USB Drives inaccessible after brief appearance in disk management

The post subject line details my final observation of this problem.

A few weeks ago I found I was unable to access a USB flash drive I plugged into my Win7 system. The system would make the audio alert typical when a flash drive was inserted but the drive did not show up anywhere in the system (Explorer or Disk management).

I got around the specific problem at the time by plugging the drive in a different windows computer and accessing it over the network.

The problem manifested again, trying to get files on a digital camera accessed via USB. I got the sound plugging it in (and unplugging it) but the device was nowhere to be seen.

I did some searching on this, found a page that recommended a Microsoft fix no longer available (because they want me to use Win 10) and one that suggested I delete the USB devices in device manager and let the OS re-install those drivers/devices on re-boot.
That didn't work.

Then at one point while I was trying some stuff I had the disk management console window open. I had previously tried other USB sticks with the same result and was trying one more. As I plugged one in, I noticed it showed up in the disk management console with a drive letter and then disappeared. When I removed it and plugged it in again, it did not show up again. Tried a different stick and again, it showed up briefly and disappeared. When plugged in a second time, it never showed up.

So it seems that a drive is recognized and immediately rejected and Windows remembers it was rejected and doesn't show it again, even briefly.

I would like to fix this so I can use USB drives on my windows system again.

Any ideas?

BTW, My USB mouse and USB speakers still worked and have not had their use interrupted (I briefly used a PS2 mouse when removing the USB devices in device manager).

I saw a recent post about a problem that ended up being duplicate disk signatures. I don't think this is that because after the first time the drive(s) don't show up in Disk Management at all. Also, one of these USB drives was used in this computer two weeks before the first time it failed.

Does it has yellow alert on device manager?

Megahertz07 said:

Does it has yellow alert on device manager?

Thanks for responding. Your question led me to look at something I did not look at before.

To first answer your question, there are no yellow alerts in device manager. I opened device manager to look at this and while I had it open I decided to insert on of the drives that doesn't get recognized. I saw this then show up as a disk drive in device manager.

I right clicked on the USB drive to look at Properties and found the device was DISABLED.
I clicked the button to enable it and after Device Manager refreshed a few times, looked at the right click menu and found it was Still Disabled.

The properties mentioned "Code 22", so I googled that and found a couple web pages purporting to tell you how to fix Device Manager error code 22.
Here is one example:
How to Fix Error Code 22: This Device Is Disabled

They all have the same set of suggestions:
1. Enable the device (this doesn't work for me)
2. Restart your computer (done many time to no effect)
3. If you made a change in device manager or drivers, roll it back (I made no changes)
4. Update drivers (I didn't do this yet - this driver is used for the system disks)
5. Clear CMOS (Not yet willing to do this and risking the whole system not working.)
6. Update BIOS (Device worked before so I see no reason to do this even if I could)
7. Move device to a different slot (can't - these are motherboard USB Ports)
8. Replace the hardware (done multiple time with different USB drives)

I looked at the driver for this device and it is a Microsoft provided and signed driver dated 6/21/06 with a version number 6.1.7601.23403

Here's a pic of my device manager display with the USB drive properties.

Did you try another USB device to see if it's not a failure on the Philips USB device?

Megahertz07 said:

Did you try another USB device to see if it's not a failure on the Philips USB device?

Many others, as mentioned in the original post:

ta man said:

Then at one point while I was trying some stuff I had the disk management console window open. I had previously tried other USB sticks with the same result and was trying one more. As I plugged one in, I noticed it showed up in the disk management console with a drive letter and then disappeared. When I removed it and plugged it in again, it did not show up again. Tried a different stick and again, it showed up briefly and disappeared. When plugged in a second time, it never showed up.

Plus, any drive that I tried and was inaccessible in this Win7 computer worked fine in another computer (which is Win10).

If that USB drive shows up in Disk Management, you need to enable it. See my screenshot.




In Device Manager under Human Interface Devices, right click each device and make sure "Allow the computer to turn off this device" is unchecked.


Do this for the USB Serial Controllers below as well. Not all of these properties have a power management option.

The other thing you might want to look into is uninstalling and reinstalling the chipset driver. That driver is at your computer or motherboard manufacturer website.

There's a program called USBDeView that can remove all devices, but it may do this differently than what you did. View any installed/connected USB device on your system

I'd be apt to remove all devices and reboot. But if it's a chipset issue your keyboard and mouse probably won't work anymore after uninstall. So prior to removing all devices, make sure you have that chipset driver on the desktop and a PS/2 mouse.

Check for Windows issues as well. Go into cmd as Admin and run sfc /scannow


Use SFC Scannow to Repair Windows System Files

Thanks for these suggestions, F22 Simpilot! I tried some things you suggested but none of those appear to be the problem.

My conclusion is that there is nothing wrong with the drivers or the system files, but that SOMETHING is disabling the USB devices and I would like to figure out what and stop it.

I ran the system file checker and it reported no errors.
Just to make sure it wasn't actually a hardware problem I booted the Windows XP image I still have on this dual boot machine and was able to access my USB drives.
I went through every USB device/hub/etc in device manager looking at each right click menu and every property sheet page. I found places that had the option "Allow system to turn off to save power" and I unchecked every one.

Before testing anything I made sure that I could see all of the Device Manager entries and I opened up Disk Management so I could see the drives (like you showed regarding enabling of a drive).

I inserted a USB flash drive in one of the ports, one that had been previously used and got what seems to be a slightly different result.

When I inserted the drive the following things happened:
1. I got the windows sound for drive insertion
2. Device manager refreshed
3. I could see the drive show up in Disk Management
4. I got an Autoplay icon show up in the task bar
5. The drive DISAPPEARED from Disk Management
6. The Autoplay icon DISAPPEARED from the task bar

I right clicked on the drive Device Manager (which showed up in the Disk Drives section as seen in a capture of device manager I included in my previous post).
I found that the right click menu had an option to enable the drive (presumably because the system considered it to be disabled).
I clicked on the "Enable" option and got the following sequence of events:

1. I could see the drive show up in Disk Management
2. I got an Autoplay icon show up in the task bar
3. Device manager refreshed
4. Simultaneously (as far as I can tell), the drive DISAPPEARED from Disk Management and the Autoplay icon DISAPPEARED from the task bar
5. Device manager refreshed

I repeated this a number of times, not because I expected a different result, but so I could document it clearly. The same thing happens every time.
The LED on the USB stick was illuminated through all this.
When I pulled the drive out I got the Windows "device removed" sound.

Then I tried the insertion/enable/enable/enable/remove sequence with a different USB drive and got the same results.
When the drive briefly shows up in Disk Management, the description is accurate ("Philiips UFD") and matches what is seen when the drive is put in a different Windows computer.

At this point (being a programmer) I wrote a toy program that would, every 32 miliseconds, execute a CMD.EXE shell with a command to do a DIR on the drive letter (where I expected the USB drive to show up) and stop when it got something other than "The system cannot find the path specified.".

Took a couple tries to get the timing of enter key presses and mouse clicks right, but I was able to start my program the instant after I enabled the drive in device manager. I got the sequence I mentioned above about the refresh, autoplay, and stuff going away, but this time my program was able to access the drive and get the directory listing in the brief time the drive was enabled.

So the drive was accessible once I enabled it until something came along and disabled it again. What could be doing this?

F22 Simpilot said:

If that USB drive shows up in Disk Management, you need to enable it. See my screenshot.

In Device Manager under Human Interface Devices, right click each device and make sure "Allow the computer to turn off this device" is unchecked.

Do this for the USB Serial Controllers below as well. Not all of these properties have a power management option.

The other thing you might want to look into is uninstalling and reinstalling the chipset driver. That driver is at your computer or motherboard manufacturer website.

There's a program called USBDeView that can remove all devices, but it may do this differently than what you did. View any installed/connected USB device on your system

I'd be apt to remove all devices and reboot. But if it's a chipset issue your keyboard and mouse probably won't work anymore after uninstall. So prior to removing all devices, make sure you have that chipset driver on the desktop and a PS/2 mouse.

Check for Windows issues as well. Go into cmd as Admin and run sfc /scannow

Use SFC Scannow to Repair Windows System Files

Uninstall and reinstall the chipset driver and then I can dive deeper.

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
System Info - See Your System Specs


bitdefender does not allow viewing of the USB drive — The Bitdefender Expert Community

Thanks very much for your help and the info you offered but no need:
I have determined that this problem is because the corporate security suite I have on that computer was recently updated to prevent use of USB storage devices. Now I just have to get the password to uninstall it and install my own alternative anti-virus software.

F22 Simpilot said:

Uninstall and reinstall the chipset driver and then I can dive deeper.

Megahertz07 said:

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
System Info - See Your System Specs


bitdefender does not allow viewing of the USB drive — The Bitdefender Expert Community