Flash Drive periodically does not show in my computer

I have an issue where my flash drive periodically won't show up in My Computer... when I insert it, I hear the 'hardware insert' sound but no drive in my computer and no autostart. it doesn't show in device manager and clicking 'refresh' does not make it show up! if I remove the flash drive, the drive appears in 'my computer' for a second then disappears... the same problem occurs when I plug it into another port... I have four ports, only three of them are not used by something plugged in permanently... usually I have to insert the flash drive into random ports at least 5 times before it displays the drive...

it is a usb flash drive... and this issue happens with all usb flash drives...

And if i may make some suggestions:

- make sure the connector itself isn't flimsy; if it is, windows will downgrade your drive to USB 1.1 or refuse to access it completely
- if youur drive has an autorun program on it as you said make sure the antivirus isn't blocking it as many of those do that such as Avira and Eset
- why not try another flash drive? it could simply be failing maybe not as severely as it may appear but windows rejects it nonetheless. for that purpose, when it does not appear go to device manager and on the View menu check the "show hidden devices" option to see if the drive shows as problematic (e.g. with an exclamation mark)

karlsnooks said:

MoltresRider,
I've not run across this problem before and haven't googled or searched blogs yet, but...
Let's try running SFC /scannow.

Be sure to use the procedure here:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

I've tried that before for other issues and it always comes up "no problems found" the last was 5 days ago for an issue that was posted on here from 2011 regarding unable to change pictures location while trying to create new themes...