Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
Question: "My USB flash drive is not recognized when I plug it to the computer. What causes such a problem to happen? Is my USB drive got broken? How to fix the flash drive not recognized issue? Also, can I recover data from the USB flash drive not recognized?"
Solved: USB not recognized is one common problem reported by many users. It could be broken or other reasons which caused the drive error. But don't worry, you can follow the next guide to fix the flash drive not recognized error on Windows and Mac, then recover files from flash drive with Wondershare Recoverit Data Recovery program.
Several root causes would result in the not recognized flash drive issue. They should be addressed so that you will not need to deal with the issue(s) for a long period.
Port Related Issues: To determine if this is a port problem, test every USB port that you have with different flash drives. This could be either hardware or software issues or both. In this case, you would need a professional to help you correct this.
USB Formatting Issue: This is the most probable reason your computer could not detect your flash drive. The inability to format flash drive properly before the first use could cause problems later on.
Driver Issue: The drivers may not be available, corrupted, or outdated which would make the flash drive not Recognized.
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive.
Operating System Related Issues: Sometimes, if your OS is not updated with the necessary updates as often as possible, it would cause the system to not recognize the flash drive. This could be simply rectified by updating the necessary components.
Depending on what is the root cause of the problem, you may only need to do one of these four steps or all of them. Follow these solutions step-by-step to resolve your problem.
The first method we can't miss is to restart your computer. It's the most efficient way to solve some occasional bugs appear on your computer.
Connect the USB drive to another computer or USB port to see whether it works or not.
One of the reasons that the usb device not recognized is that it is corrupted. For this case, uninstalling the usb device can easily solve this issue.
Disabling the usb selective suspend settings is another good way to solve the problems that USB drive not recognized. To save the battery power and protect some USB devices, the Windows operating system may automatically power the devices down when they haven’t been used for a while, which may cause the USB drive not showing up. Disabling this feature can fix this:
USB controllers is important for the connection between your computer and the USB driver. When the USB device not recognized error appears, it may have something to do with the USB controllers. Updating the controllers may fix this issue.
When updating the USB controllers didn't work, you can try reinstalling to fix this problem:
You can try any of the controllers if you’re not sure which one is in use, because they will get reinstalled automatically once you restarted the computer.
Keep your Windows updated is another effective way to fix the USB driver not recognized issue.
If it doesn’t fix this problem by repairing your USB device, then the problem may relies on your Windows operating system. If the operating system is corrupted, it can also cause the USB device not recognized issue. Try repairing the Windows system to fix this issue:
If it isn’t fixed, you can continue with repairing the Windows Component Store:
To let your motherboard work correctly, the chipset drivers need to keep being updated. If you haven’t done this for a while, you can go to the official website to check whether there is newer chipset driver available to download. If yes, download the driver and install it.
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View More >Like in Windows, your resolution method will be determined by the root cause of the problem. These are the three ways that you can do to fix flash drive not Recognized issue.
Now that the flash drive not Recognized problem is solved on your Windows or Mac computer, make sure you had back-up all important documents in the flash drive. This is to ensure that you will be able to access the files stored in the flash drive should it happens again.
You should also check if there is any accidental data loss from the drive. Should you find things missing, use a flash drive data recovery tool to help you recover loss documents do this immediately before it is overwritten by new data.
When you fix the USB flash drive not recognized with format solution, all your data on the drive will be got formatted and lost. On this guide, we will show you how to recover data from flash drive not recognized on Windows. Recoverit Data Recovery software can easily help you recover lost files from flash drive, even the drive got damaged/corrupted, formatted, virus attack and the file system crashed.
Download and install Recoverit Flash Drive Recovery on your computer, follow the next simple steps to perform flash drive data recovery on Windows computer.
Step 1. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery program, select the "External Device Recovery" mode to get started.
Step 2. Make sure your flash drive detected on the computer, select it, and click "Start" to proceed.
Step 3. The flash drive recovery software will start to scan the device to search and restore your data files.
Step 4. Finally, you can check all the recovered files. Select your data and recover back by clicking the "Recover" button.
If you are a MAC user, you should download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac or follow the guide to perform flash drive recovery on Mac.
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Sue Wayne
staff Editor