A flash drive (sometimes called a USB device, drive or stick, thumb drive, pen drive, jump drive or USB memory) is a small storage device that can be used to transport files from one computer to another. The flash drive is smaller than a pack of gum, yet many of these devices can carry all your work for an entire year (or more)!
- A flash drive is a small, removable hard drive that plugs into a USB port on your computer. You can purchase a flash drive for less than $20 at just about any retail store with an electronics department, and even at some grocery stores and pharmacies.
- Flash Drive 16GB USB 2.0 10 Pack Swivel Blank Memory Stick Pnstaw Bulk Thumb Drive Pen Drives Jump Drive for Data Storage, File Sharing (10 Pack,Multi-Color) (16GB).
Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
How Can I Fix my Flash Drive Not Recognized?
Question: 'My USB flash drive is not recognized when I plug it to the computer. What causes such a problem to happen? Is my USB drive got broken? How to fix the flash drive not recognized issue? Also, can I recover data from the USB flash drive not recognized?'
Solved: USB not recognized is the common problem reported many users, it could be broken or other reason caused the drive error. But don't worry, you can follow the next guide to fix the flash drive not recognized error on Windows and Mac, then recover files from flash drive with Recoverit Data Recovery program.
What Caused the Flash Drive Not Recognized on Computer?
Several root causes would result in the not recognized flash drive issue. They should be addressed so that you will not need to deal with the issue(s) for a long period.
Port Related Issues: Adobe streamline replacement. : To determine if this is a port problem, test every USB port that you have with different flash drives. This could be either hardware or software issues or both. In this case, you would need a professional to help you correct this.
USB Formatting Issue: This is the most probable reason your computer could not detect your flash drive. The inability to format flash drive properly before the first use could cause problems later on.
Driver Issue: The drivers may not be available, corrupted, or outdated which would make the flash drive not Recognized.
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive.
Operating System Related Issues: Sometimes, if your OS is not updated with the necessary updates as often as possible, it would cause the system to not recognize the flash drive. This could be simply rectified by updating the necessary components.
4 Ways to Fix the USB Flash Drive Not Recognized Problems on Windows
Depending on what is the root cause of the problem, you may only need to do one of these four steps or all of them. Follow these solutions step-by-step to resolve your problem.
Way 1: Scan Flash Drive to Find the Issue
- Plug the flash drive into your USB port.
- Go to My Computer and right-click on the flash drive. Open the Properties
- Open the Tools tab and click Check now'¦
- It may take some time to complete the scan. Once finished, it will tell you what the flash drive's problem is.
Way 2: Reformat the Flash Drive
- Right-click on the flash drive and click on Format'¦, the Format window will pop up.
Open Up The Flash Drive
- Under the File system toggle it between NTFS and FAT32. Click Start.
Way 3: Perform driver updates
What's On The Flash Drive
- Open the Run command and type in msc in the field. Click OK.
- This will open the Device Manager. Find the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Expand the menu and right-click on the Generic USB Hub. Click on Update Driver Software'¦
Way 4: Operating System Updates
Driver Issue: The drivers may not be available, corrupted, or outdated which would make the flash drive not Recognized.
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive.
Operating System Related Issues: Sometimes, if your OS is not updated with the necessary updates as often as possible, it would cause the system to not recognize the flash drive. This could be simply rectified by updating the necessary components.
4 Ways to Fix the USB Flash Drive Not Recognized Problems on Windows
Depending on what is the root cause of the problem, you may only need to do one of these four steps or all of them. Follow these solutions step-by-step to resolve your problem.
Way 1: Scan Flash Drive to Find the Issue
- Plug the flash drive into your USB port.
- Go to My Computer and right-click on the flash drive. Open the Properties
- Open the Tools tab and click Check now'¦
- It may take some time to complete the scan. Once finished, it will tell you what the flash drive's problem is.
Way 2: Reformat the Flash Drive
- Right-click on the flash drive and click on Format'¦, the Format window will pop up.
Open Up The Flash Drive
- Under the File system toggle it between NTFS and FAT32. Click Start.
Way 3: Perform driver updates
What's On The Flash Drive
- Open the Run command and type in msc in the field. Click OK.
- This will open the Device Manager. Find the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Expand the menu and right-click on the Generic USB Hub. Click on Update Driver Software'¦
Way 4: Operating System Updates
- Go to Control Panel, then System and security.
- Under the Windows Update section, click on Check for Updates.
- If it is not updated (the notification is not green in color), update it accordingly as indicated by the system.
- Follow the updating wizard and restart your computer accordingly.
Video Tutorial on How to Fix USB Device Not Recognized
3 Ways to Fix the Flash Drive Not Recognized Problem on Mac
Like in Windows, your resolution method will be determined by the root cause of the problem. These are the three ways that you can do to fix flash drive not Recognized issue.
Way 1: Manually Connect the Flash Drive
- Go to Application and click on Utilities.
- A pop-up window will appear and click on the highlighted commands as marked in the image below:
- Under Devices, click External Devices to manually connect the unrecognizable flash drive.
Way 2: Retune PRAM
- Shut down your Mac.
- Press the Power button and subsequently hold down the Command-Option-P-R This should be done before the grey screen appears.
- Your Mac should reboot itself. Let it go after the start-up chime.
Way 3: Format Mac's Drive
- Press the Command-Spacebar buttons simultaneously, plug in the flash drive and go to the Application Click on the Disk Utility option.
- You will be able to find the flash drives that need to be fixed in the left panel.
- Click on the Erase button to complete the process.
What's Next?
Now that the flash drive not Recognized problem is solved on your Windows or Mac computer, make sure you had back-up all important documents in the flash drive. This is to ensure that you will be able to access the files stored in the flash drive should it happens again.
You should also check if there is any accidental data loss from the drive. Should you find things missing, use a flash drive data recovery tool to help you recover loss documents do this immediately before it is overwritten by new data.
How to Recover Data from Flash Drive Not Recognized on Windows
When you fix the USB flash drive not recognized with format solution, all your data on the drive will be got formatted and lost. On this guide, we will show you how to recover data from flash drive not recognized on Windows. Recoverit Data Recovery software can easily help you recover lost files from flash drive, even the drive got damaged/corrupted, formatted, virus attack and the file system crashed.
Recoverit - The Best USB Flash Drive Recovery Software
- Undeleted files from flash drive which not recognized on Windows and Mac.
- Recover files from USB flash drive due to accidentally deleted, formatted and damaged/corrupted.
Steps to Recover Lost Data from Flash Drive
Download and install Recoverit Flash Drive Recovery on your computer, follow the next simple steps to perform flash drive data recovery on Windows computer.
Step 1. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery program, select the 'External Device Recovery' mode to get started.
Step 2. Make sure your flash drive detected on the computer, select it, and click 'Start' to proceed.
Step 3. The flash drive recovery software will start to scan the device to search and restore your data files.
Step 4. Finally, you can check all the recovered files. Select your data and recover back by clicking the 'Recover' button.
If you are a MAC user, you should download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac or follow the guide to perform flash drive recovery on Mac.
USB Solution
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
Portable storage is not something new in this digital age. Gone are the days when you could only store your data and photo on the hard drive in the computer. Later on, Floppy Diskettes came, and that was followed by Compact Discs (CDs). Today, you can easily store your content on a flash drive or photo stack. These two devices look the same, but they are different in many ways. So, what is the difference between a flash drive and a photo stick? That is what we will be discussing in this article.
Flash Drive
Let's kick it off with a flash drive. A USB flash drive is considered a device that is used for storage of data. It comes with flash memory, along with an incorporated Universal Serial Bus interface. Usually, USB flash drives will be removable and rewritable. You can store data, format, and reuse as many times as you want. Nonetheless, you should know that the lifespan of a flash drive will depend on how many times you use it. If you delete and write new data on it, it will degrade faster than when you save the same data over a long period.
Plus, they can be used on any device that has a USB port. However, a USB flash drive is not only used to store data like an external hard drive. Instead, you can use a USB flash drive in many ways. It is a very versatile storage device.
Print save as pdf windows. The flash drive comes with a USB connector that is well-protected and insulated electrically inside a rubber or plastic case. Inside the casing is a small printed circuit board that has integrated circuits mounted on the surface.
The Specifications of USB Flash Drives
While these devices might seem similar in design, they come in different specifications. Generally, the flash drives come in three specifications, including USB 1.0 (low and high-speed), USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The specification of the flash drives will determine its data transfer rate. Let's explore each specification:
A. USB 1.0 (low-speed). This type of flash drive can transfer data at a speed of 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps).
B. USB 1.0 (high-speed). This flash drive transfers data at 12 Mbps.
C. USB 2.0. This flash drive is also called the Hi-Speed USB, and it was launched back in April 2000. This flash drive can transfer data at 480 Mbps.
D. USB 3.0. This is also called the SuperSpeed USB, and it was launched back in 2008. It allows you to transfer data at a rate of 5 Gigabits per second (Gbps).
E. USB 4.0 is expected to be released later in the year, and it will have an even high transfer rate. This makes it a reliable storage device, especially when you need to transfer some files.
The PhotoStick
Now we move to the flash drive challenger, the PhotoStick. Now, you should first know that a PhotoStick is not a general term for a specific device. Rather, this is a trademark name for a device used specifically for storing [and transferring] photos.
A PhotoStick is a device (which looks like a USB flash drive) that is designed to locate personal photos and videos on your computer or laptop. All you have to do is plug it in the USB port of your computer and select ‘Go'. After that, the PhotoStick will start scanning your files and folders on the computer. This would take between 10 to 20 minutes depending on the number of files you have in your systems. It might take a shorter time.
But that's not all that the PhotoStick does. It will also locate any duplicate photo/video and delete it. This saves you the time that you'd take to remove them yourself. But the only issue, which is not such a point of concern, is that it doesn't ask you before deleting the duplicates.
Now another amazing thing about the PhotoStick is that the photos are automatically saved on the device once they are located on your computer. When you unplug the PhotoStick, all the photos will be automatically saved on the device.
So what does a PhotoStick Do?
All the functions of the PhotoStick can be summarized in a few points. Let's have a look at them; Can t update adobe.
a. It will find every media (photo or video) on the computer with a single click
b. Automatically deletes all the duplicates on the computer
c. It will organize your photo collections automatically. Quite a plus for the user
d. Saves the photos automatically as soon as it finds them on your computer
With the PhotoStick, it will do more than a regular flash drive would do. Actually, most of the functions of the PhotoStick can either be done by a skilled user or dedicated software.
You can get some great photo stick 128 deals to let you enjoy the amazing benefits of this unique device.
The Differences
By now, you can already guess what the major difference between the PhotoStick and a flash drive is. But if you don't, you should know that a PhotoStick is specifically designed to store and transfer media; that is photos and videos. On the other hand, a USB flash drive is a portable and removable storage device that is used to store and transfer any data. It doesn't have restrictions on what it can read, store, and transfer as compared to the Photo Stick.
Another thing is that a PhotoStick will come with dedicated software that does all the scanning and storing of media. However, a flash drive is an open storage device that you can use to install software on it.
In terms of user-friendliness and reliability, the PhotoStick takes the lead because it saves you a lot of time and effort in just a single click. However, if you want to go for a storage device for your general data transfer and storage, you should opt for a USB flash drive.
A PhotoStick is ideal for those that normally deal with media. If you are a photographer or you tend to take too many photos randomly, the PhotoStick would suit you best.
Whether you opt for the PhotoStick or the Flash Drive, always ensure that you take good care of your USB device. Also, don't forget that a PhotoStick will not detect other files other than photo and video files.
