Suppose you are in a hurry to pass an important file to someone over a USB drive, but you are unable to do so because your USB drive is not showing up in your system windows 10 PC. That could be one of the frustrating situations, things could get even more complex when there is no sign of recognition of a secondary USB drive (if you have it available at that moment.)

Some users have seen a message as “USB devices not recognized” when they have plugged their USB drive into their system. Also, there are nearly countless articles that have been published regarding the same topic, but the majority of them fail to mention the actual cause and effective fix.

We present you with a complete troubleshooting guide that will definitely help you to fix your USB drive recognition issue on Windows 10. So, make sure to follow the article till the end. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Disk Management Tool

This is the most common fix that will help you to resolve the USB drive recognition issue on your Windows 10 PC. With this method, you will get to know how many hard disks connected to your system along with primary information such as partitions, sizes, drive format, etc.

Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Insert your USB drive into one of the system’s USB ports.

Step 2: Right-click on the Windows icon, and select Disk Management.

Step 3: Now, check whether your USB drive is showing up under primary or secondary drives.

If your USB drive is showing up, then it will display as Removable which’s because your USB stick has no partition at this point. But there’s no need to worry, you can make a new volume in order to create a partition and then assign it. After this, your USB drive will be able to recognized by your Windows 10 PC.

If your USB drive is not showing up in the Disk Management tool, then there are high chances that your USB drive is faulty or dead or due to outdated drivers or hardware bugs or errors.

Create a New Drive Volume & Assign it

As mentioned, your USB drive will appear as Removable if the drive is detected by Windows 10. The next step is to create a new drive volume & assign it. After this method, a new partition will be allocated so that Windows OS can access your USB drive.

Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows icon, and select Disk Management.

Step 2: Do right-click on Unallocated space, and click on New Simple Volume.

Step 3: Now, follow the on-screen prompts to make partitions.

If you’re unable to see your USB drive, it could possible that the drive letter has been deleted manually. As a result, it makes it unable to detect on Windows. Let’s see how to resolve that issue:

Step 1: Do right-click on the drive’s partition and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Step 2: If the drive letter is absent, then click on Add and choose a letter. If a letter is already present, then you probably have to click on Change and select another one.

Update Windows 10

Outdated software could be the culprit here, it is advised to update your Windows 10 on the latest version. Microsoft provides regular updates to its operating system so make sure to keep up with that.

Updating your OS will not only resolve the bugs and errors but will also eliminate the unknowing glitches in the system. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Press the Windows key and click on the Setting’s icon.

Step 2: Now, click on Update & Security.

Step 3: Now, click on Check for updates button under the Windows Update section.

If the update is available for Windows 10, then surely upgrade the system. Now check if the issue has resolved or not.

Switch USB ports

It might possible that your system’s USB port might be faulty. If that’s the case, just plug your USB into another port, it should work, also try to use all the ports present on your system.

If still USB drive not showing up in your Windows 10 PC. Then try to plug the USB drive into another system. In this way, you will have a strong hunch about the problem.

Scan Hardware using Device Manager

Let’s scan the hardware to know if there’s the detection of any issues or glitches in the hardware if it’s recognized by the Windows. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager from the menu.

Step 2: Now, select Actions.

Step 3: Click on Scan for hardware changes.

This will force the Windows system to recognize your USB drive.

Reinstall USB Controllers

Sometimes, Windows 10 does not detect your USB drive because it’s corrupted. This issue can be resolved by reinstalling the USB controllers.

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager from the menu.

Step 2: Now, find the Universal Serial Bus controllers option from the menu, in order to expand the list.

Step 3: Now, click on Uninstall and reboot your system.

Step 4: After your computer has booted, the Universal Serial Bus controllers will install automatically.

Troubleshoot Disk Drivers

When your WIndows 10 PC fails to recognize your USB drive, then troubleshooting the disk driver using Device Manager often resolves the issue. Let’s see how to troubleshoot Disk Drivers, follow the steps mentioned below:

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager from the menu.

Step 2: Right-click on the Disk drives in order to expand the list.

Step 3: If there’s any yellow exclamation sign next to the listed hardware device. Then assume that the device is having a driver issue.

Step 4: Right-click on the device which has the yellow exclamation sign, select Properties to know the error message information. You can Google the issue in order to know how to fix it.

Here, we have listed below some common methods to resolve the driver issues:

Update the driver: Right-click on the driver, and click on update the driver, follow the on-screen instructions.

Uninstall the driver: Here, you have to just uninstall the driver and restart your system, after the system restart drivers will be installed automatically.

Rollback the drivers: This will revert the download or downgrade the driver version to where the issue will not exist.

Disable USB Selective Suspend Settings

USB selective suspend settings will not allow USB to detect on Windows if it’s enabled. This is because the feature cuts the power required by your USB drive so that the system could run on the lowest power possible. Here’s how to disable the USB selective suspend settings:

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows button and type on Control Panel.

Step 2: Select Hardware and Sound.

Step 3: Now, click on Power Options, click on Change plan settings.

Step 4: Click on Change advanced power settings.

Step 5: Visit USB settings and expand the list.

Step 5: Here, Click on USB selecting suspend settings and keep the Plugged in settings to Disabled.

Steps 6: Finally Click on Apply and press the OK button to save the changes.

What if Nothing Works?

All the solutions mentioned above are valid fixes, we hope that the USB drive not showing up issue has been resolved. But even though it fails to show up in your Windows system. Then assume that the USB drive is dead, and you have to purchase a new one which is not a big deal, as good USB drives are available at reasonable prices.

That’s it for now, hope this helps! Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Till then stay tuned for more info.