Windows is quirky and if some of the system files get corrupted, you can end up with this really annoying problem of having to reformat all your USB drives and SD cards!
Most of the time, formatting isn’t an option and if you can plug the device into another system where it loads properly, then why bother?
There are a few things you can do to get rid of the problem. In this article, I’ll try and walk you through the different actions you can take to correct this issue. ..
Method 1 – System File Checker
If the System File Checker finds any corrupted files, it will replace them with fresh copies. You can run this tool using an elevated command prompt.
If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, you can get to an elevated command prompt by going to the Start screen, clicking the search icon in the lower-left corner, and typing “command prompt.” In new versions of Windows, just search “command prompt” from the Start Menu. ..
The scannow process can take a while, so be patient.
If you have a corrupted system file, then you will have to manually do it. Follow these instructions to fix the file:
If you’re still having trouble, please try restarting your computer and then plugging in your USB device. If that doesn’t work, please try formatting it.
Method 2 – Reinstall USB Controller
If you are having trouble connecting your USB devices, you can try to reinstall the USB controllers on your Windows machine. You can do this by clicking on the Start button and then typing in devmgmt.msc in the search box and pressing Enter. If you are having trouble connecting your USB devices, there are a few things that you can try. ..
If you are not using Windows 7, you can go to the Control Panel, then System and clicking on Hardware. If you are using Windows 7, you can find your device manager by going to the Control Panel, then System and clicking on Hardware.
Right-click on each item under Universal Serial Bus controllers and choose Uninstall. After you have uninstalled all items, go ahead and restart your computer and it will automatically reinstall each USB port.
Method 3 – Run chkdsk
If your USB drive is not working, you may want to check if there are any bad sectors on it. chkdsk will check for bad sectors and fix them if they exist. However, if your USB drive works perfectly fine on another computer, it may have no problem.
netstat -an This will show you all the active network connections and their status. If there are any problems, you can use the netstat command to diagnose them.
The drive you want to scan is the drive you want to use. /p will check the hard drive even if it has been marked as dirty. /r will find the bad sectors and recover any data from there. Once it has finished, go ahead and disconnect the drive and then restart your computer. See what happens when you connect it again.
Method 4 – Plug into Different USB Port
If you have a Windows XP computer, you may be able to try plugging the device into a different USB port. This might help if the problem is with your computer.
Windows can sometimes have trouble recognizing devices that are connected to different ports, which can lead to problems. ..
I’ve never really had this problem before, but it seems to cause issues with some people. It’s worth a shot and could be a simple fix.
Method 5 – Try Partition Recovery Tool
If the USB drive is giving you different messages on different computers, it may be an issue with the file system structure on the USB drive.
You can try to repair the USB drive by running chkdsk, which I mentioned in Method 4. If that doesn’t work, you can try out a third-party tool called TestDisk, which is open source and free.
The tool is a command line tool and can be a little more technical, but it does work well. They also have good documentation. In our case, you should follow the step-by-step instructions for recovering and repairing partitions. ..
Method 6 – Format the Device
If you still get this message, your device is not compatible with the computer. You can try connecting it to another computer or copying off all the data and performing a format.
When you format the device, you should right-click on the device there and choose Format.
To get to Disk Management in Windows 7, right-click on My Computer or the Computer icon and click on Manage. You can also check out my previous post on the best file format to use when formatting USB drives. ..
Computer doesn’t recognize USB drive
