Welcome back, in today’s video we’ll be looking at how to fix a USB stick or flash drive that isn’t
being detected on a Windows 10 PC or laptop. Although a lot of the methods could help fix
the problem, if the issue is caused by physical damage, it is unlikely that we will be able to fix
it today. If that is the cause of the problem, you might want to research some data recovery options.
Feel free to skip any of the methods you know won’t work or those that you have tried already.
Remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe if the video helps,
let’s get into the methods. The first method is to check the
physical connections. It’s worth checking for any damage or debris and if you can,
try and clean the ports safely, both in your PC and the connectors. This will help to rule
out that the problem is with any of the physical parts of the connection. Before moving on, it’s
also worth checking if the USB device is detected on another PC if you have the capabilities. This
will also help determine whether the problem is with the connections or the device itself.
The next possible solution to try is to use another USB port on your PC. It’s possible,
although unlikely that it could be a USB compatibility issue, for example with USB 2 and 3.
This is more likely to be the case if you are connecting an older USB flash drive.
If you have a desktop PC, there should be plenty of USB ports on the back,
and these will be separate to those at the front and will increase the chances of it working. I
would recommend trying as many different ports as possible to make sure that these aren’t the cause
of the problem. If you use a USB hub, then just try connecting the device straight into your PC.
It’s also possible that other USB devices that are connected to your PC are causing the problem,
so if you can, I would recommend temporarily removing them and just connecting the device that
isn’t being detected. Although it’s unlikely, if that does work, then simply reconnect each device
one by one to see which other device is causing the problem. If none of these methods worked,
we’ll move on to some more potential solutions. The next thing to try is to restart your PC and
disconnect the power from it fully. This means that after shutting down your computer, you
need to either unplug the power chord or turn off the plug socket. It’s up to you if you want to do
this now and then return to the video. You could always wait until the end of the video to make
this the last thing you try but a restart could help if you haven’t done it already. Let’s now
move onto some of the solutions within Windows 10. The first thing we’re going to do in Windows is
check in the devices and printers section of the control panel to see if Windows is
detecting the USB drive at all. It’s possible that it could be showing as an unknown device.
First go to the control panel, you can get there by searching for it in the search bar.
In the control panel click on view devices and printers which is a blue link under the green
hardware and sound title. In here, you can see all of the devices that are connected to your PC.
If you can see the USB flash drive that you are trying to connect, then first right click on it
and see if you can troubleshoot it. Allow Windows to check for problems. Also, if you can see your
device listed, try updating the drivers, you might be able to do this by right clicking on it and
selecting properties, then hardware, then double click on the device again and then go to driver
tab. Choose update driver and select the automatic option first and see if updating the drivers
helps. Finally, after this if you see your device, right click on it and select remove device.
Now reconnect your USB drive and see if it works. These last few methods have obviously
been for devices that are showing up in here, and chances are you can’t see your device. Stay
in the devices and printers section but now look for a device listed as unrecognized or unknown.
Try the last few methods but for this unknown device. If you don’t see any device at all that
could be yours, we’ll now move on to some of the possible fixes within the device manager.
You’ll need to open the device manager and you can do that by searching for it in the search bar.
When you’re in the device manager, have a look in the disk drives category as this is where it would
likely be displayed. Double click on the category to expand it. If you find it, you should be able
to do some of the things from the last method, such as uninstalling it or updating the drivers
by right clicking on it and then going to properties and into the driver tab. Your hard
drive or SSD will be within this section too so avoid doing any of the previous methods to that.
Also have a look through all of the devices in the device manger to see if there are any unknown or
unrecognized devices where again you can try the methods mentioned. Leave the device manager open
as we’re going to need it for the next method. For the next possible solution, we need to
find the universal serial bus controllers section which is the USB section obviously.
Expand that section and look for the options called USB root hub. I have a few but you might
have more or less. For each of these, double click on them and then go to the power management tab.
In here, uncheck the box where it says allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
Do that for all of them and remember to click on OK. You might now need to restart to see if this
has worked but before doing that you might want to quickly try the next method which is similar.
Stay in the device manager and in the USB section as before. This time for each of the USB root hub
options, we are going to try updating the drivers. Again, do this for each of them.
Double click on them and go to the driver tab and then find where it says update driver and click
on that. Now choose the automatic option and allow Windows to look for any driver updates on your PC.
The most likely outcome is that there won’t be any new driver updates but it’s worth a try.
Let’s move onto the next method. The next method is going to focus
on Windows updates. Firstly, if you know that a Windows update caused this problem
then click the card now to watch my video showing you how to uninstall a recent Windows update.
You only need to do that if you are one-hundred percent sure that the update caused the problem.
If a recent Windows update didn’t cause it, then it might be worth checking for
and installing any new Windows updates. To check for Windows updates, go to the settings page first
by clicking on the cog icon within the start menu. In settings, choose update and security.
Now check for and install updates on this page. If for some reason your PC won’t update,
then click the card now to go to my video showing how to fix this and update Windows.
The next thing to try is to think back to when this issue started appearing,
perhaps you installed a new program, for example new audio software or maybe you
changed some settings on your PC. Either way, if you did make a change, try and undo it
if you think that might have caused it. Unfortunately, those are all of the methods I
have, if after trying all of these it still isn’t working or detected on this or another device,
it’s likely that it is a physical problem with the device and it will most likely
be the connection. This means that your data should hopefully still be on the drive, so you
should research some data recovery options if you desperately need the data on the drive. As always,
I will keep the description updated with any new solutions I find and if any of you find a fix in
the future then it would be great if you could return to the video and post it in the comments
to help others. Click the card on screen now to watch a video of mine showing you ten easy ways
you can speed up your Windows 10 PC. Help support the channel by visiting the store – the link is in
the description and at the end of the video. If you have any questions, then let me know in the
comments below and if you did find today’s video helpful remember to leave a like and feel free to
subscribe for more tips in the future. Be sure to stick around to see some of my other videos
that you might be interested in. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in another video!