Windows 10: USB drives appear and disappear

Ok, got a bit of a strange one this morning which happened after I opened an excel file from the office via VPN could be just a coincidence it happened at that time though.


Anyway, the USB drive icon in the sys tray disappeared and then appeared and started randomly switching between those states. In sync with that, my USB drive tank Probox with 8 drives actually did disappear and then come back online, and the probox started checking disks as if it was being connected to and disconnected from the PC.


I turned the probox off, dropped the VPN and closed all programs, and no change, icon was still going in and out, ran webroot and malwarebytes, no issues there.


Rebooted, the problem was still there.


It looked like it was having problems with a USB device, so physically unplugged the probox from the PC in case the probox's USB port had become flaky, still no change.


So, as a test I grabbed a USB stick and stuck it in a USB 3 port one of the PC's front ports and the USB icon came on solid, the USB stick appeared and was readable. I turned the Probox on and all drives came up and have stayed up.


So, it looks like some sort of insane USB driver bug?


Not seen this issue before, the PC is 8 months old, Ryzen 2400GE on an MSI B450i Gaming Plus AC, 16GB Corsiar memory, Adata SX8200P SSD, running the latest Win 10 Pro.


Found a couple of similar reported issues here and elsewhere but no real resolution, would be good to know why this happened...

:)

 

What has happened to the additional drives that appeared in the Windows Explorer for external USB devices

Hi Alan,

Welcome to Microsoft Community. Your interest in Windows 10 is much appreciated.

For better understanding please answer the below questions:

• Does the USB drive shows in the Device Manager?
• Is the computer detecting the connected USB devices?
• Have you checked the USB drives on the different computers?

I would suggest you to try the below methods and check if that helps:

Method 1:

Check if you are able to see the USB External DVD drive in Disk Management. If you are able to see the USB External DVD drive in Disk Management, follow the steps to assign the drive letter:

• Press Windows key + X.
• Select Disk Management.
• Right-click the drive that you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
  

Do one of the following:

• To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned, click
  Add, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
• To change a drive letter, click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the letter that you want to use, and then click
  OK.

Method 2: I would suggest you to un-install and reinstall USB controllers and check. This method resolves steps where the currently loaded USB driver has become unstable or corrupted.

• Press Windows key + X.
• Select Device Manager.
• Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
• Right click a device and click Uninstall.
• Repeat for each device. Once complete, restart your computer.
• Your USB controllers will automatically install.

Keep us posted if you face any issues on windows in future. We will be glad to help 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.

 

My USB Backup drive does not show in My Computer window.

Hi Meran,

A few possible reason can cause your external drive to not show in File Explorer. To diagnose and fix this issue, we suggest that you check the Disk Management window. To open it, follow the steps below:

• Right-click on the Start button.
• Select Disk Management.
• Alternatively, you can search diskmgmt.msc in Cortana.

Examine the list of drives in the Disk Management window and look for your external drive. Even if it doesn’t show up in File Explorer, it should appear here. If the drive appears, it may not be appearing in File Explorer because it needs to be assigned
a drive letter. To do this, right-click the partition on the drive in Disk Management and select
Change Drive Letter and Paths.

If you don’t see the drive in the Disk Management window at all, we suggest that you try connecting the drive to a different USB port or use a different USB cable. We also recommend that you avoid using USB hubs, and connect the drive directly to your computer.

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to post a reply.