USB Flash Disk not appearing in Explorer

Hi - not sure if this is the right forum.
When I plug my USB Flash Disk into a USB port, it seems like it connects correctly and it appears in Device Manager (XP Pro)
BUT
the new drive letter does NOT appear in Explorer.
What am I missing?
TIA

Mark

You are missing the drivers. Go to the site that has the drivers for the files.

You MAY be right...
BUT I connected this same Flash Disk to an older, W2K, computer a couple of weeks ago and it either didn't need special drivers OR it loaded it's own.
Is XP different in this regard?
Mark

Just checked the Flash Disk site (EagleTec) and the device is Driver-less for Win 2000/ME/XP.
So..
What else could cause this?

Right click on "Your Computer" & choose "Manage". Go into the Disk manager. See if the Flashdisk appears there. If it does, see if you can assign it a letter.

If you use NTFS on your partitions, you could even choose to mount the flashdisk under a directory rather then give it a drive letter.

XP, 2000 & Me will assign generic mass storage drivers to any USB storage device.. I've yet to see one that doesn't get autodetected.

I'm experiencing teh same problems and have noticed that even though my USB flash-drive doesn't show up in Windows Explorer (XP Pro, SP2), it is active and you can use it.

I also noticed that it does show with the allocated drive letter under the Control Panel, option Portable Media Devices in Explore. There is just somethin weird going on in Explorer (then again, it's still Microsoft).

I will try to find some more, in the mean time this might help someone else finding the exact issue.

Peter

re: USB Flash Disk not appearing in Explorer - Same problem

I found this discussion while researching just this problem.

My problem started recently with several different flash devices (USB1.0 flash drive, USB2.0 flash drive, USB2.0 Rave MP3 flash drive). They are mapped to a drive letter (accessible via command line, shown in disk manager, identified in "Safely remove hardware") but this drive letter cannot be accessed from Explorer. The error message is "Cannot find 'file:///g:/'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct".

Windows XP SP2 fully patched. Dell GX400.

A reboot often clears the problem, but only for a while.

...dan

I'm also having the same issue with removable drive icons not showing up in My Computer. Everytime I plug in my USB flash drive or MP3 player into a USB slot, or my iPod into the firewire port, the devices are recognized and files can transfer between them just fine. But in order to access the drives, I have to go to My Computer and type the letter of the removable drive into the address bar, because none of them will show up in My Computer. This has proved to be a major inconvenience since I can't save anything directly to my flash drive from a standard "Save As..." dialog in my programs. All of the drives will show up in Portable Media Devices in Control Panel, but that doesn't help much. Giving the removable devices consistent drive letters through Disk Management does nothing to help either. I'm using WinXP Pro, but I have used my USB flash drive with other Windows ME, XP Home, and XP Pro computer and have not experienced the same issue. I have tried rebooting, but it never helps in my case. I have 3 HDD partitions, 2 CD/DVD drives, and 4 card reader drives that do show up in My Computer. I hope a solution will be found for this.

school Computer tech

I was having a similar problem with one XP computer. I found the USB drive was being assigned the same letter that was already assigned to a mapped drive. Opening MY Computer and deleting the mapped drive (drive F in my case) allowed the computer to find the USB flash drive and load it properly the next time I plugged it in.

Hi all,

Its a bug in XP! No matter what Service Pack you have, XP simply doesnt update "My Computer" to show the drive letter, even if the device is working and installed fine. Ive seen this happen on many PC's and laptops with many different USB flash/HDD devices, and im very suprised Microsoft hasnt fixed this bug in Service Pack2

If you go into My Computer and type its drive letter, it will show. i.e:

C = your HDD
D = your CDROM/DVDROM
E: = USB flash drive

Type "E:\" (or the next available drive letter) into the My Computer address bar, and it should work fine.


To fix this, simply reboot the PC with the USB drive plugged in, and it will be allocated a drive letter.


If you have a network drive immediately after your last local drive or CDROM (for instance, E: drive after your CD-ROM's D: drive), the USB device will "hide behind" your network drive - this is another bug in XP!

If you disconnect the network drive, then you will have access to your USB storage device.

I inadvertantly discovered a fix for this without knowing why so i can't take credit for it.
When i got my first stick and plugged it in i went to My Computer/Manage/Disk Management and assigned it a letter at the end of the food chain.
As i have multiple drives/partitions depending on which OS i boot to i decided on "x".
Faultlessly no matter how many system/hardware etc. changes i have made whenever i plug in the stick it shows up properly on the system as "x".

Not sure why this works but i'm happy with it.

patio.

Unfortunately neither of those fixes work for me... *sighs* :knock:

Flash disk needs reformating

The partition on the flash disk need reformatting. The reformat can only be performed from control panel>>Administration Tool>> Disk Management. That should solve your problem.

---
jack of all, master of none

Same Problem - Pls Help

I upgraded my PC to Windows XP SP2. I have two flash drives (memorex & simpletech) - both 256 MB. And none of them appear in Explorer. In fact I get an error saying that there is a USB Power Surge on the Port, etc.

I dont even see any of the devices in Device Manager.

Surprisingly, I have other USB devices like Web Cam and Camera and they work perfectly. Even they give an error about USB Power Surge on the Port but they still work. So thats all the more confusing.

I have tried all kinds of stuff like:
1) Uninstalled all USB Ports and installed drivers again
2) Installed the latest Chipset drivers from Intel
3) Rebooted the PC with the Drives inside, etc.

Please let me know of any other things to try. Appreciate any response.

The assigning a drive letter and reassigning a mapped drive works fine for USB drives, but other USB devices are having problems (e.g. digital camera, MP3 player). Has anyone found a solution for these devices?