Click Browse and locate the USB driver folder. (The Google USB Driver is located in androidsdk extras google usbdriver.) Click Next to install the driver. Or, to upgrade an existing Android USB driver on Windows 7 and higher with the new driver: Connect your Android device to your computer's USB port. DIACOM-SOLO-NLS-minica driver. Diacom-Key driver. Improvements and fixes. This update includes a fix for an incorrect device driver (“Microsoft – WPD – 2/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - 5.2.5326.4762”) that was released by a third-party on March 8, 2017 that affected a small group of users with USB connected phones or other media devices that rely on Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). To verify that your driver is working, you should see a difference in the following pictures after plugging the CH340 to a USB port. To check that the CH340 enumerates to a COM port, you can open the device manager. You can click the Start or ⊞ (Windows) button and type 'device manager to quickly search for the application. USBView – Message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at SuperSpeed Determine the bus speed programmatically If you are a device driver developer, the USB driver stack exposes a new IOCTL, IOCTLUSBGETNODECONNECTIONINFORMATIONEXV2, which you can use to query speed information for USB 3.0 devices.

Overview of USB Device Is Not Recognized Error

'My Sandisk USB flash drive is not recognized when I plug it into my laptop. Is there any way to fix USB flash drive not detected and restore the data. I have all my school work on it. Please help if you know any solutions.'

Like the user above, many users, including you now, have encountered the issue 'USB flash drive not recognized or detected' when they connect their USB device to a computer. Actually, many factors could trigger this issue, including:

• USB connection issue
• File system errors that make your USB become RAW
• Drive letter issues
• USB driver error
• Hardware damage

Although all the causes can lead to a USB flash drive not being detected by the computer, the USB will show varying status in Disk Management depending on the cause. Thus, to fix a USB flash drive that is not recognized by your computer, you first need to check the device in Disk Management and then repair it according to the reasons.

Check The Causes of USB Flash Drive Not Recognized

Keep your USB flash drive connected and check it in Disk Management.

Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.

Step 2. Go to 'Disk Management'.

Step 3. Then you will see your USB flash drive in one of the following situations:

• The USB shows as RAW
• The USB shows as unallocated space
• The USB shows without a drive letter
• The USB is not showing up in Disk Management

After identifying the specific situation, you can now apply the corresponding solutions to fix the USB flash drive that is not recognized.

Fixes for USB Flash Drive Not Recognized/Detected

If you're not in one of the scenarios above, you can also apply the tips detailed below to have a try.

Fix 1. Recover Files from RAW USB Drive before Formatting

Applies to: Fix USB becomes RAW.

There must be file system errors on your USB flash drive that make your USB device not recognized as RAW. It could be file system missing, corrupted, or not compatible with Windows.

To repair a RAW USB, all you need to do is to recover data from the USB that is not recognized and then convert RAW to NTFS or FAT32 file system by formatting. Formatting will erase the existing data on your USB stick. That's why you need to perform data recovery first.

To retrieve data from an inaccessible device, you can use the professional disk recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It perfectly supports deleted file recovery, formatted data recovery, RAW partition recovery, and other data loss situations.

To recover data from the RAW USB:

Step 1. Choose the flash drive to scan.

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose your flash drive where you lost important files. Click 'Scan' to start.

Step 2. Check and preview found flash drive data.

After the scanning is finished, you can quickly locate a specific type of file by using the Filter feature as well as the Search.

• Filter: A quick way to your wanted files.
• Search: e.g. File name/file extension.

Step 3. Restore flash drive data.

After checking and finding lost flash drive files, select them and click Recover to restore. You shall save the found files to a safe location on your PC rather than to your flash drive.

After retrieving all the files, you can now format the USB flash drive and assign a new file system to the device, which will make it usable again.

Fix 2. Update Unallocated USB Driver and Create New Partition

Applies to: Fix USB shows as unallocated space.

If your USB is not recognized by the computer and becomes unallocated space, it probably results from outdated USB driver. Thus, you should try to reinstall the USB device driver.

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to the PC

Step 2. Navigate to 'Control Panel' > 'System' > ‘’Device Manager' > 'Disk drivers'.

Step 3. Find and select your USB device, right-click and first choose 'Uninstall' and then choose 'Scan for hardware changes' to refresh the drivers.

Step 4. Restart your computer.

After all the operations, you may find USB not recognized issue is fixed and the flash drive is detected. If reinstalling the USB driver doesn't help, you can recover data from the unallocated space with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard introduced above and then create a new volume to make it ready for data storage. (The unallocated space will show up as 'lost partition' in EaseUS data recovery software. Choose the right partition to scan and then recover your data.)

To create a new volume on unallocated space:

Step 1. Go to 'This PC', right-click it and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated space and choose 'New Simple Volume'.

Step 3. Follow the wizard to finish the remaining process.

Fix 3. Change USB Driver Letter to Make It Detectable

Applies to fix: USB shows without driver letter.

Another reason for USB flash drive not detected issue is that the drive letter assigned to the USB drive is occupied by another drive on the computer (or the drive letter on the USB is missing). To solve this problem, you just need to try EaseUS free partition software to assign an unused drive letter to the USB flash drive. It will help you fix the 'USB flash drive not recognized' issue and recover all the inaccessible data with ease.

You can also assign a drive letter to your USB in Disk Management.

Step 1. Keep your USB connected. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Step 2. Right-click the volume on your USB flash drive and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'.

Step 3. In the new window, click 'Change'.

Step 4. Assign a new drive letter to your USB and click 'OK'.

Fix 4. Check USB Port and Change Connection to Make USB Recognized

Applies to: Fix USB isn't showing up in Disk Management

If your USB flash drive is not detected by Disk Management at all, it's likely that:

• The USB is not connected properly
• There are driver issues
• Your USB device is physically damaged

Therefore, you can first connect your USB connection including:

• Change the USB port/cable
• Connect your external hard drive or other storage devices to another computer and check whether the problem remains
• Connect your USB drives to the rear port which provides a more stable power supply compared to the front ones

Then reinstall drivers (detailed above). If these tips don't help, you should consider sending the USB flash drive for repair.

The Bottom Line

When a USB flash drive is not recognized by the computer, there are varying causes. Once you can find the reason, you can easily make the decision on how to fix it. Besides, this issue also reminds you of the importance of growing a good habit of using your USB stick, like ejecting the device before disconnecting it and backing the device up regularly. I hope one of the solutions above could help to fix your USB flash drive that is not recognized or detected.

FAQs About USB Flash Drive Not Recognized or Detected

Besides fixing USB flash drive is not recognized error and bring lost files back, some users may also want to know the causes of USB flash drive not showing up, and how to repair the USB drive, etc.

If you are interested in these questions, follow on and you will find a satisfying answer below:

1. Why is my USB flash drive not showing up?

If a driver is missing, outdated, or corrupted, your computer won't be able to load your USB drive. USB driver issue, drive letter conflicts, and file system errors, etc. may all cause your USB flash drive not showing up on Windows PC.

You can update USB driver, reinstall the disk driver, recover USB data, change USB drive letter, and format USB to reset its file system. For a detailed guide, you can refer to USB Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7 for help.

2. How can I repair my USB flash drive?

USB flash drives can become corrupt or damaged for a variety of reasons. Luckily you can fix your USB for free.

Windows chkdsk and Windows disk error checking are able to repair errors on your disk from the command line. Afterward, with EaseUS data recovery software, you can get your data back from a failed pen drive without losing files.

For a detailed guide, you may refer to USB Flash Drive Repair Tool for help.

3. How can I recover my USB flash drive that is not recognized?

As recommended on this page, when your USB flash drive, pen drive or external hard drive becomes unrecognized, you can get rid of this issue with the following steps:

Step 1. Check USB status in Disk Management:

• The USB shows as RAW
• The USB shows as unallocated space
• The USB shows without a drive letter
• The USB is not showing up in Disk Management

Step 2. Fix related error on the USB drive and make it recognized:

1. 1. Recover files and format RAW USB.
2. 2. Update unallocated USB drivers and create a new volume.
3. 3. Change the USB drive letter.
4. 4. Check USB port, change USB connection
5. 5. If none of the above fixes work, take USB to a local device repair center for manual repair.

USB Drive Not Showing Up in Windows

'I've tried all the methods I can think of to connect this USB flash drive to my PC, but my computer still does not show up any signals of the drive. All of my projects from this semester are stored on the drive, how can I get to my files?!”

Many users, including you now, have found their USB flash drive or external hard drive not showing up on their Windows PC. Before indicating the possible reasons for this issue, I'd like to know what your specific situation is. Generally, when you say your USB drive is showing up, you mean it disappears from File Explorer. Is your USB drive not showing up in Windows File Explorer but can be seen in Disk Management? Or Is it missing from both Windows File Explorer and Disk Management?

To make it clear, go to 'This PC' > 'Manage' > 'Disk Management' and check whether your USB drive shows up. Specify your situation and choose the corresponding tips to follow.

Since there are many reasons why a USB will not be detected by a PC, we offer a number of solutions. Follow these methods and get your missing USB drive back without losing any data. If you are a Mac user, having the same problem, follow this page to fix USB flash drive not showing up on Mac with ease.

Fixes for USB Drive Not Showing Up in Windows 10 File Explorer Only

If your USB drive shows up in Disk Management, it means Windows can still detect your drive. But due to some reasons, the USB cannot show up in File Explorer as expected. The reasons are:

• USB driver issues
• Drive letter conflicts
• File system errors

The solutions vary based on the causes but all detailed below. Follow to fix your problematic USB with ease.

Situation 1. USB Drive Not Showing Up Due to USB Driver Issues

If there is something wrong with your USB driver, the USB drive will not show up in Windows 10 File Explorer and may show up as unallocated space under Disk Management. When your USB flash drive or USB external hard drive is unallocated space because of driver errors, follow the methods below to make it usable again.

Method 1. Update USB Drive Driver

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive or external hard drive to PC, right-click on 'This PC' (in Windows 10) and choose 'Properties'.

Step 2. Click 'Device Manager' then expand “Disk drives”. Find and right-click the problematic USB drive and select 'Update driver'

Step 3. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'.

Step 4. Wait for the driver to be updated, then reboot your computer. Afterward, you can try to reconnect your USB drive to PC and check whether the USB drive shows up or not.

Drivers Nls Usb Devices 3.0

This method can also be helpful in solving disk-related issues like 'The system cannot find the file specified'

Method 2. Reinstall Disk Driver for USB Drive to Make It Show Up on PC Again

Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Properties' > 'Devices Manager'.

Step 2. Click on 'Disk drives', right-click on your USB drive that is not showing up in Windows 10 and choose 'Uninstall device'. (Make sure you have selected the correct USB device.)

Step 3. In the prompt asking you to confirm the removal, click 'OK'. (Wait patiently and let the process finish. If it takes too long, you can remove the USB flash drive from the PC.)

Step 4. Restart your computer and reconnect the USB flash drive/external hard drive to the PC. After the computer restarts, the driver will be automatically installed.

Method 3. Recover Data and Create New Partitions

If your USB still won't show up in Windows 10 and show up as unallocated space in Disk Management after updating or reinstalling the driver, you are recommended to recover data from your USB drive and then create new partition to make it ready for data storage.

If the USB shows up in Disk Management, but you’re unable to open the drive. It is time to use recovery software to get back your data. To recover files from unallocated space, you can use the hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. EaseUS data recovery software will help you recover files from your USB drive that shows up as unallocated effectively. It allows you to restore data from an inaccessible, RAW, or formatted USB drive and other storage devices with a few simple clicks. You can download it now and follow the guidance provided below to restore data from your USB flash drive easily.

Generally, unallocated space will show up as lost partition in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Select the correct partition and then start the scanning process.

Drivers Nls Usb Devices Adapter

To recover data from the USB drive:

Step 1. Run USB data recovery software.

Connect the USB flash drive to your computer and launch EaseUS USB data recovery software on your PC. Select your USB drive which marks as a removable disk, and click 'Scan' to start finding your lost files.

Step 2. Scan all lost files from USB.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will thoroughly scan your USB flash drive and find all your lost data on it. After the scanning process, use the Filter feature to filter a specific file type. You can check and preview found USB files in this program.

Step 3. Restore all lost files from USB.

Drivers Nls Usb Devices Pc Camera

A double-click will allow you to preview the file results. Choose the target files and click 'Recover' to save them to a secure location on your PC or other external storage devices.

After retrieving your precious file, now you can create new partitions on your storage device and make it usable again.

To create new partitions on the USB drive:

Step 1. Go to 'This PC', right-click it and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated space and choose 'New Simple Volume'.

Step 3. Follow the wizard to finish the remaining process.

Now your USB drive should show up in Windows as usual. You can copy the files you recovered back to your USB according to your needs.

Situation 2. USB Not Showing Up in Windows Due to Drive Letter Conflicts

If the drive letter of your USB drive is the same as one of the drive letters of your computer hard disk partition, you won't be able to see it in Windows File Explorer. Besides, you will see the drive has no drive letter in Disk Management. Actually, it's quite simple to solve the problem in such a case. You only need to assign a new drive letter to your USB drive.

Step 1. Go to 'This PC', right-click it and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Step 2. Right-click the volume on your USB flash drive/external hard drive and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'.

Step 3. In the new window, click 'Change'.

Step 4. Assign a new drive letter to your USB and click 'OK'.

Situation 3. USB Not Showing Up in Windows Due to File System Errors

If your USB flash drive or external hard drive has file system errors, you will see your device show up as RAW and your device will become inaccessible. Here the file system error refers to an unsupported file system by Windows or damaged file system caused by misoperations or improper formatting. To repair hard drive with file system errors, the best way is to format the drive to convert RAW to NTFS or FAT32. By doing so, you assign a new file system to your device and then you can use it as you like.

But hold on.

When you format your USB drive, all data will be deleted. Since the USB drive shows up in Disk Management, you can use EaseUS data recovery software to get all of the data off the drive before you format it. The software also supports RAW device recovery. Thus, follow the article about how to recover data from RAW USB drive to rescue your data in advance.

Drivers Nls Usb Devices Usb

After getting all data back, you need to format the USB drive to convert the file system back to NTFS or another Windows-compatible file system, which allows you to store data again.

Step 1. Right-click on the 'Start' icon > Type computer management > click on 'Computer Management'.

Step 2. Click 'Disk Management' in the bar on the left-hand side, then find the device in the drive viewer.

Step 3. Right-click on the USB flash drive, select 'Format' to directly format the USB drive to make it usable.

In order to avoid data loss trouble, it's highly recommended for you to perform USB data recovery to restore data from the RAW USB drive. But if you've already formatted, don't worry, this data recovery software can help you restore data before or after formatting the USB flash drive.

Fixes for USB Not Showing Up in Windows File Explorer and Disk Management

If your USB is not showing up in Windows File Explorer and Disk Management simultaneously, the reasons could be:

• USB driver issues
• USB port/cable error
• Physical corruptions of USB

Follow to fix your problematic USB with ease.

Situation 1. Driver Issues

Whether the USB drive shows up in Disk Management or not, the USB not showing up issue caused by problematic device drivers can be potentially solved by updating or reinstalling the USB driver. For the detailed steps, you can refer to the first two methods in the last part.

Situation 2. USB Connection Failure

Connection failure may be the root cause. It's a hardware problem that you can easily identify by checking the USB connection. Generally, there is more than one USB port on your computer. Try other ones on the same computer, switch from the front USB ports to the rear USB ports, or connect your USB drive to another computer and check whether the problem remains. Similarly, you can also change another USB cable if you are using an external hard drive.

Situation 3. Physical Corruptions

If the tips above fail to fix your USB drive that is not showing up in Windows, it's highly likely there is physical damage or corruption on your USB flash drive or external hard drive. This is the toughest situation and the only suggestion for you is to send the USB drive for manual repair.

The Bottom Line

When a USB flash drive does not show up on your Windows PC, it means that the computer has failed to read the USB drive. Therefore, in order to get a USB drive to show up, we must make the USB readable again. There are many methods for you to make an unrecognized USB drive to show up on PC: update USB flash driver, change drive letter, use Windows’s built-in disk management tool to detect the USB and more. Hope one of them can be helpful to fix your USB drive.