If you have a USB drive connected to your computer and you cannot see it in Windows Explorer, it is wise to restart the PC. Reconnect the drive to see if it now pops up. If that doesn’t work, try the following…
Check whether the external drive or USB stick has been assigned a drive letter. To do that, open Disk Management. In Windows 10/11, press the combination Windows key+X and click Disk Management. You can also use the search box of the taskbar diskmgmt.msc typing and on Enter to press.
Disk Management looks the same on both operating systems. If the external drive has been assigned a drive letter, it will be listed here next to the drive name. If there is no drive letter, perform the next step.
Assign or change drive letter
Right click on the external drive you want to see in Windows Explorer and choose the command Change drive letter and paths. In the dialog box that opens, use the button To add. In the next window you can then add a new drive letter to the device.
Normally, Windows automatically assigns a drive letter to the selected drive, but you can also choose your own letter by clicking the arrow next to the drive letter. click on OK to confirm the drive letter.
Folder Options
In Windows Explorer, there is an option to hide an empty USB drive. That setting could also be the culprit. For Windows 10, click in Explorer at the top right at Options on the arrow pointing down. This is how you get to the assignment Change folder and search options. In the window Folder Options select the tab Display. Check if there is a checkmark Hide empty stations. You can remove that check, so that from now on you will also see an empty USB stick as a disk in Explorer.
In Windows 11, the Folder Options also still accessible through File Explorer. Click on the button with the three dots at the top and select from this menu Options. After that you will see the same window as in Windows 10 and you can click on the Display uncheck Hide empty stations.
If the external drive still doesn’t appear after following these steps, try connecting it to another PC to see if it can be seen there.
If the disk does not work on several PCs, it is probably defective. Also try a different USB cable. If that doesn’t work yet (or the cable is integrated in the drive so that it cannot be exchanged), consider buying a new drive. View the hard drives that are for sale at Bol.com here.
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