USB Drive not Showing on Windows 11 Pro HP Laptop
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Hello everyone... I've been experiencing a USB issue the past couple of days and wanted to see if anyone had suggestions of other thing I could try.
Some background:
I have a personal USB drive (32GB) that I use for files for work (I'm a desktop support tech for a federal defense contractor). Yesterday, I plugged it into my HP laptop, and it would not initialize, to show either on the left sidebar, or when I click on MyPC (only the C: drive shows, but the drive flashes as though it's being recognized).When I go into the Device Manager and expand the Disk Drives section, it shows there as Generic Flash Disk USB Device, with error triangles, but nothing pops up or auto-opens to show that the PC recognizes the drive.
I have tried:
- Wiping and reformatting it using the CMD Prompt twice - first, formatting it NTFS, the second time, ExFAT, which it was previously, when it worked.
- In Device Manager, checked for updated driver (none found).
- In Device Manager, I right-clicked the USB drive and selected "Uninstall." Reinserted drive, and still not showing.
I'd prefer not to toss the thing in the trash if I can afford to, but I DO have other USB drives I can use instead. Any thoughts on something else I can try, or is this thing dead?
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Hi @David-Thompson,
How old is this drive? I have seen similar issues before with well used USB drives in the past and it was usually due to the drive maxing out its read/write cycles:
If the stick is new, it could also very well be just a defective drive and you lost the technology lottery.
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@David-Thompson, I have had to use diskpart in the past to identify and work with some USB drives. The other possibility is that it is malfunctioning, like @Andrew-Despres mentioned.
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The drive isn't that old. Less than a year. It could be corrupt, but it's just weird that Device Manager picks it up but not the laptop. I haven't had a moment to try a different machine (i.e. my MacBook Pro, any of my other 3 laptops, my Chromebook or my desktop PC - Don't judge me!) to see if it doesn't load on any of them. Might be trash time for USB.
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Definitely try it with a another computer to narrow down the problem. Is the laptop you used fully updated, BIOS etc.?
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Primary Laptop is an HP I bought in December 2023. It's about as updated as one can get. LOL
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Okay, so a quick update... I tried the USB drive in my Windows 11 Pro desktop, and it recognizes it. My 2013 MacBook Pro also seems to recognize it. The only device that doesn't is my HP laptop, which, last week, DID recognize it. Now to figure out why one device doesn't but all other devices do. The USB drive even is recognized on my Android phone (using a USB-to-USB-C adapter)!
This issue is definitely something I have never encountered in my 18+ years in I.T.
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Another tidbit on this... I Booted into Safe Mode and tried inserting the drive (after formatting it again as NTFS from the CMD prompt. It does not show up in Safe Mode either. I don't believe it's a driver issue, since it shows up on other devices, including my phone.
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@David-Thompson Uh, stupid question....Have you tried multiple USB ports on the not-recognizing device? Could you have a defective USB port? That could be an indication that the mobo is dying.
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I'm guessing with your process of elimination, there is one more step. Verify there is nothing physically blocking on the USB port on the laptop. I know it sounds unusual, I've had lint end up in the usb C port on my macbook pro just enough to where the contact wasn't working. So I had to get a magnfier and a plastic toothpick and I fished it out and it worked again. I'm not saying this is what happened with yours but a physical inspect is easy. The only other thing that I didn't see you mention was taking a known good USB stick, different than the one you're trying to work, plug it in and see if it works. If it doesn't then you know the port is not working as it should. I would try that.
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@Andrew-Despres, I have tried that USB stick in every USB port on this laptop, and none recognize it. @Ronnie-Wong, I tried a USB dongle for my wireless headphones, and it is recognized in all ports. I did a physical inspection, and all is good - no obstructions.
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That is a mystery. If the ports work with known good. we eliminate ports. If the suspect USB stick works in every other machine but this one. Then you have to suspect something else with your Windows OS which is running on your system. See if you can get it recognize in clean boot (aka safe mode). If sees it there, then it's some other software that is causing the issue. If you can see it safe mode. see if you can assign it a random drive letter.
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@Ronnie-Wong That's the weird bit. It doesn't recognize it in Safe Mode either. I'm determined to plug away at this until I get it to recognize.
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If it doesn't recognize it in safe mode...your computer is allergic to it ;)
I'm now at a loss. this should strip out anything that would have interfered with it completely.