Open the Windows 8 flash drive. What to do if the computer does not see the flash drive? If the disk is visible in Disk Management, but it is not allocated

If you are a Windows user, you may encounter a problem with the USB device on your PC. You may see this error when connecting Pendrive, webcam, printer or flash drives. This can happen for many reasons. Thanks to this article, you will learn how to fix: “ The laptop does not recognize USB devices".

This problem exists in all modern versions such as Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7. There are actually different reasons for this error.

Why doesn't the USB port recognize devices?

All PC errors and problems have some causes. Here's what causes this problem −

• Unstable or damaged USB controllers.
• Outdated motherboard drive.
• Lack of important Windows updates or any other services.
• Damaged USB drives.
• Incorrect power management settings.

Fix “does not recognize usb device” in Windows:

Every problem has a solution. Fortunately, there are many ways to fix problems. USB device on Windows. Let's try the most effective methods.

Method 1: Restart your computer.

One of the simplest and fastest ways to eliminate " can't recognize usb device" is to reboot the PC. Before starting your computer, unplug it for 1 minute. This will reset the USB hub on your motherboard. If the problem occurs on the laptop, you should remove the laptop battery for 3-4 minutes and reinsert it. Now start your computer and see if the problem is still there.

Method 2: Find an undetected driver.

Scanning for not detected drivers is another great choice for diagnosing and repairing the error " Windows 7,8,10 does not recognize usb device" by using device manager. It has access to all internal and external devices that electrify your system.

• Go to your control panel.
• Select Hardware and Sound.
• Click Device Manager.
• Open the action menu.
• Now click on “Scan for hardware changes”.
• Windows scans your hardware.
• Close the Manager and all Control Panel windows.
• Now check if your computer finds the driver by re-opening device Manager.

Method 4: Update drivers.

Sometimes updating device drivers will fix the problem in Windows. You can do this in different ways.

1. Check the USB driver manufacturer's website. Find updated drivers. Download and install them.

Method 5: Managing USB Hub Power

Sometimes, to correct a mistake " Windows does not recognize the USB device“, you need to do the following.

• Open Device Manager again.
• Click "USB Controllers".
• Now right click on the USB Root Hub.
• Select Properties.
• Go to the Power Management tab.
• Now, uncheck the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
• Now click "OK".

Method 6: Removing an unknown USB drive

If other methods do not work, you should remove unknown devices to resolve the error " computer does not recognize usb devices»

• First, open Run by pressing Windows logo + R.
• Enter devmgmt.msc and click "OK".
• Now click on “USB controllers”.
• Connect a device that is not recognized by the PC port.
• Find the icon called Unknown USB device(port failure).
• Right-click on it and select Delete.
• Restart your computer.

Method 7: Reinstall USB Drivers

Sometimes windows 10 does not recognize usb device, due to corrupted USB drivers, then you should try this.

Why doesn't the computer see the flash drive? My friends ask me at the end of the working day and put the system unit in front of me, in response to my remark that the computer is not new, I hear the answer: they bought it recently, everything worked for the previous owner, but for some reason they didn’t and they put a camera in front of me that needs to be connected , a flash drive, and in addition they show the printer in the corner, I was very tired, but I need to solve the issue, USB specifications, compatibility, the USB controller in the BIOS were spinning in my head, with which I decided to start.

Why doesn't the computer see the flash drive?

If you connect a device to the USB connector of the system unit, it should automatically be detected and available in the My Computer window, but this does not happen and the device is not detected.

Let's start with the BIOS, and how to get into it? In most cases, you need to frequently press the F2 or Delete keys in the very initial phase of booting the computer, or read the instructions for your motherboard, or you can read our article
We went into the BIOS, we have it from Award, then go to the tab Advanced and move to the point Integrated Peripherals, press Enter

and we see that ours USB Controller included

but he specs USB 1.1, so what, our devices should work with it.
Here I had the idea to reinstall the operating system, but first I decided to look inside the system unit and saw a USB 1.1 hub connected to a 9-pin connector on the motherboard, this hub brought four USB standard connectors to the rear panel of the system unit, on the motherboard itself There are only two USB 1.1 ports and you might not even notice them.

• Note: The point is that hubs USB 1.1 cannot be used to connect devices USB 2.0. Of course, the old owner knew about this and tried to connect all devices directly to the USB ports on the motherboard, but my friends did not.

Let's connect our devices directly to USB ports on the motherboard.
After turning on the computer, we saw a message from the operating system indicating that a faster USB 2.0 specification device is connected to the port.
Flash drive I saw it quickly, but for the Hewlett-Packard camera I had to download a driver package from the official website and only after installing them did it start working. By the way, I tried to connect the camera to a system unit with a motherboard supporting the USB 2.0 interface, to no avail. The hardware installation wizard also did not solve the issue.
As for the Samsung printer, all labels with numbers and names were erased, the drivers had to be searched by the device code, we have a good article about this. Once the drivers were found, our printer worked perfectly.

Let me give you another example why computer Maybe can't see the flash drive, may be useful to you.
I have a laptop at work and a Canon CanoScan LiDE scanner is connected to it, which is powered directly from the USB port. The manufacturer claims energy efficiency, this is good, but as soon as I connect two more devices to my laptop, for example, a USB interface keyboard, and then a flash drive, the laptop stops seeing the scanner or does not see the flash drive at point-blank range, why?
This means that there is a power shortage for these devices, sometimes the overall level of energy consumption connected to the USB connectors approaches the limit of its capabilities.

You can find out the power of the USB controller on your computer in Device Manager Properties- tab Nutrition, it is equal 500 mA for USB 2.0 and 900 mA for version 3.0, and printers and scanners require much more power to power.

To avoid overloading this interface, Windows may disable some devices

Here's another answer to the question Why doesn't the computer see the flash drive?

Let's prevent Windows from managing the power supply of the USB controller, go to the device manager and expand the branch Universal Serial Bus Controllers, Further USB root hub, double-click on it with the left mouse button and select Power management. You need to uncheck Allow this device to turn off to save power and press OK, this needs to be done for everyone USB root hub.

Operating systems of the Windows family produced by Microsoft often do not see USB devices, and there can be a lot of reasons for this.
How this manifests itself and whether there is a way out of the situation is the topic of our article. We will dwell on the reasons in more detail and try to consider each case separately. If your laptop or personal computer does not see the USB flash drive, this manifests itself as follows:

• You connected a USB flash drive, but the computer displays the message “insert USB device.”
• The flash drive is connected, as evidenced by the icon and sound, but it is not in the file manager.
• A warning appears about formatting the USB device.
• A data error warning appears.

Before trying various ways to fix the problem of the invisibility of a flash drive, make sure that the drive is not physically damaged, and also use one of the special applications that diagnoses and corrects errors in USB devices. For example, special utilities developed by Kingston and Sandisk corporations.

Check if the computer sees the connected flash drive in Disk Management

To launch a special utility that manages USB devices, do the following:

Opening the Disk Management tab, turn the flash drive on and off several times. If a connected USB device appears, the computer will notify you that each of its sections (there is only one in the flash drive) is working. In this situation, the easiest way to fix the error is that the PC does not see the flash drive. Right-click on a section to make that section active. You can also assign the letter E or D to the flash drive. After this, you will see that the computer has recognized the USB device.

And if, after reconnecting the device, the partition status is displayed in “Disk Management” as “Not allocated,” then it either does not exist, or it is working with errors. Right click and create a partition. But this can only be used if the menu has the “Create a simple volume” item. If you create a partition, the flash drive will be formatted, although all data stored on it will be lost.

If in the utility you find the label “uninitialized” USB device, it means it is damaged. You can try to restore the drive's memory. We will tell you how to do this later. If you have previously created partitions on a USB device that are not supported by the Microsoft operating system, then you need to delete them. Step-by-step instructions will tell you how to do this.

Further simple steps

Using the OS device manager, you can view all installed USB devices and check that they are working correctly. See how your USB flash drive is displayed in the manager. The flash drive connected to the computer may be unknown, identified by its own name, or labeled as a USB storage device.

This flash drive must be removed. Then "update USB storage configuration".

Very often, after these steps, the updated USB device is displayed in the OS file manager.

There are also other situations that lead to an error in which the computer does not see the flash drive. Perhaps you are connecting a USB device using an extension cord or USB hub? Then try directly connecting the device to each of the USB ports in turn. Perhaps one of the ports is inoperative and you don't know about it.

Try another option. Turn off your computer and remove everything that was connected to it (printers, cameras, external media, card readers and other devices connected via USB), leaving only the bare minimum and the drive. After this, turn on the computer. If the PC saw the connected storage device, you have found the problem. The problem is that there is not enough power supplied to the computer's USB ports. In this case, replacing the power supply or purchasing a USB hub will help you.

Windows 10 does not see the USB flash drive after updating or installing (also suitable for Windows 7, 8)

If you have updated your operating system, there is a high probability that you will encounter such a problem. In this case, the problem lies either in the lack of a recent version of USB drivers, or in the fact that the registry entries for USB devices are outdated.

If this is the second option, you can use the USBOblivion program. You can download it for free to the author and remove all outdated entries. Be careful! Before deleting, it is better to create a restore point so that if USBOblivion does not work correctly, you can undo the erroneous actions and return to the previous settings.

Before starting the utility, disconnect all flash drives connected to the USB ports. Only after that, run it and clean the registry, after saving old entries to a file.

After cleaning the registry, reboot and reconnect the drive. If the computer again does not see it, follow step by step all the steps we wrote about above: remove it, update the configuration and connect again.

If you have an operating system version 10, then an error may occur due to driver incompatibility. If this is the case, there will be a mark next to the driver - an exclamation point. In this case, download updated versions from the official developer pages. Do not use third-party sites to search for drivers, especially if you need to update them for your mobile computer. In some cases, it is recommended to update the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) as well.

If the flash drive is not seen by Windows XP

Owners of Windows XP, especially SP2 builds, often encounter a problem where the computer does not see the flash drive. This problem is due to the lack of updates in the operating system that would allow working with USB devices.

If you have this operating system and encounter the problem, follow these steps:

1. Update the build to SP3 and remove the IE browser.
2. Update your operating system, even if you have a new build.
3. If the problem occurs on Win Vista, also update the software first.

The new build of Windows XP came with updates that allowed USB drives to work correctly. The following errors have been fixed by Microsoft in the new version of Windows XP:

• KB967132 - in the previous version it was impossible to connect multiple flash drives or other devices. When interacting with each other, they caused crashes, freezes and critical system reboots.
• KB898962 - when the printer is turned off, the flash drive also stops working correctly.
• KB315634 - it is impossible to connect new USB flash drives, although old ones that were previously used work without problems.
• KB924196 - this error indicated that the personal/mobile computer did not see the connected flash drive or portable media player.
• KB88840 - when connecting/disconnecting a USB device, a computer or laptop displays a warning about a common Rundll32.exe error.
• KB362370 - the new build of Windows XP now supports the second version of the USB port.
• KB881233 - after the computer wakes from sleep mode, the flash drive is not displayed in the device manager. A problem similar to the previous case occurs after the computer comes out of hibernation.
• KB857900 - after turning flash devices on/off again, the port did not work correctly.

Completely remove old USB drivers

You connect a flash drive, but the computer does not see it and displays a warning about its absence. The problem may be that your old drivers do not work correctly and, therefore, the USB device cannot be assigned a letter. Old drivers can also cause problems with rebooting, freezing, or incorrect operation of the computer when a flash device is connected.

Microsoft operating system drivers are installed by default immediately after connecting the external drive for the first time. Then this installed driver remains in the OS. But when you connect another device, the driver may not work, causing crashes and other problems. In a word, to solve all sorts of problems associated with incorrect operation of drivers, they must be removed and new ones installed again.

How to remove drivers for all USB devices

Step one After turning off the computer, remove everything: printers, cameras, external media, card readers and other devices connected via USB.

Step two Boot the operating system.

Step three Download the free DriveCleanup program, compatible with all versions of Windows, from the author’s official page.

Step four The drivecleanup.exe file must be copied to

C:\Windows\System32\
Step Five In the command line, write drivecleanup.exe.

Step six The program will clear all drivers and entries.

After the computer restarts, insert the flash drive and wait while the utility installs the updated drivers.

Reinstalling USB devices in Windows Device Manager

If you have used all the methods discussed and none of them helped, follow these four steps:

1. In Device Manager, enter devmgmt.msc.
2. From Device Manager, open the USB Controllers tab.
3. Delete everything where the names include USB hub, Hub, Host Controller.
4. Update the USB device configuration from the manager.

After completing all four steps, reconnect the flash drive. Perhaps the problem will be solved, and your personal or mobile computer can already see all external devices.

Additional actions

It would also be a good idea to perform the following four steps in sequence:

1. A possible reason that a computer or laptop does not see flash media is the presence of viruses. Download if you do not have it installed, and check all disks.
2. A possible cause could also be an incorrect registry entry. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer. NoDrives must be removed, and then restart your PC or laptop.
3. In registry entries HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control you also need to remove StorageDevicePolicies.
4. If all else fails, completely unplug your computer. Unplug the cord from the outlet, having first disconnected the PC or the battery from the laptop, and hold the power button for a while. After this, you can turn on the computer and try the flash drive.

Recovering data from a flash drive that the computer cannot see

If the computer sees your flash drive, but it is listed as “uninitialized” with an “unallocated” partition, then the device’s memory is damaged. Do not despair prematurely: in some cases, all information stored on a removable drive can be restored.

When using flash drives, remember two simple things that, in case of unexpected situations, will help you restore everything that was stored on them:

First, if you want to restore a flash drive, do not copy additional information to it.

Second, if you are restoring the device’s memory, save the information from it to another flash drive.

We recommend that you use the best utility - . The program is free, effective, has a clear Russian-language interface and two versions - installation and portable - therefore it is very popular among different categories of users. Using this software, you can recover absolutely all information from all media, not just flash devices.

The utility works in both manual and automatic modes, and even beginners who have never dealt with such software can use it. Recuva itself will offer the best way to recover all information from a damaged flash drive, you just have to agree by clicking the confirm button.

If after all the manipulations you still cannot connect the USB device to your computer or laptop, the recovery program cannot be used, and the information stored in its memory is very important, we recommend professional help from specialists who deal with these problems. They will restore both files and all content stored on the damaged device.

At one point, when the user inserts his storage device into the USB port, the computer may not react at all. Up to this point, everything was fine: the system calmly identified the storage medium and could work with it. But now everything is different and the computer flatly refuses to even show that a flash drive has been inserted into it. In such a situation, there is no need to panic, because everything can be fixed, the main thing is to know how to do it correctly so as not to completely ruin the drive.

In most cases, a simple reconnection helps. If you removed and reinserted your storage media, but the problem persists, then our guide will help you.

It is very important to adhere to the order in which all actions will be presented below. If you decide to use one method separately, this is unlikely to solve the problem. In the course of describing the methods, we will be able to check all possible reasons why the flash drive is not detected by the operating system.

Method 1: Check the device itself and the computer

First you need to do the following:

1. Determine if the media itself is working. To do this, insert it into the USB port and see if the indicator light on it lights up. In some cases, a special sound is also used. In any case, there should be some kind of reaction on the flash drive.
2. Connect the drive to another USB port. It is advisable to use one that definitely works (this could be, for example, the connector that you use to connect a mouse or printer).
3. Carefully inspect your flash drive. There may be some debris or dust on it that prevents it from being detected by the computer.

Device problem

If your drive is detected (something lights up or there is a characteristic sound), but nothing further happens, then the problem is in the ports or in the computer itself. But if the drive itself does not react to the connection, then the problem lies with it.

To make sure of this, be sure to try connecting it to a different connector. First, clean it thoroughly from dust. To do this, use brushes and cotton wool with alcohol. Let the device dry and use it again.

Is the problem still there? Then the obstacle may be in the device itself, or more precisely, in its contacts. In this case, it can be taken for repairs, but the restoration procedure will most likely be very expensive. It is often better to buy a new flash drive than to pay to have your old one repaired.


Port problem

If the drive has some kind of reaction to the connection, but the computer itself does not react at all, the problem is in the USB ports. To verify this, do this:

1. Try connecting it to another computer (very convenient if you have a PC and a laptop).
2. Use the disk management tool on your computer. To do this, simultaneously press the buttons on the keyboard "Win" And "R" to launch the program execution window. Enter the command "diskmgmt.msc". Click "Enter". When the tool we need starts, try removing and reinserting your flash drive. If there is no response in disk management, then the problem is definitely in the ports. But if there is a reaction, everything is much simpler. Then, to solve the problem, use method 2-7 of this manual.

So, if you manage to determine that the problem is in the ports, do this:

It is likely that after these steps the flash drive will begin to appear on the computer, at least in the disk management tool. If these instructions did not help and the media is still unreadable, contact a specialist and have your computer repaired. It is quite possible that the problem is a complete malfunction of the ports and it would be better to simply replace them. It's worse if there is some kind of malfunction in the motherboard. But all this can be verified only with a more detailed analysis using special tools.

Method 2: Use the Windows USB Troubleshooter

So, everything is fine with the USB ports, the flash drive has some kind of reaction when connected to the computer, and it appears in the disk management tool as an unknown device. But then nothing happens and the files, accordingly, cannot be viewed. In this case, use the standard Windows troubleshooter. The system will probably be able to independently determine what the problem is and how to solve it.

To do this, follow these steps:

Unfortunately, this program does not always allow you to correct errors. So if all else fails, try the following methods manually.

Method 3: Update your drivers

There are two methods for performing this action: through the Windows Device Manager and through additional software. To use the first one, do the following:

Method 4: Check the flash drive and computer for viruses

This method is relevant for cases when the drive is detected by the computer, but still does not open. Instead, an error appears. For example, it may say "Access denied" or something like that. Also, the media may open, but there will be no files on it. If this is not the case in your case, simply check your computer for viruses and, if nothing is found, skip this method and move on to the next one.

Use your antivirus to make sure there are no viruses on your computer. If your antivirus program is weak, use one of the special viruses removal utilities. One of the best is. If no virus is detected, do this:

Method 5: Change the name of the removable storage device in the system

It is quite possible that a conflict has arisen due to the names of several disks in the system. To put it simply, this means that the system already has a disk with a name under which your USB drive should be identified. However, it will still be detected in the disk management program. We discussed how to launch it above, in the first method. So open Disk Management and follow these steps:

Method 6: Format the storage media

In some cases, when you try to open the drive, a warning appears indicating that the drive must be formatted before use. Then it will be most effective to do this. Just press a button "Format disk" to begin the process of erasing all data.


Even if the above warning does not appear, it would still be better to format the flash drive.

To check the file system, in "Computer", on the hard drive, right-click.

In the window that opens, go to the tab "Are common" and pay attention to the inscription "File system". It is very important that the flash drive is formatted in the same system.

If nothing is displayed on the drive, all that remains is to use one of the recovery tools.

Method 7: Restore your drive

You can perform this task using a standard Windows tool. To do this, do the following:

In addition, there are specialized programs for restoring removable media of brands such as, and. As for devices from other manufacturers, in the Kingston recovery instructions, pay attention to method 5. It describes how to use the iFlash service of the flashboot website. It allows you to find special programs for flash drives from a variety of companies.

In the section on the question Windows 8 does not see the flash drive, help. I installed the flash drive and it does not appear on the screen specified by the author Vote the best answer is if the ports are 3.0, perhaps they need firewood

Answer from Maruska[guru]
Open Device Manager and see which drivers are not installed.
If you don’t understand it yourself, make a screenshot and show it. Just not the whole slave/table, cut it out.

Answer from Eurovision[guru]
Try sticking it in different slots. The connector may be loose.

Answer from Indra[active]
I had the same situation, I thought it was a glitch or I killed my flash drive. I checked it on another computer and it worked, in the end I reinstalled the OS and everything started working fine. In short, reinstall Windows. I had this on Windows 8, so I think you're not the only one with this glitch.

Answer from rage[expert]
maybe the flash drive is old, try inserting the flash drive into another computer and rummaging around in the properties like auto-open general access and look for viruses, if it doesn’t work then you probably have a USB (I can’t write in English, sorry) look for adapters, they are always universal, called the MAMA type and PAPA, + or -, well, they have a lot of opposite names, if this does not help then you will have to buy another flash drive from brands that are not Chinese and not at flea markets, but the original ones in stores are better in quality and there are fewer such cases)