"you need to format the disk drive in drive X before you can use it"

Iv'e been having this problem for a few days now on my Win/7 OS where I get this message for any USB device I plug into my computer, I have tried the same devices on other computers and they work normally. I don't want to format all of my devices in order to use them, and when I did format to see what would happen, I still get the message asking to format it.

I have gone through numerous threads for a long time now trying to fix this, trying: Chkdsk.exe, looked at the devices on device manager (everything read normal), system restores, tried changing the disk drive letter to other letters etc etc. I just don't know what to do anymore
I want to check here for my last resort and if all else fails i'll take it to a professional to take a look at.
One last thing, when I ran the Microsoft device fix it thing and it said that some hardware changes may not have been detected, and that it needs addressing. It doesn't correct the problem though.

So, any ideas?

Do you get the same result when trying all other USB ports on your machine?
What make/model machine do you have?
What type of USB devices you are plugging in?

Actually, see if this works..
Go to "Computer Management" > "Disk Management" and remove the drive letter.

Thanks for the fast reply. Iv'e already tried removing a letter and nothing happened. I have tried all other usb port including a hub to see what that would do. I have an HP Compaq Presario CQ57. I have tried my tablet, 5 different flash drives and My external HDD.

You've done well with everything you've tested - I don't think I have any further suggestions at this stage.

My suspicion is that the system had a problem with a USB device you previously had plugged in (prior to when you started getting this message) and the system is still expecting that device to be plugged back in to resolve it.

Also, you say device manager looks ok but Have you tried deleting the USB device controllers and letting the system recreate them. Who knows it may reset/clear the issue?

Good luck with the issue. I hope someone here can offer a resolution and I'll follow the thread as I'm keen to understand why this is happening.

G.