USB flash drive not recognized

rodeogpr · 05-24-2008, 10:30 AM

I received a 1gb flash drive as a door prize so I have no idea of the brand. I took it to work and plugged it into the USB drive on my work computer which runs XP SP2. It worked fine, to my surprise. Later I had to restart the computer for another problem but left the flash drive plugged in. When the computer rebooted the flash drive was not recognized so I unplugged it. It has not been recognized since, despite numerous shut downs & restarts and trying to plug it into other USB ports on the machine. Thinking I killed the drive I took it home and plugged it into my home computer, which also runs XP SP2. The drive works fine! Any ideas on how I can get my work computer to recognize this device again? I've plugged in other flash drives on the work machine and they are recognized, it's just this device. Help!

**sobeit** · 05-24-2008, 10:39 AM

try assigning a drive letter to it.

1 Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
NOTE: If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance is displayed in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear.
2Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then in the left pane, click Disk Management.
3 Right-click the drive, partition, logical drive, or volume for which you want to assign a drive letter, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4 Click Add.
5 Click Assign the following drive letter (if it is not already selected), either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

rodeogpr · 05-27-2008, 07:47 AM

Thank you for the suggestion. I have followed the steps you outlined, but when I go to the Disk Management screen, I only have 1 drive listed, the C:/ drive. When the flash drive mounted correctly it mounted to E:/. The D:/ drive is my CD-ROM. So E:/ is gone. When I click add and type E:/ under the "mount in the following NTSF folder" prompt, I get an error message "the system cannot find the path specified." So I guess the question is, how do I restore the E: drive?

rodeogpr · 05-27-2008, 08:38 AM

I should also mention that the "assign the following drive letter" option is grayed out.

vrangana4au · 10-30-2008, 04:18 PM

I too have the same issue. My USB (Flash Drive) was readable a few hours ago.

I stopped the drive and remved it. Now when I insert the flash drive, the PC scans and rcognises this to be a removable Disk. It assigns a Letter, however, it prompts the following: "Please insert a disk into Drive E:"

In the Disk Management scree, this drive is shown as:
"....
Disk 1
Removable (E:)
No Media
...."
Any help would be appreciated!

05-24-2008, 10:30 AM	#1 (permalink)
rodeogpr Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	USB flash drive not recognized I received a 1gb flash drive as a door prize so I have no idea of the brand. I took it to work and plugged it into the USB drive on my work computer which runs XP SP2. It worked fine, to my surprise. Later I had to restart the computer for another problem but left the flash drive plugged in. When the computer rebooted the flash drive was not recognized so I unplugged it. It has not been recognized since, despite numerous shut downs & restarts and trying to plug it into other USB ports on the machine. Thinking I killed the drive I took it home and plugged it into my home computer, which also runs XP SP2. The drive works fine! Any ideas on how I can get my work computer to recognize this device again? I've plugged in other flash drives on the work machine and they are recognized, it's just this device. Help!

05-24-2008, 10:39 AM	#2 (permalink)
sobeit TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: NEAR Posts: 7,433 OS: windows/linux	Re: USB flash drive not recognized try assigning a drive letter to it. 1 Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance. NOTE: If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance is displayed in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear. 2Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then in the left pane, click Disk Management. 3 Right-click the drive, partition, logical drive, or volume for which you want to assign a drive letter, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths. 4 Click Add. 5 Click Assign the following drive letter (if it is not already selected), either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK. __________________ there's been global warming since the ice age

05-27-2008, 07:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
rodeogpr Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	Re: USB flash drive not recognized Thank you for the suggestion. I have followed the steps you outlined, but when I go to the Disk Management screen, I only have 1 drive listed, the C:/ drive. When the flash drive mounted correctly it mounted to E:/. The D:/ drive is my CD-ROM. So E:/ is gone. When I click add and type E:/ under the "mount in the following NTSF folder" prompt, I get an error message "the system cannot find the path specified." So I guess the question is, how do I restore the E: drive?

05-27-2008, 08:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
rodeogpr Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	Re: USB flash drive not recognized I should also mention that the "assign the following drive letter" option is grayed out.

10-30-2008, 04:18 PM	#5 (permalink)
vrangana4au Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 1 OS: xp	Re: USB flash drive not recognized I too have the same issue. My USB (Flash Drive) was readable a few hours ago. I stopped the drive and remved it. Now when I insert the flash drive, the PC scans and rcognises this to be a removable Disk. It assigns a Letter, however, it prompts the following: "Please insert a disk into Drive E:" In the Disk Management scree, this drive is shown as: ".... Disk 1 Removable (E:) No Media ...." Any help would be appreciated!