Windows 10: Explorer disappears when viewing USB drive contents, when USB drive is removed

Is there any way to stop this? If explorer is browsing the contents of a USB drive and I remove the drive, it would be useful for explorer to default back to the downloads folder or some other folder, is there any way to stop it from closing the window? Or even just for explorer to continue viewing the empty drive letter of the USB that was just removed

:)

 

help. USB drive isn't assigned a drive letter.

Any usb flash drive I plug into my computer isn't assigned a drive letter. The physical drive shows in the "safely remove hardware" but it doesnt show up in disk management. I have tried to populate the volume thru the safely remove hardware properties window and it does pop up in the list but it doesn't stay there. This isn't a format or assign a letter problem. It's more complicated then that. Maybe one of the services needed for usb drive management was disabled? Suggestions needed. btw external usb harddrives work fine.

 

How can I view and copy the contents of G-drive usb drive on Windows 11?

Thanks for trying to help. Unfortunately, the File Explorer does not list my drive (which is titled G-DRIVE mobile USB) as one of the available drives. Also, when I use the CMD window, I get this error:

C:\Users\drhaz>G:dir

The system cannot find the drive specified.

:-(

By the way, the only way this drive seems to be recognized is through the USB connection. It triggers a notification sound for a new USB connection, and it's also listed under Settings > Bluetooth and Devices. However, when I click on it, no content can be viewed in any way.

 

USB drives not showing in "Change where new content is saved"

Hello dolpha，



Welcome to the Microsoft Community！



I understand that you have encountered the problem that the USB drive cannot be displayed in "Change where to save new content". I understand your doubts and troubles.



External USB drives are usually not automatically recognized by Windows as an option suitable for saving new content, because Windows saves new content on a local disk (usually a system-installed hard drive) by default. Although external USB drives can be seen in Explorer, they are usually not shown in the "Change where new content is saved" option.

This is because an external USB drive is typically viewed as a removable storage device rather than as the primary file storage location. Windows prefers to store new content on the primary local disk to ensure system stability and performance.

However, if you wish to save new content directly to an external USB drive, you may need to set a save path in a specific application, or mount the external drive to a folder on your system as a storage location, which requires some additional settings. You can refer to the following steps:

To set the save path in a specific application:

Some applications allow users to specify a save path when saving files. Users can change the default save path in the application's settings or options to save files to an external USB drive.

This method is suitable for specific applications that require frequent file saves, such as document editors, image editing software, etc.

Mount the external drive to a folder on the system as a storage location:

This allows it to behave as a regular folder in File Explorer. This way, you can save files directly to an external drive just as you would a folder on your local disk. This method is usually achieved by using a disk management tool or third-party software provided by the operating system. Use the management tool to mount the usb drive as a folder as follows:

1. Go to Settings > System > Storage and click Advanced Storage Settings.
   
2. Click Disks and Volumes and locate the drive you want to install as a folder.
   
3. Select the drive and click the Properties button. Then you can view the details of the disk drive, including the assigned drive letter.
   
4. Click the + button in the Path section, then click Browse and navigate to or create a folder to install as a drive.
   
5. When finished, click OK. The new drive path is now displayed in the properties under the path.
   

Overall, external USB drives are usually not automatically recognized by Windows as an option for where new content is saved, but you can still save files to these drives manually.



Hope this helps,please feel free to reply me if anything is unclear or if there are any further updates, thanks.



Best Regards ,

Morning | Microsoft Technical Support Community