USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7? Overall Solutions for Fix and Recovery
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- USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7? Overall Solutions for Fix and Recovery
Summary
Receive notification like "USB device not recognized", "You need to format the disk before you can use it", etc when connecting USB devices or using USB devices. How to fix this problem? Follow us to find out the possible reason and its solution here!
Ⅰ. System Configuration Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Please choose the situation you have met:
- New USB removable hard drive is not recognized after connected to computer
- Windows notifies that "You don't currently have permission to access this folder"
- Windows notifies that "USB device not recognized"
- No notification – USB devices has been disable and can not access (Including Windows and BIOS settings)
- Ask to format the disk – Windows does not support the file system of External disk (USB device was used in Mac OS/Linux/Unix)
- Insufficient Power Supply make USB device can not work continuously
- Being used by other software and Windows can not get access to it
Ⅱ. Data Integrity Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Please choose the situation you have met:
Ⅲ. Physical Problem Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Please choose the situation you have met:
Ⅰ. System Configuration Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Situation 1: Most common – New USB removable hard drive is not recognized after connected to computer
Q
Brand-new removable hard disk can not be recognized by computer after connected to PC with external hard disk enclosure. Also, there is not any notification.
A
Here, we do not think it is the problem of physical problem. Most new hard disk will not be initialized or partitioned when go out. As a result, system will not recognized the disk when users connect it to computer.
Solution
Situation 2. Windows notifies that “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder”
Q
Take off a hard disk from old computer or other’s PC. Connect the disk to another PC to access data inside. Then you may receive the notification as following.
A
This problem could be caused by the permission settings which was set in the previous machine. When connecting this disk to another computer, users can not access data inside because of lack of permission.
Solution
Situation 3: Windows notifies that “USB device not recognized”
Q
Receive the notification of “USB device not recognized” after connecting the brand new USB memory device to computer with external disk enclosure. And an USB device with “!” could be found in Device Management.
A
This problem could be caused by the poor Windows supports the of the data transfer chips in disk enclosure or Microsoft has not authenticate the chip. To solve this problem, we need to install the disk enclosure driver provided by the manufacturer.
Solution
Situation 4: No notification – USB devices has been disable and can not access (Including Windows and BIOS settings)
Q
Computer does not have any reaction after connecting the USB memory device. And could not find any USB device with “!” with steps in Situation 3. Besides, other USB memory devices could not be recognized as well. But the USB memory device works normally in other computers.
A
This problem could be caused by abandon of the automatic USB devices installation service or disable the USB port in BIOS. These could be set by the company manger for providing a better data security in office.
Solution
If you do not have the manual, please click here to find how to change the boot order of your computer brand.
Situation 5: Windows ask to format the disk – Windows does not support the file system of External disk (USB device was used in Mac OS/Linux/Unix)
Situation
Analysis
Solution
Situation 6: Insufficient power supply make USB device can not work continuously
Situation
Analysis
Solution
- USB port with flash sign means it will provide stronger power output even computer shuts down. Normal USB port can provide maximum 500mA while USB port with flash sign can reach 1000mA.
- 2.5 inch removal HDD with 500GB requires 500mA power and 2.5 inch removal HDD requires about 700mA power.
- If the USB removal HDD you used is in 3.5 inch, it needs external power supply.
Attention: Please check the compatibility of device connector before purchase.
Situation 7: Being used by other software and Windows can not get access to it
Q
Do not have any notification after connecting the USB disk to computer. And there is not any new external device in “Computer”. But new device could be found in “Device management”.
A
Some software like virtual machine will use the USB memory device once it connected to computer. Once we stick at such situation, please shutdown the virtual software or disconnect the USB memory devices in settings of virtual machine.
Solution
Ⅱ. Data Integrity Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Situation 1: Windows asks “You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it” or “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”.
Situation
Analysis
1). Did not remove the USB memory device from computer correctly.
2). Store the USB memory device with strong magnetic material.
3). Bad sector in USB memory device.
Solution
If you saved important data in the USB memory device or chkdsk can not recover the disk, it is worth to try professional data recovery software – Renee Undeleter. Download free version here.
Recover Data from USB Memory Device with Renee Undeleter
Situation 2: No notification and the disk shows to be “Not initialized” in disk management
Situation
Analysis
Solution
Here, we recommend freeware testdisk (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk)
Download link:https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
Guidance: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
Situation 3: There are lots of bad sector in USB devices, leads to detection failure
Q
USB disk fails to be recognized constantly. Recognition failure still happens even you try to solve it with methods above.
A
This could be caused by the bad sectors in the USB memory device.
Bad sector is a place where disk can not save data. There are two types of bad sectors. One is soft bad sector caused by disk format and it could be repaired via format the disk again. However, disk format will erase all data inside the disk. The other one is hard bad sector known as physical damage, which means these sectors can not save any data. If there are lots of bad sectors in the disk, the disk will fail sooner or later.
So we should use the USB hard disk with care and do not move them at will or even shake it.
Solution
Ⅲ. Physical Problem Leads to USB Device not Recognized in Windows 10/8/7
Situation 1: Poor contact leads to USB devices recognition failure
2. Pencil.
3. Alcohol cotton ball (Please wait it to be dried before using the device.)
Situation 2: Wrong connection of the Front USB ports
Q
Computer can not recognized anything and the battery light of the disk enclosure does not light which means the disk is not power up. And it does not make sound like reading data after connect if it is a HDD.
A
Possible reasons for these situation:
1. The front USB ports did not connect to main board when building the PC. If yes, please connect the USB memory device to the USB ports behind the main board.
Situation 3: USB devices fails
Q
Computer fails to recognize the removable memory device after connect. And the disk keeps silent without working.
A
We focus on HDD here. We can find whether the HDD works normally via the sound. Of course, this could be caused by the damaged disk enclosure. You can connect the HDD to compute with another disk enclosure for testing.
Solution
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