Windows 10: Removable Drive not able to get assigned to a drive letter or be formatted

my USB drive shows up as an unformatted drive but its assigned the letter D. When I try try to format it, and error comes up that says that windows is unable to format the drive. I tried to format it using the Disk Management panel. When I create a new simple volume, it gives me the error that the volume was created but that it was unable to be formatted, then another error shows up saying that it was unable to assign a drive letter, after that my drive loses the drive letter and doesn't show up in the file explored anymore. When I delete that simple volume the drive will be assigned the lette

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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.

 

Assigning Drive Letter

I am trying to assign a particular letter to one of my hard drives. None of my other drives are assigned that letter, but it is not listed in the choices. Is there something I can do?

 

Drive letters are not available for assigning to unallocated space

Hello Sjoerd,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



The reason the drive letters are not available to assign are because they might have been assigned to devices which are removed or hidden. I suggest you to check for any hidden devices and remove them to assign the missing drive letters.



Follow the steps mentioned below to check for the hidden or removed devices.

1. Press Windows key + R. This will open
   Run. Alternatively, you can go to Start and search for Run.
   
2. In Run dialog box, type
   devmgmt.msc and hit enter.
   
3. Click on the view tab at the top left hand corner.
   
4. Now select View hidden devices.
   
5. Now look for the hidden devices under storage volumes and
   portable devices.
   
6. Right click on the hidden devices and click on
   uninstall.
   
7. Restart the PC.
   

After restarting the PC, try assigning the drive letter to the unallocated drive and check if the drive letters D, E, F, G, and H appears.



Hope it helps.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator