[FIXED] Pen Drive Not Showing/Detected in My Computer on Windows

"When I attempted to insert my friend's pen drive into my Windows 10 desktop, it got detected but didn't appear on my computer. Are there any solutions? It's a Cruzer Micro SanDisk pen drive."

Quick Navigation: Solutions for Pen Drive Not Showing or Detected on Computer

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Overview of Pen Drive or USB Flash Drive Not Showing in Computer

USB pen drives, SD cards, or external hard drives generally provide an easy way to backup and transfer your data. However, these devices can also give you some problems, such as pen drive not showing files, pen drive not opening in My Computer, pen drive not recognized, and so on. In our previous post, we've shown you how to recover hidden files from USB pen drive. On this page, we'll discuss how to solve the "USB not showing up" issue to help you find your missing pen drive in Windows 10/8/7. This guide also works for external hard drives or other external USB devices.

通常，当你看到你的U盘不显示时，你的意思是在Windows文件资源管理器中没有出现。在寻找解决方案之前，你应该先确定具体的情况，因为不同的情况意味着不同的原因。转到“此电脑”>“管理”>“磁盘管理”。你能在这里看到你的U盘吗？根据你所看到的，选择正确的修复方法。

如何修复USB笔式驱动器/闪存驱动器不显示在“我的电脑”中

Depending on your situation, you'll need different methods to fix a USB drive that isn't showing up on your computer.

Scenario 1: Pen drive not visible in File Explorer but appears in Disk Management

Congratulations, the fact that your USB drive is still detectable by the computer makes the issue less severe. Typically, if the pen drive doesn't appear in File Explorer but is visible in Disk Management, it might:

• Be marked as unallocated space • Be shown as a volume without a drive letter

The possible causes of this issue are USB driver problems and drive letter conflicts.

To fix the pen drive, you have three options. Try the first two methods if the pen drive shows up as unallocated space. If the storage device appears without a drive letter, opt for method 3 instead.

Method 1: Update the USB pen drive or flash drive drivers

Most of the time, the pen drive detected but not showing in My Computer issue occurs due to incorrect installation of USB driver, which is one of the most common failures happened on USB flash drive devices. Hence, you can first try to update the USB drivers and see if it helps to display your missing pen drive. Here, we take Windows 10 as an example.

Step 1. Plug in your pen drive to the PC, then right-click on "This PC" (in Windows 10) and select "Properties".

Step 2: Click on "Device Manager," then expand "Disk drives." Find the problematic USB drive, right-click on it, and select "Update driver."

Step 3. Click "Search automatically for updated driver software online".

Step 4: Wait for the driver update to complete, then restart your computer. After that, try reconnecting your USB drive to the PC and see if it appears or not.

Method 2: Recover data and create a new volume on the flash drive

If the pen drive still does not show up in My Computer after performing all the above steps, you will need to recover your data and create a new partition to make the device usable again. To retrieve data from an inaccessible device, you can utilize a reliable tool like Data Recovery Wizard to get your data back.

It will easily retrieve your important data from the pen drive or any other external USB device since it can still be detected by Windows. In addition to recovering data from an inaccessible device, Data Recovery Wizard tool can also perform deleted file recovery, formatted data recovery, RAW drive recovery, and more.

Usually, the unallocated space will show up as a “Lost Partition” in Data Recovery Wizard. Select the correct partition and start the scanning process.

Step 1. Select the USB drive to scan

Run tools Data Recovery Wizard, select the USB drive where you lost files and click "Scan" to start.

Step 2. Check and preview USB drive data

When the scan is over, you can quickly locate a specific type of file by using the Filter feature as well as the Search option.

Step 3. Restore flash drive data

After previewing and locating the lost USB drive files, click “Recover” to restore them. You should save the recovered files to a secure location on your computer instead of back to the USB drive.

Now that you have all your files back, you can create a new volume on your pen drive to get it ready for storing data again.

Step 1. Go to "This PC" > "Manage" > "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click on the Unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume...".

Step 3. Follow the wizard to complete the rest of the process.

Method 3: Change the drive letter of your pen drive

If the drive letter of your pen drive is the same as the drive letter of one of the partitions existing on your computer, your pen drive will not show up in Windows. In addition, it will show up with no drive letter under Disk Management. The solution to this problem is quite easy, all you need to do is to change the drive letter of your device.

Step 1. Right-click "This PC," and select "Manage" > "Disk Management."

Step 2. Right-click the volume on your USB device and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

Step 3. In the new window, click "Change".

Step 4. Assign a new drive letter to your pen drive and click “OK”.

If you encounter any data loss on your pen drive after changing the drive letter, feel free to perform USB data recovery using tool Data Recovery Wizard.

Situation 2: Pen drive not showing in File Explorer or Disk Management

The situation becomes more complicated if the pen drive doesn't appear in File Explorer or Disk Management, suggesting that the computer isn't detecting the device. This could be due to connection problems, USB driver issues, or physical damage to the USB drive. Consequently, the solutions for this issue are as follows:

Method 1: Check the USB connection

Don't hesitate to try the easiest one first. Sometimes, a petty issue may lead to annoying problems as well. Try plugging your pen drive into another USB port or connecting your device to another computer and see if the "pen drive not detected" issue still exists.

方法2：更新/重新安装驱动程序

If there's an issue with your device drivers, your pen drive might not show up in Windows File Explorer or Disk Management. To rule this out, you can either update your device driver as per Method 1 in Situation 1 or reinstall the device driver:

Step 1. Plug in your flash drive to the computer, right-click "This PC", and select "Properties" > "Device Manager".

Step 2. Click on “Disk drives”, right-click on the non-working USB drive and select “Uninstall device”.

Step 3. When prompted to confirm the removal, click “OK”.

Step 4. Once the uninstallation is complete, restart your computer and reconnect the USB flash drive/external hard drive to the PC. Upon restart, the driver will be installed automatically.

Method 3: Send for manual repair

If your device is damaged or dead, it won't show up on your computer. Also, you won't be able to retrieve data with data recovery software since the device can't be detected. In this scenario, you'll require manual data recovery services to save your data. If you're thinking about professional assistance, you might be interested in the data recovery cost.

归根结底

All the solutions mentioned above are feasible ways to fix a pen drive not showing up or being detected on your computer. If you're unsure about the specific cause of the problem, you can try each method sequentially. Hopefully, one of these fixes will perfectly resolve the "pen drive not showing" issue for you. This video also illustrates four methods to address a drive not recognized or detected problem. Take a few more minutes to watch it if you're interested.

"Pen Drive Not Showing in My Computer" FAQs

Here are some additional inquiries regarding the Pen drive not displaying issues. We hope you can gain further insight from the following responses.

How do I fix the USB flash drive not showing up in Windows 10/8/7?

You can try the following 6 solutions to fix USB not showing up in Windows 10/8/7:

1. 1. Seek tools professional help to repair your USB drive manually.
2. 2. Update the USB driver.
3. 3. Reinstall the disk driver for USB drives.
4. 4. Create a new disk partition.
5. 5. Rename your USB drive letter.
6. 6. Fix the system errors with tools Data Recovery Wizard.

Why isn't my Pendrive being detected on my PC?

Your computer might not detect your Pendrive due to USB driver issues, USB drive letter issues, or file system errors. It's possible that your Pendrive has sustained physical damage, in which case you should seek professional assistance.

How can I recover data from a damaged Pendrive on my computer?

You can recover lost data from a damaged or corrupted Pendrive with Data Recovery Wizard. It only takes 3 steps to recover all lost data.

< li > 1. Scan the Pendrive to find lost data.< /li >< li > 2. Select and preview the data on your Pendrive.< /li >< li > 3. Restore all the lost files from your Pendrive.< /li >