Solved USB Thumb Drives not recognised (not drive letter)

Hey, I have an interesting problem with SanDisk Cruzer Blade & Edge thumbdrives.

Whenever I put them in my computer, I get the sound that Windows has detected I have plugged something in, but nothing appears.

I go into Computer Management -> Disk Management and they aren't listed at all.

Explorer 'hangs' when I plug it in. If I plug another USB drive that I know works into the computer, there is no sound and nothing is recognised until I unplug the 'faulty' thumb drive.

When I unplug them, something flashes for an instant in My Computer and Windows makes the device removed sound.

This happens with multiple thumb drives... all SanDisk Cruzer Blade & Edge thumbdrives.

Here is the catch... They work perfectly fine in any other computer!

I suspect that as I have used a lot of thumbdrives in this laptop, is there now an overload of sandisk thumbdrives in the memory bank? Not sure if I am barking up the right tree or not.

I have attached a screenshot from my registry in case it sheds any light...

Thoughts?

(Thanks in advance)

That overload does indeed have the potential to derail things.

Whether my recommendation below will resolve the problem or not , it is a good practice to periodically flush out the non-present devices eliminating the chance for Windows getting "confused".

So start now.

Download drivecleanup.zip v0.8.1. Drive Tools for Windows

Extract it to a folder named say DriveCleanup. You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32bit and 64bit Windows respectively.

Remove all USB devices on your system (except KB/mouse) and then rightclick on the appropriate .exe for your bit version and Run as administrator

Once the cleanup is over reboot your system.


(Mine is a 32bit Windows)

Please do report whether your problem is solved.

Run, and all fixed! Thanks so much!

As you can see from the cleanup report, it was due!

Much appreciated!

Glad to hear that. Good night.