There are several reasons why your computer may not recognize a USB flash drive.
If your flash drive is still not recognized, the fault may be physical and every new attempt counts. Before trying again, see how USB flash drive recovery works, starting with a free diagnosis.
It could be a hardware problem, a corrupted partition, or a flash drive that was formatted on another computer with a file system your system can’t read.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to get your computer to recognize your USB flash drive, and we’ll go through them in this article.
You’ll also learn what causes the problem, why a USB flash drive can connect but not show up on the PC, and what to do if your files have disappeared once the computer finally recognizes it.
My USB flash drive isn’t showing up on my PC!
Many different problems can stop the operating system from recognizing a USB flash drive.
They can be physical or logical, as we’ll see below:
Physical causes
One common physical cause is a faulty USB port.
In that case, try a different USB port to see whether the flash drive works there, or test it on another computer.
If you’re using a USB hub (the adapters that let you connect several devices to a single port), try plugging the flash drive directly into the computer and see whether it’s recognized.
That’s because a hub, especially one without its own power supply, may not deliver enough power for every device connected to it, so the operating system fails to detect them properly.
If the hub has its own power adapter, you can also unplug the adapter, restart the PC, connect the hub and then plug the adapter back in to see whether the computer recognizes your USB flash drive.
Finally, the problem may lie in the flash drive itself: a failing controller or memory chip can stop it from working properly on any computer.
Because this kind of fault can damage and even destroy the data stored on the flash drive, it should be dealt with as soon as possible, ideally by specialized professionals.
Logical faults
Logical faults can also stop the computer from recognizing your USB flash drive. These include:
- Driver errors: if the drivers are missing, corrupted or out of date, the USB flash drive won’t be recognized;
- Operating system problems: if your system is missing updates it needs to work properly, this can also stop the computer from recognizing the flash drive. In this case, simply install the pending updates.
USB flash drive not showing up in Disk Management?
If your USB flash drive doesn’t even appear in Disk Management, try the following to make it show up:
1 – Reinstall the USB drivers:
- Open “Device Manager”;
- Find and expand “Universal Serial Bus controllers”. Right-click each USB device and select “Uninstall device”;
- Uninstall the USB devices one at a time;
- Restart the PC. Windows will automatically reinstall the USB drivers, which fixes devices whose drivers had become corrupted.
2 – Disable USB selective suspend
- Right-click the Windows Start button and select “Power Options”;
- In the “Power & sleep” window, select “Additional power settings”, then “Change plan settings”;
- In the “Change plan settings” window, click “Change advanced power settings”;
- Find and expand “USB settings”, then “USB selective suspend setting”, and select “Disabled”;
- Finally, click “OK” to apply and save the settings.
Why does the USB flash drive connect but not show up on the PC?
Usually, the system detects that a device has been connected, but doesn’t recognize it as a storage drive.
In short: the USB flash drive is connected, but it simply doesn’t appear alongside the other drives.
This can happen for many reasons, but the main ones are a damaged partition, no drive letter assigned, or an electronic fault in the flash drive.
These problems are usually caused by:
- Unsafe removal: pulling out the flash drive while data is being read or written abruptly interrupts the process, which can damage both the data and the partition. Even when you’re not copying anything, the operating system may be doing some background task, so removing the drive without using the “Safely Remove Hardware” / “Eject” option can end up damaging it.
- Interrupted or incorrect formatting: one of the most common causes. Formatting is a delicate process and, if it goes wrong, the system may no longer recognize the flash drive.
How do I find the USB flash drive on my PC?
If Windows doesn’t recognize the flash drive, you can look for it by following these steps:
- Click “Start”, type “Disk Management” (or “Create and format hard disk partitions”) and click the result;
- A window opens with a graphical view of your storage drives. If your USB flash drive has no drive letter, right-click its volume, select “Change Drive Letter and Paths” and then “Add”. Choose a letter that isn’t already being used by another drive.
If your USB flash drive is shown in black (“Unallocated”), the partition is damaged or missing. In this case, and only if you don’t need the data on it:
- Right-click the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”;
- In the wizard, set the size, drive letter and name of the new partition; you can also choose a specific file system. Keep in mind that this procedure creates a new file system and wipes the existing data, so don’t do it if you need the files on the flash drive. If you need USB flash drive data recovery, contact us first.
On a Mac, there are 3 ways to get your USB flash drive recognized:
1 – Mount the USB flash drive manually
- Go to “Applications” > “Utilities” and open “Disk Utility”;
- Choose “View” > “Show All Devices”, select the flash drive in the sidebar and, if its volume is grayed out, click “Mount”;
- In Finder, open “Settings” (or “Preferences”) > “General” and tick “External disks” so the flash drive appears on the desktop and in the sidebar.
2 – Reset NVRAM (PRAM) (Intel-based Macs only; Apple silicon Macs do this automatically)
- Shut down your Mac;
- Press the power button and immediately hold down Option-Command-P-R for about 20 seconds;
- Release the keys and let the Mac finish restarting.
3 – Erase (format) the flash drive in Disk Utility: this deletes all the data on it, so only use it if you don’t need the files
- Press Command and the Space bar at the same time, type “Disk Utility” and open it;
- The flash drive that needs fixing will appear in the sidebar on the left; select it;
- Click “Erase” to finish. Bear in mind that this wipes everything on the flash drive.
Files have disappeared from the USB flash drive: what should I do?
Even after you get the flash drive recognized, the files that were stored on it often seem to have disappeared.
This happens when, besides the drive letter, the data itself has been damaged, or was lost along with the partition.
If this has happened to you, there are two options:
- Using data recovery software: it may sound simple, but it’s a complex process. It requires technical knowledge and may not work; if anything is written to the flash drive along the way, the data can be lost for good.
- Using a professional data recovery service, such as Bot: the safest option, in which specialized professionals recover the data from your USB flash drive carefully and efficiently.
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Conclusion
A USB flash drive that isn’t recognized by a desktop or laptop is a common problem with many possible causes, whether physical, electronic or logical.
As we’ve seen, there are several ways to get the USB flash drive recognized and accessible on your computer.
However, even once it’s working again, the data stored on the flash drive may still be missing.
In that case, you can try to recover the data with recovery software or use a specialized USB flash drive data recovery service, like the one offered by Bot!
