Hello everybody!
In today’s video I’ll tell you what to do if an external hard disk or USB drive connected
to your computer doesn’t show up in the Windows Explorer, but other devices such as
printers, scanners or mice are detected properly.
I’ll show you how to enable and configure USB ports if they are disabled
or not working.
In the first case, a computer with a properly installed operating system works fine, but
if you plug in any external storage device, a pen drive, hard disk or a memory card, they
are not shown in the Windows Explorer.
At the same time, this computer can recognize the printer, mouse and keyboard which are
also plugged into its USB ports.
The first step should be checking the USB ports for operability, but as long as the
computer can work properly with other USB devices, it doesn’t make sense.
There must be a kind of software problem: a service which is disabled or a certain setting
which has been modified.
The other scenario is when any USB device you plug into the USB port doesn’t work
at all.
Most likely, there’s a problem with the USB port: it can be disabled or there may
be a driver issue etc.
In a few minutes, we will explore how to fix the problem in each of the cases.
Let’s explore the case with USB ports which are not working.
The first step is to check the USB port for possible physical damage.
Just plug a device into the port and check if its fits tight.
If the port is damaged, try another one.
Before doing anything more serious, restart the computer.
If nothing changes, you can move on with more complicated methods.
Open the Device Manager.
Right-click on the Start menu, and choose Device Manager.
In the Manager, look for Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Find the line USB Host Controller.
If it’s absent, this could be the root of the problem.
Click here to Scan for hardware changes.
The computer will check all the equipment connected to it and update its configuration.
Now Host Controller may appear on the list.
If it doesn’t happen, try the following: remove all controllers.
Remember: when you work on a computer using a mouse and a keyboard connected via «USB
ports», they will stop working as soon as you remove the controllers.
But there’s nothing to worry about: they will work fine again as soon as you restart
the computer.
Right-click on the controller - Uninstall device.
After that, restart the computer.
If the mouse and the keyboard stop working at this stage, you can restart the PC by pressing
the corresponding button on the system unit.
«USB selective suspend setting» is a power-saving option in the Windows operating system which
suspends supply of power to a «USB device» in order to extend the period of a computer’s
work on battery.
To turn it off, go to Settings / System / Power and sleep / Related settings / Additional
power settings.
In the «Power Options» window that opens, hit the link «Change plan settings».
In the new window, click on «Change advanced power settings».
Look for the setting Disable USB selective suspend.
Set Disabled for these two values.
Apply / OK Now the operating system will now disable
its «USB ports» temporarily to save power.
Also, you can disable this setting with the Windows registry.
Press the key shortcut Win+R and type “regedit” in the Run window.
Follow this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USB\
If there is no USB folder there, create it.
Right-click on the Services folder – New – Key – USB.
In the USB key, create a Dword32 value with the following name: DisableSelectiveSuspend
and assign the value data 1.
Click OK.
Now the «USB selective suspend setting» is disabled for your computer.
For the changes to take effect, the computer needs to be restarted.
If the port still doesn’t work, it must be a hardware problem.
«USB ports» are quite easy to break, and «USB flash drives» may act as a lever of
pressure to destroy electrical contacts inside the ports.
Quite often, it happens to laptops when users put them into their bags but forget to remove
a «USB drive» sticking out from the side of their portable computer.
Still, this is a simple mechanical defect that can be eliminated.
Most likely, you will contact a PC repair specialist.
If the USB ports are in good condition, but a USB drive is not showing up in the Windows
Explorer when you plug the drive into the port, the problem might be caused by certain
system services or wrong system settings.
To find out, open Disk Management.
Right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Management.
Now check if the drive is showing up here.
If the USB port and the drive are fine, this drive will be listed as available in the Disk
management window; just right-click on it and assign the drive letter manually.
After that, the drive will appear in This PC folder.
The problem with the drive letter not assigned automatically often happens when the Virtual
Disk service is not running.
To exclude this possibility, check the service.
Type “Services” in the search field and find this service on the list.
Right-click on it and select “Properties.”
Set the startup type to “Automatic” and start the service.
After that, restart the computer and check if the drives work properly.
If this method doesn't help, you may have the automount function disabled, somehow.
By default, this function is enabled.
In some cases, though, it can be turned off (for example, antivirus tools and utilities
working with disk images may do it).
You can learn the status of this service with the help of the Command Prompt.
Run it as Administrator and type the command diskpart, then press Enter.
Then type another command - automount.
Perform it, and as a result, you’ll see if this function is enabled.
If it is off, type the command automount enable and press Enter.
The corresponding notification will appear to inform you that automount is now active.
Restart the computer and try to plug an external storage device or a pen drive to the USB port.
If everything is well, it must show up in the Windows Explorer.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.