Removable Hardware detected but it doesn’t appear in MyComputer

Asked By Francis 470 points N/A Posted on - 05/19/2011

I have Windows 7 OS running on my PC. Everything works fine except in the visibility of REMOVABLE DRIVE. I once tried it, when I uploaded some files from my Memory SD Reader and it all works fine. But the next day, when I was about to upload my pictures again, I can’t see the drive in “My Computer” anymore.

I restarted the PC just to try if it works, but it’s all the same. I was surprised because I can see the USB icon in the notification tray saying “Safely Remove Hardware”, but I don’t see it in "My Computer". I also tried adding letter and path, but the same problem occurs. Then, I decided to reformat my OS, and yes, finally it works “at first”, then it never worked again.

Any other ideas why this is happening?

• Status: Open
• Question Views: 962
• Answer Count: 2
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• Answer Accepted: Yes
• Question Category: Removable Backup Media

Best Answer by kwillets

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Answered By kwillets 0 points N/A #101332

Removable Hardware detected but it doesn’t appear in MyComputer

 

Francis,

Depending on the type of removable device, there could be a couple of issues. You should first try going to your "Start menu" and in the grey box part of the menu, click the "Control panel". Open the "Device manager" and see if there are any problems with any of your USB devices.

You may also want to right click your USB device in here and go to "Properties", even if there are no errors. Make sure the drivers are up to date. If everything is up to date, try uninstalling the USB device and disconnect the USB device. Try plugging it back in and have Windows, try finding the driver again to install it.

If this fails, there might be other problems and if it is an older device, Windows 7 might be having a problem reading it. You could see if it is hidden first by going to "Organize" button on top of "My computer" folder and check "Search and folder" options.

In the "View" tab, you can have Windows show the hidden files and devices. Some people still get the device, in device and printers folder and are not able to access it. This may mean that the drive is offline. In the disk management, where you changed the drive letter, look at the physical drive list. If your device is there, right click it and make sure it is online.

I hope one of these solutions will work for you. I am thinking that the last one might be the one that helps you out. If you forgot how to get to disk management, just go to your "Start menu", right click the "My Computer" option in grey area, click "Manage", and click the "Disk management" in storage.

 

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• Posted on - 05/22/2011
• Question Category: Removable Backup Media

Answered By Joshua2 0 points N/A #101333

Removable Hardware detected but it doesn’t appear in MyComputer

Francis,

Here are the steps to solve this problem:
 

• Create a file using the Notepad containing the following lines and save it as Fix.reg

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerEnvironment]

"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

• Double click FIX.REG and say yes to the “Merge Into Registry question”.
• Unplug all USB devices.
• Open the “Device Manager”.
• View, show Hidden Devices.
• Uninstall all devices under USB controllers, Disk Drives that you know are not present.
• Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
• If you have a yellow “?” with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.
• When this is done, reboot twice.
• Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

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• Posted on - 07/18/2011
• Question Category: Removable Backup Media