Windows 10: Windows crashes whenever I plug-in a USB Drive

I have a problem when plugging in USB drives in any USB port, that is, directly into the motherboard, on the case panel, or a USB Hub. Windows Explorer stops responding and sometimes I get a BSOD.The issue isn't with the USB Drives, as the same drives work perfectly fine on another computer. These include SD Cards using a reader, USB Sticks and even my Kindle. Mice, keyboards and printers work fine.I can also rule out hardware issues, since I can read the USB Drives on the same computer when booting into Linux UbuntuI have some mini dumps that I can send, since I can't find an option to at

:)

 

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

 

USB drive not detected in Windows Explorer when plugged in

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



It’s really strange to see that the D Drive is not showing up in file explorer, even though it’s listed under disk management and you are able to open D drive using the navigation bar.



In this scenario, we would suggest you to perform these methods and check if that fix the issue.



Method 1: Restore File explorer to default.

1. Open File explorer and click on View.
   
2. Select on Options and click on Change folder and search options.
   
3. Select on View tab and click on Restore Defaults.
   
4. Click on OK and re-plug the USB and check.

Method 2: Registry change

1. Press Windows + R key to launch Run command. Type Regedit and click Ok.
   
2. Navigate to this location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
   
3. On the right pane look for D drive, right click on it and delete.
   
4. Restart the PC and then re-plug the USB to check.

Method 3: New user account

This issue may be due to a profile corruption. Hence, in order to eliminate possibilities, I would suggest you to create a new user account. Follow the steps from the article
Create a local user or administrator account in Windows 10
to create a new user account.



​If issue persists, update chipset and storage drivers from

HP manufacturer website.



Regards,



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator