Windows 10: No external devices issue-why?

I did dl Drive tools for windows but as I don't have a lot of experience with using command promt, I'm a little bit scared to run it. Few of those parameters there says something about removing volumes or removing drives... As far as I know volume is the term regarding my physical HDD and I don't want to remove it.
So what I'm saying, if you can, please tell me exactly what command should I type for this to just remove USB drive and not my HDD

 

You can just right click DriveCleanup and run as administrator - no need to run in Command or provide any parameters.

I suppose it does sound a bit scary ... if you missed this:
it removes all currently non present ... devices
What that means is when you disconnect a USB device, it leaves a ghost entry (non-present) in the device tree. DriveCleanup removes the ghost entries and associated registry entries. You can do the same thing manually one-by-one, but it's much easier with this tool.

Your HDD is not a USB device and I assume it is present.

Always good to ask first *Wink

 

Thx*Smile So if I've understand this correctly. All I need to do is to right click on the .exe file-> run as administrator-> command window opens, showing all available parameters with a text at the bottom "Press any key to close"->press any key and it's done?
If so, I'm afraid it doesn't work. I did that several times and the result is the same as before. No USB detected when I connect them.
I'm asking cause what I use to do when running .exe like that is: run cmd run this .exe in cmd type the command with relevant operator, and then it was done.

 

You do need to extract it from the zip folder *Wink

There's a notation on the website that only the 64 bit version works on 64 bit machines
Is your system x64? did you run the exe from the X64 folder?

Yep, that's all you had to do ... did you see any output on the command window?




If you see out similar to my screenshot, then it ran

If you saw something similar to this, then you did not run as administrator



Please restart your machine if you haven't already

Cleaning up the ghost devices was a place to start. If it solved the issue, great ... if not, then there are other things to try.

 

Since you're trying different devices, I'll guess that you're also using different cables.

If I'm wrong, that's an easy test - try a different cable.

 

Thx*Smile
So it looks like I haven't run it cause it looks like this


I did all the rest. Unzipped and started .exe from x64(my Windows is 64bit). That's why I was asking how to run it.
Also I've tried few different cables.

 

BTW I used this free upgrade offer from M$ and I'm wondering if I can just pick up the phone, call them to fix the problem, dive tehnician access to my machine via Remote desktop and done.
I know that when I bought W& box I could. But I guess this copy of W10 is classed as OEM so they can say to me to kiss.....*Smile

 

Ok, that rules out cables - thanks.

Thanks for the screen shot of DriveCleanup - you are definitely not launching it correctly

It should be really simple - don't over think it *Biggrin
Don't launch command prompt to execute the program.
Don't use Run

Use this as an example to get DriveCleanup to do it's job.




That's all there is to it.
Still, there's no guarantees that it will solve the issue ... it's a place to start trouble shooting

If you want to see if MS can help solve the issue, sure give them a call.

Keep in mind that going to different sites or calling MS makes it really hard to help you here on TenForums. The trouble shooting chain gets lost - one site tells you this, MS does that... TF members helping don't know what has been tried so there might be repeated suggestions that you've already tried. It gets frustrating for members on both sides of your monitor.

I'll stop posting suggestions until you get back from the MS session. Don't worry, I'm not quitting (I really only just got started *Wink).

 

It works. Finally. I did what I should have done at the start. So I've called M$ technical support. All they did, and it was solved by the phone, was asked me to run some build in Windows troubleshooting(control pannel->troubleshooting). Now in my USB tree in Device manager appeared new entry. It looks like ->


Woman also told me that in my ver of W10 which is Windows 10Pro x64 there is a way to disable automatic windows updates. I didn't know that there is a way for this at all. She told me that the win registry needs to be altered for this(I'm assuming that like 1 entry needs to be changed and not whole registry) and as this is lvl2 support, someone will call me tomorrow.I'm writing this bit about updates as it appears that I was right in the first place. It was some stupid update installed without my knowledge, that broke this USB.

 

Glad you got it sorted.

Do you recall which trouble shooter?
I would guess Hardware and Devices.

 

Now that I've just come back from shopping, I can't remember, sorry, but I imagine you are right. All I recall is that she asked me to go to control panel and open Troubleshooting. That's all. Maybe later it'll come back to me.

 

Hi,

Must be.

Either way glad it's sorted now.

I'm pretty certain SlartyBart's idea of using driveclean up proggie would have achieved the same in the end.

Time to make a good full backup of that machine, Binks. *Wink

Cheers, *Wink