As of a few days ago, computer not recognising plugged in USB hard drives.
Have to assign drive letter via Disk Management to access the drive.
I don't understand why this should suddenly occur. I am not aware of anything untoward happening that results in this very annoying glitch.
Ideas most welcome.
Not sure what drivers USB drives use, but you might try to remove any drivers in Device Manager and then do a new install as if you just bought the thing.
My Computer
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Ignatz Special; 4 speed manual gearbox; factory air conditioning; one of one
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
CPU
Intel Skylake i5-6600K, not overclocked
Motherboard
AsRock Z170M Extreme 4, micro ATX
Memory
8 GB HyperX DDR4-2666 (2 x 4 GB)
Graphics Card(s)
none; graphics are integrated on CPU
Sound Card
onboard: Realtek ALC1150; external: USB Behringer UF0-202
Monitor(s) Displays
Dell S2340M 23 inch IPS
Screen Resolution
1600 x 900
Hard Drives
System: Crucial MX100 series SSD, 128 GB;
Data: Samsung Spinpoint 103SJ, 1 TB;
Backup: WD Caviar Green WD30EZRX-00D8PB0, 3 TB
Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Premium
Browser
Pale Moon
Other Info
All fans PWM; speeds at idle: CPU circa 500 rpm; intake circa 600 rpm; exhaust circa 600 rpm; CPU temps 27 idle and 47 C load in a warm room (27 C/81 F) when running Intel Extreme Tuning Utility stress test.
Hi.
Should have been more coherent. The drive does show in Disk Management but drive letter is not assigned and therefore it is not accessible in win explorer for example, until drive letter is assigned. This happens with all my USB drives regardless of port used.
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"
Usually we always recommend to reboot after doing any alteration. Some do not require a reboot.. I do not remember whether a reboot is required in this case. I have to run it and check. You may also disable and then enable and check. Thanks for bringing this out . To make sure, the OP may reboot and then plug in his HDDs.
Followed your instructions and indeed auto mounting was disabled.
All external HDD's now have drive letters attached.
I would like to know why auto mounting was disabled, but I suppose that's Windows for you.
Some random event had caused the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MountMgr\NoAutoMount to change
from 0 to 1 . We just reversed it.
What that event was in your case is hard to guess.
In Nov 2014, when Lady Fitzgerald was setting up her new Lenovo laptop, she had the same problem. Considering that it was a brand new laptop, it is even harder to guess.
Anyway, I have added your question to the "100 things to do research" list, but I don't know when I will do it. I am not perfect either.
