External Drive: Windows Will Not Detect My USB Flash Thumb Drive, Why? | Sleuth Q&A!

[Jason52597]

I plug in my external hardrive but it does not show up in my computer. It shows up in devices and printers as "External" but not elsewhere. I went onto disk management and followed your video but the choice of choosing change letter or path is greyed out (not able to choose it). What else can it be? Thanks

[scorpion1256]

my usb flash drive is not recognized and is denied...

how to fix it to show my flash drive on of my customer deskstop..

pm or comment asap... tnx

[mohdraef]

thanks alot!!! you helped me and  many other people

[killertoaster100]

thank you so much man i'm going to sub you because you just saved me lots of money thank you!

[pencai]

thanks bro work for me !!!!

[MickieRyan]

the change drive letters and path isnt highlighted to let me select it

[Havoc461]

my external HDD shows up but it wont let me change the letter... its on "Unallocated"

[goodaysunlight96]

Thank you for posting this video!!! I was racking my brain trying to figure this out. I did exactly what you said and it worked like a charm. Thanks again.

[yahoochat]

Sorry didn't work on my window xp .. My external hard drive doesn't show up " i have tried many different way, ( hard drive running) but doesn't show up😒😒help plz

[BANDOLERSMV]

can u tell me how to do this on a mac? please help

[OwNaGePatty]

you saved my life ! thanks man ! :)

[lattymadha]

i got a problem. i did wat u said or instructed but it didnt show my ex hdd. i changed the drive letter to normal D: dirve n nothing happen. only way to access my ex hdd is to right click n open ex hdd from disk management. is there a problem with my ex HDD? im running XP 3

[AndyDeiu]

My problem is that i drop the usb on the flor and then when i connected it said the usb have malfunctioned.Does not recognize the usb..

[birdman123ful]

please answer : my usb drive wont even light when i connect it to the pc what shall i do ...

plz help .

[1isyazaki]

thnk you dude..

[SicilianGunner]

it was on disk management but when i right clicked it the only thing thats available is help the other options are greyed out

[najee1100]

I was doing steps as directed it asked something related to master boot partion now i can't find the SATA seagate HD no more how do I get it back?

[tzaipulanelusername]

i cant cgange letter cuz of this: the operation failed to complete because the disk management console view is not up-to-date. pls help

[Vortexa808]

hi I have Wd external hard drive it was working fine yesterday well today I turned it on and it said I need to format before I can use it please help

[gypsyqueen64]

I've tried everything possible to get my IOMEGA 1 TB external hard drive to work with Windows 7 again. It stopped working with Windows 7 on 11/27/2011. It shows up as a generic looking "DISK DRIVE" in Windows Explorer, and shows up in the Device Manager, and "Properties" says it's working normally, I just cannot access it in Windows 7 because it's in the RAW format. Funny, I can access my external hard drive on a Mac computer at school, but not on Windows 7 at home. Windows sucks.

[666maniac86]

many thanks, this fixed my problem!

[killer34star]

i tried looking for it on disk management but i couldnt find it and i tried plugging it in for my laptop and it works only my computer doesnt read it also when i plug it in my computer it make the noise that a usb slot has been plug and the same when i unplug it but nothing shows up.. how do i fix it?

[ImTheGingerbreadGirl]

im having the same problem as, vauxellx. if i format it, will it erase all of my files?

[swatwithmkthree]

by the way it shows up in my xbox 360 and when i format it towards the ending of the formating it aborts and gives me a crappy reason which i cannot remember right now

[swatwithmkthree]

im not an admin wtf should i do? :/ and believe me ive seen this solution 10000000000000 time in the last few days since my usb 500gb hdd drive letter dissapeared and it shows in device manager but not in my comper and on other pc same results and since im not admin i only get help and properties option

[Chowder908]

lol ubuntu sucks xD

need a ubuntu tutorial

[lotusclown77]

ok i did exactely as u did and its still not showing up.. wtf???

[lotusclown77]

i have a sandisk cruzer 20 gig and the only place it shows up is in device manager in disk drives, damn thing won't even show up on my ps3 and thats a big problem! is there anything i can do about this???

[atmaramiri]

I have a problem that my drive cant be shown even in disk management also

so how can i fix it ??

only pin drive not sd card

[PCMichiana]

@atmaramiri It sounds like your drive has failed, you should test it on a different computer. If it has, you will need to bring it into a shop to get your data off of it - many of them might tell you they can do nothing.

[atmaramiri]

@PCMichiana

yeah but i think the pc has the problem cz many drives cant be shown in it

but when we test the place in pc thats fine by tester

It's totally complicated >o,.O

[vergil1191]

i have a wd hard drive... usb or w/e but it shows up on my computer but it will not lett me get in it... and i cant partition it to use it again cuz it has a write protection.. plz help

[wkdw1ll1ams]

i only get Delete Volume and help?

[Alien142011]

When I click on the Disk Management thing, I don't see my USB as a device at all. It's not on the bottom and doesn't show up as Disk 0 or 1. Does that just mean that my USB is broken? Because it worked yesterday morning and then when I went home, it didn't work anymore. And now that I try to put it into different computers, it doesn't show up at all. Is it just broken and not working at all anymore?

[TheDIMO94]

it dosnt work for me ;[[[

[123bosoy]

hey dude it didnt show anything...may USB is not detecting please help me

[bergalini]

Hey dude. I know it seems obvious but I restarted my computer after following all those steps and it is now working so your video was very helpful. Thank you.

[bergalini]

I had to keep it short as it was getting to the message limit but I wanted to include, that I would highly appreciate it if you could help.

[bergalini]

Please help with my Ext HD.

In Disk Management this is how it is:

Disk 0 says C: 298.08 GB NTFS full box with blue across the top

Disk 1 says 298.08 GB blue across and a box next to it saying 1099.17 GB Unallocated

I am sure that Disk 1 is my External HD and if I try to assign a new drive letter and press ok I get the following error message:

The operation did not complete because the partition or volume is not enabled. To enable the partition or volume, restart the computer.

Please

[xtralargecash]

its not showing up

[speedsterforeva]

my USB doesnt show up in disk management and the other one you clicked. It works in other compters though

[Zacmosai]

Thanks!!!

[flipmaya]

I checked the disk management and my flash drive does not show up at all

[Frederikdavid]

what if its not there??!

[ZainMushtaq10]

Hey I have a Hp and my hard drive is present under disk management and it says it needs to be installized. But when i click it to installize it says error media protected. I don't know how to change that. I Just got this external and its not appearing in my computer. Can you please help me. Thanks.

[songsbydaniel]

This was spot on! Thank you Sir!

[DesiDude180]

Ok my external is displayed in device manager under disk drives. However I dont see it under diskmanagement. what do I do?

[200punia]

OK SO MY HP LAPTOP SAYS THAT MY USB IS UNKNOWN AND WHEN I GO ON MY DIVCES I CANT SEE MY USB LIKE ITS NOT THERE PLZ HELP IF YOU CAN

[mickalalasd]

when i open the disk managment i see only disk 0 and cd room 0, but i dont see the usb one. whats the problem?

[vauxellx]

After I click Disk Managment I get my C & D Drives only. The external HDD I'm trying to find isn't there. What should I do? :-(

[PCMichiana]

@vauxellx Try it on a different computer and see if it detects it, you may have a bad HDD

[BesKeyBoska]

@PCMichiana I only have the C drive in my disk managment and i tried connecting to another computer but it does not recognise it. this happed all of a sudden so i dont know what caused it is there a way i can get my hard drive to work again?

[AstroZombiz]

@PCMichiana

[killer34star]

@PCMichiana my external hard drive detects on other laptops just not my pc. it makes a plug in noise but doesnt show up on my computer or management

[SouljahKeyzify]

Your the freakin man! I have had a hard drive i thought was dead but this totally fixed it! appreciate you!

[MrJSmichael]

Hey man I tried and follow every single step on your vid which is unfortunately it didn't work. when i go to disk management all i see is a disk 1 unknown and it says not intialized any idea what went wrong??

cheers any reply i would appreciate :D

[PCMichiana]

@MrJSmichael Right click on the "not initialized" drive and select format, that should do the trick.

[LOVE2EVERYBODY]

@MrJSmichael IF U HAVE PROGRAMS LIKE GRACK FILES OR WIN 7 LOADER IN THE HDD CAN CAUSE THAT ALSO SOME ANTI VIRUS LIKE NORTON FIRST SWICH OFF U R ANTI VIRUS SECOND GO TO START MENUE WRITE IN THE SEARCH BAR...( FIND AND FIX PROBLEMS WITH DEVICES )>>>AFTER CHOSE THE ADVANCE OPTION>>> IT WILL FIX U R DEVICE>>> HOPE THIS HELP U ....SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH

[RandomGamezZ]

THANKS YOU ROCK !!!!!!



[jjlimas1]

i have a external hard drive 500 gig and after folling these steps i still couldnt find it but i formatted it to fat32 but now i cant find it in the computer before i pluged it in nd it worked

[ohyea404]

hey, need help!

how do i initialized a disk ?

[PCMichiana]

@ohyea404 Right click on the disk that is not initialized and format it.

[123CREEPS]

@PCMichiana i tryed all everything you said in the vid and comments they didint work

[GamerRodene]

Hey, could you help me.

My cursor mouse keeps freezing and I think it's because I accidently safely removed the hardware. I have a Usb mouse.

[PCMichiana]

@GamerRodene If it is a wireless mouse you may need to resync your USB wireless receiver with your mouse, typically both have a button you can press. First press the one on the receiver, then press the one on the mouse.

[GamerRodene]

@PCMichiana Thanks, it worked perfectly except right now its slow moving cursor.

[101MrPuppy]

It is still asking me to insert a disc in the removable drive!

[moneymaker8815]

Ok, I follow all the steps to changing the driver letters and ya.

But the thing is when in Disk Managent it does not show up my USB drive.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled it once and it says it read for use.

How do i make it show up? plz answer

*desperate

[thessa0809]

good day..

i have a question..

I can't see my files (anything) saved in my usb when inserted in our computer..

whats the problem...?

but in other computer, i can see it all..

help me please...

ASAP

Godbless ^_^

[karanupadia]

please reply as fast as you can, i have a sandisk cruzer slice 32gb, i havent used it for like 3 - 4 months and now when i plug it in the pc, nothing shows up. The usb has a led in it, so whenever it connects it flashes, and yes even my flashes but nothing shows up, please help me

[MegaMukhtaar]

It says " You Need To format the disk in drive N: before you can use use it "

And i have windows 7 what i do plz help me

[xXTheEpicOcelotXx]

It just wont read mine its dumb! HELP ME

[gcamistad]

Mine says: "Not Initialized" on Disk Management

I cant change the letter and even format it.

[MegaRacer201]

my friend i have an HTC phone and every time i connected to the computer with the USB cable, it says it doesn't recognized it..... can you plzzzz help me

[techkitv]

my external hdd id connected like the light is on but it is not showing up on my computer...i did what u said but the hdd does not have a name or drive letter...when I try to assign a drive letter it says the console view is not up to date... i restart my computer and it says the same thing...HELP ME PLZ!!!

[Normansmight]

@techkitv have you gotten any answers?

cause i have the same problem

[techkitv]

@Normansmight i fixed it but i needed to reinstall windows 7

[Normansmight]

@techkitv my father and i got the same external hard drive a week ago. ive used mine to watch movies a couple times. i went to go try it today and no computer will recognize that its in the usb port! i just tried my fathers hard drive on my computer and it worked! please tell my hard drive isnt broken! i havent even had it a week!

[clasemajagua]

help my windows 7 dosent detect usb???? help !!!

[HAHAHACake979]

Every time i plug in my flash drive i cannot access the flies my computer says i need to format it before i can use it. what is wrong and what do i do?

[math4699]

Hi there, I need help. (:

My pc has 8 USB "ports" dunno what its called..

I got 6 in the back, and 2 in the front, and my problem is that when i installed Windows 7 instead of Win Vista, my 2 front USB ports stopped working, and i really need the 2 front ports because my pc is in a cabinet, so PLEASE, someone help me.. (:

[PCMichiana]

@math4699 You likely need to get what are called "chipset drivers" for your motherboard or computer's manufacturer that are compatible with Windows 7

[Aznsouldah]

when i got to disk management it doesnt show my drive.....help and ill sub plz

[Aznsouldah]

my usb shows the icon but when i open it theres nothing. and also when i got to my other computer, it reads the usb!!!! help plz and ill sub

[Kerstengrogan23]

i was using my usb then i putted it out from my usb port after i re attached it my pc didnt found it even the auoplay :S

[PCMichiana]

@Kerstengrogan23 Have you tried it in a different computer? That is the best way to determine if your USB drive is healthy or not before determining if it is your computer.

[Kerstengrogan23]

@PCMichiana i didint tried well thx for help

[123makx]

i have brought a sandisk cruzer 8 GB i put stuff on it and i was deleting everything and it say" this folder it empty" and i go on the flash drives properities it says"used space 7.44 gigabyes used and 5.70 millabytes free"but theres nothing on the flash drive i need help :(PLEASE REPLY I NEED YOUR HELP

[PCMichiana]

@123makx You may need to right click on the drive and select format... to reformat the USB drive completely.

[JohnnyJ2x44alt]

instead of not recognized it's now "A problem occurred during installation"

[PCMichiana]

@JohnnyJ2x44alt Test your USB drive on a separate computer to ensure your USB drive has not failed.

[edmeister78]

my external has just begun the so called click of death have and windows wont recognise the drive how can i recover the files?

[PCMichiana]

@edmeister78 You will need to locate a hard drive recovery service if the clicking has begun. This means there is physical damage to the hardware and the only way to recover is through advanced recovery techniques... and they are expensive too.

[wildaug2]

when i got my laptop consulted they said ill have to change my motherboard?

[PCMichiana]

@wildaug2 Uhh.. well that may be the case if your USB ports have failed, does nothing work in your USB? If so, then you may need to. OR if you have a PCMCIA or PCIExpress slot you could always buy a USB card from Newegg.

[FunAndJokes]

i see it reconized but it says unallocated help me plzzzzz

[PCMichiana]

@FunAndJokes If it unallocated right click on it and format the USB drive as FAT32

[gocrazy619]

my pendrive is not recognised by windows . its light is not glowing . can anyone help me in this type of incident

[PCMichiana]

@gocrazy619 If the light is not glowing it is likely the power supply within the USB unit has failed. Try the unit in a separate computer to ensure it is not the USB port on your computer. If it still does not light up or is detected, odds are you will need to purchase a new flash drive.

[tris23456]

Hello sir! can i ask for your help? i have a 4gig Imation USB flash drive. and now when i plug it to my pc, my pc can seem to find or read it. if i check on my computer its not there. i think its a installation problem. any ideas?

[redmanson121]

i could not detect any of the disk except for ACER(C:) and DATA(D:)

im blank.what should i do?because when i right click on the blank box it only pop out "help" there no change path or other thing pop out...

[julie45428]

thank you so much you really helped me :)

[kevmanev]

PLEASE HElP!! whenever i plug in a usb memory stick, nothing happens, i get no sound confirming i plugged in a usb, nothing, not even in disk management but when i plug in a usb device that isnt a memory stick like a mouse, it works perfectly. by the way the usb memory stick has been tested and works fine on other computers.

[sprox333]

thanks dude! its working! i love you ;)

[miney819]

umm the thing that pops up in the end that doesnt pop up!!

[tcskywalker]

my usb drive does not show up on the computer management?!! pleez help.

windows poped up a message with: its something wrong with this do you want to solve the problem?. and i clicked solve. and it just dissapeard and wont show up.

[Bridoist]

Hi thanks for the video but can you please help me with a similar problem i have?

My usb flash drive works on my pc running vista but when i try to use it on my notebook running xp i cant see the drive i followed the steps to you video and can see the removable device but when i right click on it and click open it tells me not formatted do i want to format it now yes/no why would this happen as i said no problem with my pc just the notebook cheers bro!!!

[peaceloveindie]

HEY GUYS, CAN YOU HELP ME WITH THIS. I HAVE TRIED SO MANY WAYS, BUT IT STILL CAN'T OPEN. :3

watch?v=9X9L19tvD_Q

[NSDCars5]

my prob seems with windows, not the usb, because my wubi ubuntu gets all the 3.7 GB but the windows xp doesn't even gues that the drive is full!

[dexepexe]

Thanks alot, that really helped me out! :D

[bakijev]

when i plug the usb into my ps3 it will not detect it.

Why?

[davidmilane]

hey can you PLEASE help me with this

i try to install my usb microphone, it detects it, and just as soon as its about to finishing installing it says "access is denied" i'm on my admin account, iv googled it, i don't know what to do, please reply to this, it would help me alot. thanks.

- Davey

[hisharma87]

how can i do, when the external has been detect, but when i click it dose not have any data from my external??plssss help....tq..

[TheMRUndead]

ehem u are the best subscribed and rated thumbs up :D

[peanuts559]

my flash drive is stuck and i meen like it when i push up its stuck there it wont come out and i need help bad

[dominictug]

my 1 says unallocated plzzzz comment!!!

[JRM754]

how bout if it doesnt even show on disk manager?

[Glanzern]

I could really use some help with this...I have this problem. I have a 500gb Hitachi external hard drive. And when I plug it in it makes the sound to recognize it, and it shows up in Device Manager, and Disk Manager. But it's uninitialized in the Disk Manager and when I try to initialize it I get a Cyclic Redundancy Error. One time I did get it to initialize and when I tried to set a letter to it (I think I tried T) It went for about 15 minutes then ended saying there was an RPC Server error...

[Glanzern]

@Glanzern Any Ideas on this? I could really use a response fast...

[coondogtheman1234]

my USB drive IS detected but I cannot read/write or format it it says invalid as the name. shows up as drive L. I think the partition is messed up or something. is there any way to repair this device? I paid good money for this device and I would like to be able to use it.

[THEolsy23ify]

hey dude help me when i put my USB at my laptop i go to my computer then i doube click on my USB it says this '' Please insert a disk into a drive :G '' Drive G called my USB can you help me what to do !!!!

[TheNeutralKiller]

Mine just says: Disk 1 removable (letter:) No Media.

I followed the toturial, but it still didnt show up : /, plz help me D:

[BlackCyclone99]

I have ? . My usb was in my ps3 and i fell asleep and my ps3 shut down with my usb in it. when i woke up the next morning and turned my ps3 on it did not detect it. Then i unpluged it and put it in my pc but still would not detect it. I'm not sure really sure what happed to it. I think it may have burned out or something. Can you solve my problem?

[PCMichiana]

@BlackCyclone99 I'd start by putting your USB card into a PC and see if you get any results. That is a good way to test whether or not your USB card is still good.

[BlackCyclone99]

@PCMichiana Yea I think its dead thank you PCMichiana

[ollytmproductions]

@PCMichiana what if you save a file on the usb then when you pull it up on the PC why is the file not present

[gr8oli]

hi i got a 500GB external hard drive WD i plug it in and it detectit but when i open it it has nothing in it but it has all kinds of movires pictures and stuff like that it tells me 0 free space but also 0 availible can anyone help me i did the letter change and format it dont help at all i did the device manager and same dont do nothing i never let it fall so i dont know whats wrong can anyone help?

[BunCinnaKawaii]

thanks, but its still not working. it says usb device not recognized when i plug in my ipod

[PCMichiana]

@BunCinnaKawaii All questions need to be posted the forum now so everyone can learn from them :) You can get there through the top right hand corner of my channel.

[ThePolnarov]

wont work my problem deffrent my computer dont find my phone (nokia 5800) the computer dont show me the phone if u pls can help me thx

[PCMichiana]

@ThePolnarov All questions need to be posted the forum now so everyone can learn from them :) You can get there through my channel.

[hiphop4lifetillidie]

@PCMichiana i still need help with mine.when i plug my usb all it does it shows the icon on the low right side "safely remove hardware" can you please help me?

[musicsoul456]

@hiphop4lifetillidie My disc1 is unknown ,how to fix this?

[funselena190]

i tried to connect my mp3 my computer does not recognize it and i did what u showed in the video but my mp3 does not show up at all

[PCMichiana]

@funselena190 All questions need to be posted the forum now so everyone can learn from them :)

[yungballer92]

thanks for the tips but my drive uninstalled but its a dvd and a cd drive and wont play dvds in it any help?

[funkywarlord]

hey i really understand ur tips but mine is a diff problem.... it is unreconized.. then when i checked the computer managemnt... i dunno why it did not came out... i'm willing to wait ur answer and pls help ... if you dunno just say it... so that i dun wait... i'lll wait...!

[PCMichiana]

@funkywarlord All questions need to be posted the forum now so everyone can learn from them :)

[gclkhnm]

ive looked at about a hundred videos im gettin fustrated bra,,,

[griffin014]

thanks for your video and instructions its effective

[blueeeex]

how do you do this in windows me ?

[HOODIE650]

hey, i have a MicroSD Usb and when i plug it in and try to open it it says "insert Disk"

i want to try and fix this because i want to access my SD card. plz help.

[researchfiend]

Helpful and clever...good combo!

[warfreak1156]

when im trying to mod my gamertag and when i try to open my usb with usb explorer it says unhandled exception

[Booya131]

my 16g usb flash drive wont show up anywhere or on anything, but my other one does(2g)...

help?

[nitroo78]

can u help me please wen i clik on my usb it says ' file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the folder Options control panel'

[kugelfrag]

not working..it doesn't show the usb drive and ive done what you just did in the vid

[Ab1skiller]

Dude I so love you. Thanks Im going to use it for modding my xbox.LOL

[charger272727]

I play games a lot on my pc with windows XP. I do not believe my usb drive or controller are broken and my usb drive isn't working. I tried shuting off the power saver, i tried unistall reinstall the usb hubs, i followed all the troubleshooting, and still nothing. It doesn't show up in my computer or any of those things at all, it just doesn't seem to be functioning and i'm ready to go berzerk, PLEASE HELP!!!

[PCMichiana]

@charger272727 The drive does not show up at all under the disk manager (as shown in this video)? If that's the case, what is the model number of your flash drive.

[freddyXDyeah]

Got music, i switch music song, right click, n press Copy to device or CD. Go there n it sayd DEVICE NOT DETECED. Wtf? I've tryd my MP3 to all holes. It says not detected

[jasonyeozhishen]

at 1.14. as you said.. my file button never pop out from my computer..

then how will it come out at 1.14? i'm sorry.. i dont understand :p. . haha

i went to the disk management .. then i scroll down.. i cant even see my file.

[SuperMarko996]

When i go to computer management there is no usb there is only local disc c: and local disc D: pls help me

[Sonikku94]

How do you know if you have already used a drive letter? Apologies if that was a stupid question.

[zacharylisle]

mine doesn't even show up on that and mine is a $230.00 usb and its broken for ever :'( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PCMichiana]

Do you have a model number for your flash drive?

[zekenmayasmom]

@PCMichiana I have the ativa slider 4G usb 2.0 flash drive. It was working fine. All of a sudden the computer does not know it exists. It does not light up, the auto play box doesn't pop up, Nothing happens, and it doesn't show up in my computer or disk management. HELP!

[Casson12]

Hi there, I go to disk management and right click my external hard drive and it doesnt let me pick options. I recently accidentally synced it with time machine on a mac at school. At home i have windows and the usb doesnt work. Could you help?

[EuphoryGta]

@PCMichiana Hey :)

[EuphoryGta]

understand. the insert the USB to PC, cumputer not exhaust even the device, occurred earlier pictures as your PATRIOT Act, but now pc didn't Response

[EuphoryGta]

Whitch part of the video? :)

[EuphoryGta]

Why my pc dont detect Sony ericsson usb ?