Windows 10: USB connected drive

My W10 computer can see a USB-connected W7 SSD down to the position it was labeled as on the now defunct desktop it came from e.g "(e/". It display used/vs available space, file paths, with their names but when checked on "This PC" it says: This folder is empty.

What gives?

:)

 

The drive is connected with USB but will not Initialize on Windows 10

Hello Moksha,

As you are facing issues with accessing the USB drive on your device, we will help you with this issue.

Provide us additional information to assist you better with this issue:

• What is the complete error message/ error code of this issue?
• Have you made any changes to the operating system prior to this issue?
• Does this issue confined to the specific drive?

Try few of the below workarounds to identify the cause for the issue:

• Connect the USB drive to different ports and check if it is working fine. This will let us know if the issue is with the port.
• Connect the USB drive to different computer with different ports to check if the issue persists with the drive or the computer.

Let us try the below troubleshooting steps and check if it helps.

Step 1: I suggest you to run Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
checks for common problems and makes sure that any new device or hardware connected to your PC is installed correctly.

• Press Windows key from the keyboard, type
  Troubleshooting and select it.
• Click on view all option on the upper left corner of
  Troubleshooting window.
• Select the Hardware and Device options from the list.
  
• Click Next to run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter.

Step 2: I recommend you to install all the pending updates from Windows Updates on your device and check if you are able to access the USB drive.

Steps:

• Connect to the internet.
• Press Windows key and type updates.
• Click on Check for updates.
• Under Windows Updates, click on Check for updates.
• Try to install the updates being shown.

Hope it helps. Try the above and update us the status of this issue with the required information, we will be happy to help you further.

Thank you.

 

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.

 

Installing windows off of a USB stick

Step By Step from vista:
From admin cmd prompt

1. diskpart
1a. list disk
2. select disk 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (d being your vista cd and e being your usb stick)

And that's it, boot off your usb disk