USB Flash drives and sometimes hard drive detection issues

[Guest Tekxan]

Platform: Windows 7 Professional (X64) fully up to date with service pack 1 and beyond

 

The problem of flash drives that usually show up in Windows suddenly creating a problem by either not being detected properly or at all seems to be fairly well documented on the Internet but there are a plethora of so called solutions which do work for some and not for others. I have experienced this issue over the years and am still no closer to a definitive solution. Let me give you a few examples relating to both flash drives and USB connected hard drives I own. There are a few other flash drives which work perfectly and they are a mixture of new and older drives.

 

 

Scenario 1

 

I have a PNY 4GB flash drive which has given me years of service. Maybe it is just on the edge of failing as it is about 7 years old and they don’t last forever. I am not too concerned about this drive merely the principal of why Windows is either not detecting it at all or incorrectly detecting it.

 

When the drive is plugged in with laptop switched off windows detects the drive incorrectly as there is no drive letter assigned and it is not visible in Explorer. Checking it out in Device manager and it shows up as this.

 

 

 

 

The driver file details below seems correct and has a date of 21/6/2006

 

 

 

 

Now the drive does not show up in Windows and cannot be used as mentioned earlier, no dive letter assigned.

 

Looking it up in Disk Management we find that the drive again is detected showing the full capacity.

 

 

 

 

Now clearly this drive needs formatting but sadly the options from here that offer to create a simple volume don’t work because it throws up the error that the operation is not supported on a non-empty disk. Ok so this suggests there is some data on the drive. Trying to format it within windows the normal way won’t work because as the drive doesn’t have a letter ergo, the facility to format is not available.

 

So no luck the Windows route, despite being signed on as administrator

 

 

 

I also use Nirsoft’s USBdeview which can be a useful information utility when used properly.

 

What next? DISKPART command in DOSBOX ok tried this and sure it is detected but I cannot create partitions or volumes etc so this is beginning to become interesting? Hmmm …frustrating, so what next? Any sensible idea’s welcomed.

 

Plugging in the PNY 4Gb drive whilst Windows is up and running activates the Installing device driver dialogue which always fails to install a driver and although again the drive is detected in device manager without any exclamation marks.

 

The device manager codes of which most I understand especially code 45 which indicates a drive that is currently disconnected can be rather ambiguous or perhaps just rather uninformative as it only says drivers need to reinstalled, or incorrectly installed etc.

 

 

Scenario 2

 

A 32Gb DTmini10 that shows up as 0Gb if a when it gets detected. Think this one may be trashed as I remember it contracted a virus a while ago from a friends PC and hasn’t been right since. Still would like to find a way of possibly repairing this if possible.

 

 

Scenario 3

 

The last example relates to a USB cased 2.5” hard drive which has two partitions. I assigned the letters I and J and normally when I plug it in while Windows is running it shows up after a few seconds without issue and is freely accessible in Windows. Sometimes this doesn’t happen and the Installing device driver dialogue rears its ugly head and as usual fails. A third scenario regarding this is the drive shows up and works fine in windows but takes a little longer than usual to be detected which activates the Installing device driver dialogue resulting in yet another filed driver installation but as mentioned above the drives still work fine.

 

 

I think it is fair to say that bearing in mind I have tried these drives on other computers running various flavours of Windows including the version I am using work it would suggest the issue is on my laptop, most likely in the depths of the registry. I know my way around the registry pretty well and understand most of the limitations but for the life of me haven’t been successful in nailing the variety of issues mentioned in this post.

 

I’d appreciate some direction from the more informed please and together perhaps we can, once clarity and testing is completed, piece together an informative fix it guide for those I know who also suffer with these irritating issues.

 

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