Fix: USB Drive Not Showing Up Issue in Windows

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If your Windows computer displays a nasty “USB Device Not Recognized” message and your USB drive doesn’t appear, don’t worry. This post will explain why this problem occurs and how to fix it so you may use WinfrGUI USB Data Recovery to recover your data.

Part 1: Understand why Windows doesn’t recognize USB devices

Windows may not detect your USB disk for many reasons. It’s common to think the drive will die. The worst case. Important to explore other factors first.

Your computer hardware or Windows may be at blame. Suppose your USB port fails. If an external disk partitions incorrectly. A Windows driver issue or an incompatible file system will prevent your USB driver from being detected.

Here are some error messages related to this problem:

  • Unknown device, font request failed, error code 43
  • One of the devices attached to this computer is malfunctioning and Windows cannot detect it. For help in solving this problem, click this message.
  • Unable to load drive
  • The device you connected to this computer is malfunctioning and Windows cannot detect it.
  • USB device can’t recognize Windows 10/7
  • Unknown port reset failed

Part 2: Fix USB Flash Drive Problems in Windows

1. Check Your USB Ports

In order to fix USB recognition errors in Windows, it is important to identify the root causes. Here are some solutions you can try:

  • Restart your PC and connect a new USB drive. If the bug remains, the drive may be damaged and need to be repaired.
  • Connect a USB drive to another computer. If the error occurs again, it will confirm that the drive is defective and needs attention. In a situation where you have multiple USB devices connected to the same computer, stop linking elsewhere and test drives with separate problems.
  • Check your USB ports. If they don’t work properly, Windows won’t detect your USB flash drive. To do this:
  • Go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus
  • Uninstall USB port
  • Click on “Scan to find hardware changes”

If Windows still does not recognize your device after performing these steps, it will show that there is an incorrect USB port.

2. Update Your Device Drivers

Expired drivers may make Windows unable to recognize the USB device. Follow these steps to update the driver manually:

For Windows 7:

  • Go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus
  • Check that any devices are listed as “Unknown Devices”
  • Right-click unknown device > Properties > Drivers
  • Click “Update Drivers”

For Windows 10:

  • Go to Settings and click Update and Secure.
  • Click on “Windows Update” and then click on the “Check Updates” button.

Updating your device’s drivers may solve problems caused by unmodern drivers.

3. Change Power Management Settings

Windows 10 power management settings interfered with USB flash drive recognition to fix this:

  • Go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus
  • Double click on the first “USB Root Hub” you see.
  • Go to Power Management tab
  • Remove the “Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power” option. Click OK.
  • Repeat these steps for the USB Root Hub device in the Universal Serial Bus controller list.

This will fix a power management problem that interferes with Windows USB drive recognition.

4. Updating Windows System

Updating Windows on Windows 7 allows your computer to recognize USB devices. Follow these steps:

  • Go to Control Panel > System & Security
  • Make sure the “Check Updates” option is selected.
  • Windows Update
  • Restart the system and connect the flash drive to confirm whether the problem has been fixed.

The Windows system update will fix a problem related to the USB root hub and hopefully Windows will successfully recognize your flash drive.

5. Format Your USB Drive

If there is no solution above, it works. It is possible that your USB drives are defective. The drive format usually solves the problem and makes it work again. To format your USB Drive:

  • Access Windows Disk Manager
  • Right-click on your USB device in the list of all disks and select “Formats”

Important Note: Formatting your USB drive will delete all data. So make sure you have a backup of your important files before trying this step. If you can’t access USB drive data or do backup, you can also recover your data using the following solution:

Additional Tip: Data Recovery After Fixing USB Flash Drive Error

When you fix the “Device Not Recognized USB” error in Windows, you may want to recover lost data from your USB drive. WinfrGUI USB Flash Drive Recovery software can help you get your data even if the device is damaged, corrupted, or formatted. Follow these steps to restore data from inactive USB drives:

  • Step 1: Start the WinfrGUI USB Flash Drive Recovery program and select the detected USB drive to start.
  • Step 2: The software will start scanning the device for missing information. This process may take a long time.
  • Step 3: Once the scan is complete, you can check all recovered data and files. View video, audio files, Microsoft Office documents and PDF files. Select the files you want and click on the “Recover” button to save them to a secure place.
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Windows may not identify the USB device for different reasons. It could be hardware, Windows, or a flash drive issue. Before formatting your drive, figure out why USB recognition is failing.

>>Also Read: How to Retrieve Files from Formatted Hard Drive