back. Let's see how this can be done.

As a rule, problems with reading a flash drive can arise in two cases:

Physical damage;
Failed controller firmware.

In the first case, you can, of course, try to fix the USB stick yourself by soldering the corresponding elements or replacing the controller. But if you are not sure that you have the necessary knowledge, then it is better not to try to do this, since you can irrevocably lose valuable information. We advise you to contact a specialist who will carry out all the work on the flash drive repair and data recovery.

If the cause of the problem was a failure of the controller firmware, then the likelihood of an independent solution to the problem without the involvement of specialists is quite high. You just need to reflash the flash drive, and then perform the data recovery procedure, following the instructions below.

If the flash drive is initialized to "Device Manager", but it is not readable, which means that the matter is most likely in the firmware. If the USB drive is not displayed there at all, it is likely to be physically damaged.

Stage 1: Flash flash drive

First of all, you need to flash the USB storage controller. But immediately you need to find out what kind of software you need to install on it. This can be done through "Device Manager".

Run "Device Manager" and open the block in it "USB Controllers".

Lesson: How to open the "Device Manager" in Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows XP
Find the name in the list "USB Mass Storage Device" and click on it. In order not to be mistaken, it is desirable that at this time only one USB flash drive (non-working) is connected to the computer.

In the window that opens, move to the section "Intelligence".

From the dropdown list "Property" select option "Equipment ID"... In the area of "Meaning" information about the current flash drive will be displayed. In particular, we will be interested in data VID and PID... Each of these values is a four-digit code after the underscore. Memorize or write down these numbers.
Next, open your browser and go to the section "IFlash" on the website flashboot.ru. Enter the previously set values in the corresponding fields of the window VID and PID... Then press "Find".

A list of the software that matches the entered data will open. This can be a pretty impressive list, but you should find the item that matches the size of the flash drive and its manufacturer. Even if you find several elements that meet the specified criteria, it's okay, since they must correspond to the same "firmware". Now in the column "Utils" opposite the name of the USB drive, find the name of the software that you need to install.

Then go to section "Files" on the same site, type in the name of this software in the search box, and then download the utility that will be the first in the search results. If on this site you do not find the firmware you need, then try searching on the official web resource of the flash drive manufacturer. Search on other resources only as a last resort, since instead of firmware it is possible to download a malicious utility.

After the software is loaded, run it and follow the recommendations that will be displayed on the screen. You may need to first install the utility on your computer and only then run it. In this regard, the procedure depends on the specific program. In this case, the problematic flash drive must be connected to the computer.

After completing all the recommendations displayed on the screen, the flash drive will be reflashed, which means that its malfunction has been eliminated.

Stage 2: Recovering files

Re-flashing a flash drive provides that all files on it will be deleted. Despite the fact that the USB-drive has become functional again, the information previously stored on it will remain inaccessible to the user. In this case, it is necessary to additionally perform the recovery procedure, which can be performed using special utilities. We will consider the algorithm of actions using the example of the R-studio program.

Attention! After flashing and before performing the file recovery procedure, in no case write any information to the USB flash drive. Each byte of new data written reduces the likelihood of old data being restored.

Connect the USB flash drive to your computer and launch R-studio. In the tab "Disk panel" find and highlight the partition letter that corresponds to the problematic USB flash drive, and then click on the item "Scan".

The scan settings window will open. In it, you can leave the default parameters and simply click on the button "Scanning".

The scanning procedure will be launched, the progress of which can be monitored using the indicator at the bottom of the window, as well as by the table of sectors in the tab Scan Information.

After the scan is completed, click on the item "Found by signatures".

A new tab will open displaying the filesets grouped by their content as folders. Click on the name of the group to which the restored objects belong.

Then more specialized folders by content type will open. Select the desired directory and then the files available for recovery will be displayed on the right side of the interface.

Check the boxes of the names of the files that you want to recover, and then click on the button "Restore marked ...".

Next, the recovery settings window will open. The main thing here is to indicate exactly where you want to restore objects. It shouldn't be a problematic flash drive, but any other medium. Possibly a computer hard drive. In order to specify the save location, click on the button in which the ellipsis is inscribed.

In the window that opens, go to the directory where you want to restore the files and click the button "Selecting a folder ...".

After the path to the selected folder is displayed in the recovery settings window, click "Yes".

The selected files will be restored to the folder specified in the program. Now you can open this directory and perform any standard manipulations with the objects located there.

Even if the flash drive cannot be read, you should not "bury" the data stored on it. The USB drive can be reanimated and information can be restored. To do this, it is necessary to sequentially perform the procedures for flashing the controller and restoring data using specialized utilities.

Office equipment