Flash Drive/Hard Drive Issues.

[KrazyCrayon]

I have a Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drive, and a Sea Gate external hard drive. Whenever I plug either one into my computer, it makes the sound to notify me that it has been dected and shows up under "Devices and printers" but doesn't show up under my computer. Is there anyway to fix this?

 

[Berton]

Have you looked in Disk Management after plugging one in? Right-click Computer, click Manage. If the drive shows there it may need a drive letter assigned [right-click menu] before Windows Explorer [File Explorer on Win8] can see it.

 

[whs]

USB devices should not need a drive letter. The drive letters are assigned automatically when the device is attached. Something else is wrong here. Run a sfc /scannow in cmd. Maybe it can fix it.

 

[jumanji]

Hi KrazyCrayon,

Under certain abnormal conditions, the USB Storage devices can show in Windows Disk Management but without a drive letter. Assigning a drive letter will make that drive accessible. ( Just do this for one drive.)

If it is so in your case please do this:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then
diskpart [ENTER]
Against the DISKPART prompt
automount [ENTER]
Does it say "automatic mounting of new volumes disabled" ? Then
automount enable [ENTER]
"automatic mounting of new volumes enabled"

Close Command Window.

Done.

Now connect the other drive. It should automatically get a drive letter.

Hereafter whenever you plug in a new external Storage device it will be automatically assigned a drive letter.
If you do not enable automount, then everytime you connect a new drive (one you had not connected before and manually assigned a drive letter) you have to manually assign a new drive letter.