# Flash Drive not accessible



## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

Hi. I am having trouble with my USB drives. i know they aren't broken, because my Mouse is a USB mouse and it works fine. I can also plug my mobile phone into the USB port and use the program MOBILedit without any problems. And when i plug my new USB flash drive into the USB port, windows installs the driver perfectly and says it is ready for use.

However, when i go into "My Computer", my flash drive icon is not present... and i cannot click on it to transfer any files. can anyone help me? is there anyway to make this icon appear, or any file managing program that can be used as a substitute.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Hi,
Can you find the the flash drive in Device manager? Are there any yellow alerts (in device manager)?

Nicholas


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

no yellow alerts (except for my Mobile Phone, but that works now, and yes, it is present in the device manager:

here's a screenshot:


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

OK! Can you see it in disk management?


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

sorry i dont know what you mean by "disk management". is this what you meant?:


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

No. You're using XP, right? If so - right-click My computer > manage > disk management


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

oh i see.

yes it is visible in Disk Management. unfortunately when i right click on it... the "open" and "explore" buttons are not available..


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Are you able to format it? It looks like it's formatted, but try that anyway (unless you have some data on it that you don't want to lose).


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

yes i can format it. but i do not really want to, as i have some data on there that i put on it from another computer. EDIT: Yet, if you think that this will let me open the drive on THIS computer... i will do it

i still have no idea why the computer recognises its presence but does not allow me to open it


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Yes - it's odd. Have you tried it in another computer?


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

yes it works on every other computer i have tried it on... its so bloody annoying


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Silly question - some flash drives can be locked with a switch on it. Did you check that?


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

that was my first hope, but it doesnt have a switch on it


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

SUCESS!! 

i went into disk manager and went to the "change Letter and Paths" option, and found that it had not had a letter assigned to it.

so now i can right click and Open it from the Disk management menu,.... yet it still wont show up in My COmputer,,... even after refreshing


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

I'm lost here. The only suggestion I have is that you could plug it into another computer and save the data to, for example a CD - then format the drive in your own computer.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

Good news! Try a reboot - that should fix it.


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## junwin (Mar 18, 2007)

:S unfortunately it didnt... and i had to assign the Letter to the drive again.

alrthough it still seems to give me access to the drive... its just a little inconvinient

meh, better than nothing


thanks for your help eneles


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## ssamlal (Oct 16, 2008)

question junwun, how many drives do you have on the computer and what are the paths? (whats the drive letters?) if you have a regular set up ( c=hard drive; a= floppy; d= CD Drive) then windows automatically assigns it to the E drive, however if you have something attached to this path already, it just won't show up. My suggestion is to change the path of the other drive and always leave E open so it can be accessible by the flash drive.


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