The computer does not see the flash drive. Technology cannot work forever. There may be several reasons:

1) the front connectors on the PC are not connected to the motherboard;

2) there is not enough food;

5) file system conflict;

6) hardware failure of the drive.

Almost all problems can be “treated” with improvised means, namely computer system utilities. Let's look at each breakdown in detail.

Reason 1: Inactive sockets and lack of power

If the computer is under warranty, feel free to complain to the seller about poor quality assembly. Alternatively, use the rear ports.

The second nuance is insufficient power supply to the connectors, which is why the flash drive “blinks”, i.e. randomly recognized/disappears.

Most likely, the assemblers are to blame for screwing up when connecting them to the system board, not completely recessing the cable into the corresponding groove.

In this case, you again need to visit the service center or seller. But if you have experience building a PC, try doing it yourself.

If after all the manipulations absolutely nothing happens, the problem lies elsewhere.

Reason 2: drivers

Each flash drive initially stores a driver in memory, which is automatically installed when the device is connected.

But Windows can periodically crash, causing the average user to suffer. To correct the situation, the following set of manipulations will be required.

To begin, right-click on “My Computer” and go to “properties”.

A list of several tabs will be displayed, from which you need to select “Hardware” and go to “Device Manager”.

Scroll through the list until we find USB controllers.

Expand the list by clicking on “+” and see full list devices that are connected or have been connected once through the required connector.

One of the components will change its name. This is our culprit and must be eliminated.

To do this, right-click on it and select “Delete”. Confirm your intentions, and then reinsert the flash drive. The driver will be picked up automatically.

In the vast majority of cases this helps.

Reason 3: viruses and trojans

Although the system requires checking devices for spyware, few people do this, for which they pay for the system to malfunction.

It’s very simple: the virus replaces the “native” autorun driver with a modified one, which can result in the message “Access denied” appearing.

Therefore, if the flash drive does not boot , we do the following.

Open “My Computer” and enter the device letter in the address bar (everything is as in the screenshot, preserving the characters). Your drive letter may vary.

So, you got inside. But now you have to do hidden files visible to get to autorun.

To do this, select “Service”, and from the list that opens, select “Folder Options”.

We are interested in the “View” tab. Scroll the slider to the very bottom until you find the “Hide system files...” setting.

We uncheck this item, simultaneously switching the system to the ability to show hidden files.

The main work has been done. All you need to do is find the infected file under the name autorun.inf and mercilessly delete it.

Have you checked? Great. Re-insert the long-suffering device and continue working.

Reason 4: Partition conflict

Other incidents also happen. For example, you inserted a drive into your computer. The system recognized him and issued the corresponding “tyn-dyn.”

A characteristic icon has appeared on the taskbar at the bottom, but for some reason Windows refuses to assign a partition letter. How to deal with this?

To begin, click Start and go to Control Panel.

On the left side of the window, for ease of use, select “Switch to category view.”

Although if it is already turned on, there is no need to perform any manipulations. We need to get into “Administration”.

Important: all manipulations must be done only on behalf of the administrator. Otherwise, the system will not accept the changes.

Select “Computer Management” by double-clicking and move on.

Here is the “reverse side” of the system with various settings. Do not under any circumstances engage in ad-libbing if you do not understand it. Just follow our advice.

So, on the left there are three main categories, of which we need the second, namely “Storage devices”.

A list of all logical drives, which are in the system. Including our nameless flash drive.

We fix this jamb by pressing the right button on the drive. Select the item “Change letter...”.

A small window will pop up, kindly asking you to change the letter. Click on “Change”.

A menu will appear with just one active element, which is what we need. Please note that not all letters are applicable to the flash drive, because:

1) A – floppy disc;

2) B – similar;

3) C – system partition hard drive;

4) D – logical partition.

Let it be, for example, “G”, which we will stop at. Save the changes and enjoy the result.

Reason 5: mechanical damage

Perhaps the saddest problem that exists. In this case, software tools are unlikely to save you.

Although, if you have soldering skills, or the breakdown is not so critical, you may be able to restore the patient, or at least reset the information to the PC hard drive.

Why doesn't the computer see the USB flash drive? 8 possible reasons!

The computer does not see the flash drive: what is the reason?

Apr 11 2013

The computer does not see the flash drive - there is a solution

Hello. Your The computer does not see the flash drive, memory card or hard drive and you are wondering what to do? Surely every computer user has experienced a similar situation, or even more than one.

Today I will help you with solving issues if your computers do not see flash drives and other similar devices. I’ll tell you what problems there are with displaying usb devices and how to solve them.

Display problems

By the way, the last article was about data recovery from a flash drive. If you are interested in this, then replenish your knowledge.

Your computer does not see or detect the flash drive, hard drive and memory card. Let's look at the possible reasons for this situation. At the end of the article, don’t forget to watch a visual video lesson on how to make a flash drive or hard drive work.

A short outline of the article

• Device Definition
• Power indicator
• Front USB ports
• Not enough food
• USB disabled in BIOS
• USB device not recognized
• Outdated drivers
• Viruses
• Different file systems
• Conclusion

Determining the device

The first step is to determine exactly how the computer does not see your usb drive. From this answer it will be clear whether it is possible or not.

To do this, you need to go to Windows Device Manager.

In order to enter it, you need to right-click on the my computer shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu, go to properties, click on device manager.

After that, select disk devices.

We got to the device manager and the disk devices tab. If your flash drive or memory card appears in this list, then it is highly likely that you can recover data on it. If there is no flash drive there, then the memory card controller is most likely burned out. I recommend trying to connect your USB device to other computers.

If nothing changes and the flash drive is still not visible, then the problem is probably a faulty controller. It’s unlikely that you will extract data from such a USB device; you can, of course, contact special institutions that do this (they are not available in all cities), but they will charge you a tidy sum for the work. So think about whether you need it or not.

Your flash drive is visible as a device, but it does not appear in my computer or Explorer, or asks to be formatted. To do this you need to go to disk management. To get into it you need to perform the following steps. Here are screenshots for clarity:

Right-click on my computer and go to management.

Go to disk management.

The device is displayed, writes its volume and file system - it is ready for use and functions normally.

The device is displayed, shows its capacity, but does not display the file system and writes “not defined”. In order to use it, you need to right-click in the Not Defined window and select Format.

You can check the quick formatting box and click OK. After the device is formatted, it should work in normal operating mode.

Displayed as a removable device, says no media and does not show the file system. All these parameters indicate that this device is not working properly, there is internal or external damage to the controller. You can hardly read information from such a flash drive without special expensive equipment.

Power indicator

When you connect the flash drive to the computer, a small indicator on the USB device should light up. If it lights up and starts blinking, then everything is fine with the flash drive, but not with the operating system, you need to look for the reason in it. If the flash drive indicator does not light up, then the problem may be in the device itself or the connected port of the computer.

Front USB ports

There have been cases when a flash drive is connected to a computer via the front USB ports, but the flash drive does not work. Perhaps these front usbs are turned off or they forgot to connect them to motherboard.

Not enough power

Power shortages mainly occur when connecting hard drives through the front USB ports of the computer, hubs and hubs. It is best to connect such devices directly to the USB connectors on the motherboard, that is, at the back of the computer. If you use a usb hub or hub, then disconnect unnecessary devices, this may help. The reason may also be a low-power computer power supply.

USB disabled in BIOS

This problem is rare. Mainly in computer clubs and similar entertainment establishments. What is this for? To prevent a person from introducing viruses and downloading different programs and unnecessary information to the computer. This is more of a protective measure. If this is a home computer, then you need to go to the settings and check the box to enable the launch of usb devices in the motherboard.

USB device not recognized

The usb device is not recognized and when you connect a flash drive, the operating system gives it an already used letter (volume label in use). This does not always happen; there are other cases. In order to fix this you need to go to the computer control panel.

I showed how to enter it above, or you can open the Run window - keyboard shortcut Win + R (checkbox between Ctrl and Alt plus the letter R) and type the command diskmgmt.msc. Go to disk management, find the desired device - a flash drive, right-click on it and select Change drive letter or drive path. In the window that appears, you can add or change this letter.

Outdated drivers

It is possible that your drivers are outdated - update them. To do this, you need to find out what manufacturer and model of your motherboard is. Usually written on the packaging box, if you saved them, of course. If not, then use the Everest or Aida program.

Using them, you can find out the model of your motherboard and a lot of other useful information about your computer. After you have found out everything, you need to go to the official website of the manufacturer and find the desired system board and download drivers for the chipset and usb device, if any.

Viruses

There have been cases when the computer does not recognize the flash drive due to viruses that have appeared in your operating system. To do this, I recommend using good anti-virus programs and doing a full virus scan at least once a month. If you don't have it, you can use free antivirus, or purchase a paid product.

Different file systems

This happens, but very rarely. Your computer does not see the flash drive due to a conflict between the computer’s file systems and USB devices. Most flash drives work in two file systems: FAT and FAT32, and hard drives work in NTFS.

You can try formatting your flash drive in a different format such as FAT32 or NTFS. Maybe after this everything will work fine.

Useful information. On a flash drive in FAT and FAT32 format, you can upload information in one file of no more than 4 Gigabytes, and on a hard drive much more. Therefore, if you encounter such a problem, be prepared for it and keep it in mind.

And for dessert, watch a short video tutorial on how to make your computer see a flash drive and hard drive. For convenient and enjoyable viewing, I recommend watching this video in full screen, that is, in full screen mode.

The computer does not recognize the flash drive and hard drive

Conclusion

And I also have some news. Yesterday my email account was hacked. I tried to restore it, but to no avail. I filled out the form to the support service, the answer should be sent within 3 working days, I will wait for news. If everything goes well and I can restore my mail, I will definitely write a separate article about it. After all, this problem happens to many Internet users.

Perhaps you have any questions or questions - your computer does not see the flash drive. You can ask them below in the comments to this article, and also use the form with me.

Thank you for reading me on

What to do if the computer does not see the flash drive? Removable drives and HDDs should be extremely easy to use. But sometimes it happens that after connecting an external USB device to personal computer from the operating room Windows system it is absolutely not recognized. If the computer does not see the flash card, this may be caused by problems with the partitions on the removable drive, using the wrong file system, faulty connectors, outdated drivers, or other reasons.

Below in the text, as well as at the end of the article, you can watch a video why the computer does not see the removable disk. Perhaps you will learn or understand more from it than from the article.

If the PC does not see the flash drive through “My Computer,” then, in the worst case, this may mean that the removable drive has failed and can no longer be restored. Pocket flash drives and large external HDDs work on an identical principle, so the tips listed below are relevant for both types of devices.

What to do if the laptop does not see the flash drive? First of all, you need to find out whether the drive is visible in the disk management manager. Windows Explorer should automatically detect a removable device when it is connected via USB. Insert the disk into the slot. In some cases, to activate an external device, you must press a special button or lever on it. Heavy removable HDDs, unlike flash drives, can even be connected to the mains using a separate power cable, so the computer may not see the external drive if it is turned off.

Now you need to open the Disk Management tool. To do this, press the key combination Win + R, enter diskmgmt.msc in the line that appears and confirm with Enter. Now we can see the external drive in the management window. It should appear here even if it has no partitions.

If you see a device here that is not readable, then you can immediately begin formatting it so that Windows Explorer And various devices could access it. If the netbook does not detect the flash drive, then move on to the next section, in which we will try to determine why the drive is not recognized.

Now we need to somehow get Windows Explorer to recognize external drive. It may not be recognized due to a hardware problem related to the computer's USB port. Others possible reasons There may be incorrectly installed drivers or a physical breakdown of the flash drive.

What to do when the computer does not see the flash drive? First, you need to disconnect the drive from one USB port and try connecting it to another. If the removable disk works in the new slot, this means that the problem was a malfunction of the previous one. In case you are using a USB extension cable, try disconnecting it and connecting the flash drive directly to your computer. Such cables sometimes cannot provide the removable device with enough power to operate.

Driver problems

If Windows 7 does not see the flash drive in Disk Management, even after you have connected it to another connector on the laptop, then the problem may be with the flash drive itself or with the PC. If there is another computer nearby, you should try connecting the drive to it to see if it detects it. If a flash drive refuses to work on several computers, then it has most likely become obsolete and must be disposed of. But before making such a sad conclusion, you definitely need to check whether the removable device appears in the disk management window on other computers.

If the drive works on other PCs, or you do not have additional computers at hand that can be used, you need to check the relevance installed drivers. This is done using the device manager. To open it, press the key combination Win + R, enter devmgmt.msc in the line that opens and confirm with Enter.

In the list of devices that appears, you need to carefully check all drives for the presence of an icon in the form of a yellow exclamation mark. If you were able to detect such a symbol, then the problem lies with the drivers. Right-click on the device with yellow exclamation point, select “Properties” and look at the error message. This should help you solve the problem as it can be copied to the string Google search to find reviews from other users who have encountered a similar problem.

Problems like these can be difficult to fix. If the computer does not see the drive relatively recently, then you can try running System Restore. But the best way is to use the "Update Driver" button to install latest version necessary software. You can try clicking “Roll Back Driver” in the hope that it will previous version turns out to be workable. You can also use the “Delete” button to external device disappeared from view of the system until the computer was rebooted. It also happens that when you repeat Windows startup The flash drive suddenly becomes working.

Partitioning and formatting

If the computer does not recognize the USB flash drive, then the disk management tool can be used to fix partition and file system problems. If you see that the disk is partitioned and full of unallocated space, then you can create a new partition on it. Thanks to this, Windows and others operating systems will be able to work with a flash drive.

Right-click inside the unallocated space, select “New Simple Partition” and follow the further instructions of the program. If the drive is divided into parts, but still does not appear, you need to check whether a specific drive letter is assigned to it. Typically this should happen automatically, but in some cases manual entry may be necessary. Right-click on the removable disk partition, select “Change letter” and enter any free letter. For example, you can write “G:”, and in the future the drive on the computer will be called that way.

If the disk is partitioned, but XP does not see the flash drive, then it is not a fact that the partition was done using the correct file system. For example, a flash drive can be formatted using ext4 for Linux (Linux) or HFS Plus from Mac (Mac). In this case, Windows 10 does not see the flash drive because it is not familiar with such a system. You need to reformat the drive using NTFS or FAT32. Thanks to this, Windows will be able to recognize the flash memory. To reconfigure a partition, right-click on it, click “Format” and select the desired file system.

Please note that this will delete all files on the drive. It makes sense to first connect the flash drive to your Linux or Mac device to copy the data. If you are unable to connect a removable drive to devices such as a DVD player or TV, the reason may be file system NTFS. The above technique only works with FAT32.

Hello.

Today, one of the most popular types of media is a flash drive. And no matter what anyone says, the age of CD/DVD discs is coming to an end. Moreover, the price of one flash drive is only 3-4 times more than the price DVD disc! True, there is one small “but” - it is much more difficult to “break” a disk than a flash drive...

Although not often, one unpleasant situation sometimes happens with flash drives: you remove the microSD flash card from your phone or camera, insert it into your computer or laptop, but it doesn’t see it. There can be many reasons for this: viruses, software errors, failure of a flash drive, etc. In this article, I would like to stop on the most popular reasons for invisibility, as well as provide some tips and recommendations on what to do in such cases.

Types of flash cards. Is SD card supported by your card reader?

Here I would like to dwell in more detail. Many users often confuse one type of memory card with another. The fact is that there are three types of SD flash cards: microSD, miniSD, SD.

Why did the manufacturers do this?

It's just there different devices: for example, a small audio player (or a small mobile phone) and, for example, a camera or photo camera. Those. The devices are completely different in size with different requirements for the speed of flash cards and the amount of information. This is why there are several types of flash drives. Now in more detail about each of them.

1. microSD

Size: 11mm x 15mm.

MicroSD flash cards are very popular thanks to portable devices: players, phones, tablets. Using microSD, the memory of the listed devices can be increased very quickly by an order of magnitude!

Usually, when purchasing, they come with a small adapter so that this flash drive can be connected instead of an SD card (more on them below). By the way, for example, to connect this flash drive to a laptop, you need to: insert micsroSD into the adapter, and then insert the adapter into the SD connector on the front/side panel of the laptop.

2.miniSD

Size: 21.5mm x 20mm.

Once popular cards used in portable equipment. Today they are used less and less, mainly due to the popularity of the microSD format.

3. SD

Size: 32mm x 24mm.

Flash cards: sdhc and sdxc.

These cards are mostly used in devices that require a large amount of memory + high speed. For example, a video camera, a car video recorder, a camera, etc. devices. SD cards are divided into several generations:

1. SD 1 – from 8 MB to 2 GB in size;
2. SD 1.1 – up to 4 GB;
3. SDHC – up to 32 GB;
4. SDXC – up to 2 TB.

Very important points when working with SD cards!

1) In addition to the amount of memory, SD cards indicate the speed (more precisely, the class). For example, in the screenshots above, the card class is “10” - this means that the exchange speed with such a card is at least 10 MB/s (more details about classes: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital). It is important to pay attention to what speed class of flash card is required for your device!

2) microSD using special. adapters (they are usually written adapter (see screenshots above)) can be used instead of regular SD cards. True, doing this always and everywhere is not recommended (precisely because of the speed of information exchange).

3) SD card readers are backward compatible: i.e. if you take a device that reads SDHC, it will read SD cards of 1 and 1.1 generations, but will not be able to read SDXC. This is why it is important to pay attention to what cards your device can read.

By the way, many “relatively old” laptops have built-in card readers that are not able to read new types of SDHC flash cards. The solution in this case is quite simple: buy a card reader connected to a regular USB port; by the way, it looks more like a regular flash drive. Price: several hundred rubles.

SDXC card reader. Connects to a USB 3.0 port.

The same drive letter is the reason for the invisibility of flash drives, hard drives, and memory cards!

The fact is that if your hard drive has a drive letter of F: (for example) and your inserted flash card is also F:, then the flash card will not be displayed in Explorer. Those. you go to “my computer” - and you won’t see the flash drive there!

To fix this, you need to go to the “disk management” panel. How to do this?

In Windows 8: press Win+X, select “disk management”.

In Windows 7/8: press Win+R and enter the command “diskmgmt.msc”.

Next, you should see a window that will show all connected disks, flash drives, and other devices. Moreover, even those devices that are not formatted and that are not visible in “my computer” will be shown. If your memory card is on this list, then you need to do two things:

1. Change its drive letter to a unique one (to do this, simply right-click on the flash drive and context menu select the operation of changing the letter, see screenshot below);

2. Format the flash card (if you have a new one, or it does not have the necessary data on it. Attention, the formatting operation will destroy all data on the flash card).

Changing the drive letter. Windows 8.

Lack of drivers is a popular reason why the computer does not see the SD card!

Even if your computer/laptop is brand new and you just brought it from the store yesterday, this does not guarantee anything. The fact is that the store sellers (or their specialists who prepare the goods for sale) could simply forget to install necessary drivers, or just being lazy. Most likely, you were given disks (or copied to your hard drive) with all the drivers and you just need to install them.

In general, there are special programs that can scan your computer (or rather, all its devices) and find the latest drivers for each device. I have already written about such utilities in previous posts. Here I will give only 2 links:

1. Programs for updating drivers: ;
2. Finding and updating drivers:

Connecting an SD card via USB using some device

If the computer does not see the SD card itself, then why can’t you try to insert the SD card into some device (for example, a phone, camera, camera, etc.) and connect it to the PC? To be honest, I rarely remove the flash card from devices, preferring to copy photos and videos from them, connecting them to my laptop via a USB cable.

Do I need special programs to connect my phone to a PC?

New operating systems such as Windows 7, 8 are capable of working with many devices without installing additional software. Installation of drivers and configuration of the device occurs in automatic mode when connecting the device to the USB port for the first time.

For each brand of phone/camera there are utilities recommended by the manufacturer (see on the manufacturer’s website)…

1. Try connecting the card to another computer and check if it recognizes and sees it;

2. Scan your computer for viruses (). It is rare, but there are some types of viruses that block access to disks (including flash drives).

That's all for today, good luck everyone!