USB Drives not detected

[DeclaredInsane]

Greetings.

My external hard drives or any flash drives plugged into my system are not being detected. Last week I plugged in my friend's flash drive and nothing happened. He then mentioned it didn't work in his computer. Ever since that day my external drives and flash are not detected.

Sometimes they appear in the disk manager and I have to assign a letter every time. Most of the external drives I regularly use works but sometimes I have to assign a letter to them as well.

Sometimes uninstalling all the usb hub drivers works after I restarted the pc but that's not very practical because after I unplug it in again I get the same problem.

Some drives will appear in device manager as Other Devices->Desktop USB Drive

- I've tested the usb drives on a laptop and it works great.
- I've tested other usb devices on my pc and works fine.
- Checked in the BIOS and usb external and flash drives are detected but not appearing in windows
- Uninstalling USB Hub Drivers, works sometimes but not practical.
- Used the external hard drives as internal drives and same problem most of the time.
- Updated the Other Devices->Desktop USB Drive with an error (Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it - USB Storage Device).
- Also tried updating drivers while antivirus and firewall software disabled.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello Insane e mate some system specs would be helpful

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

and try these for starters if you haven't tried already.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[jumanji]

Do a drive cleanup and check whether it helps.

Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from Drive Tools for Windows.

Unzip it to a folder, say drivecleanup.

You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32 bit and 64 bit respectively.

Remove all USB storage devices/printers/card readers etc., from your system (except your Keyboard and mouse) and reboot.

Right click on the DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator. (Use the *.exe file appropriate for your bit version of Windows.).

After the clean up act, reboot , plug in your external drives and check. ( After the drive cleanup every USB device plugged into it will be installed afresh and get a drive letter.)

2. Check for malware on your PC and clean up. ( Not my cup of tea and so leave it there to other experts to suggest how best to do it.)

3. Download Microsoft fixit portable and install it. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9775982 Run "fix Windows USB problems automatically" on page 3.

 

[DeclaredInsane]

Tried sfc/ scannow as well as disk checker no help. Drive Cleanup made things worse. After reboot no external drives wanted to mount but I run DriveCleanUp again and it seems to be working much better now. Still find some drives needing mounting but most of them working fine now.

Thanks a million a star for your help guys!

 

[jumanji]

After a drive cleanup, every USB drive plugged into will be installed afresh and get a drive letter. If it does not happen it only points to some problem with your system.( I do a drive cleanup periodically. No problems. It cannot make anything worse. The worse part is elsewhere.)

As pointed in my previous post, do a malware check and also run Microsoft Fix-it. You may also try reinstalling the chipset drivers for your motherboard.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes run these mate and see

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

ADW download from bleepingcomputer delete any rubbish found with themalware scans

Be wary of the add ons that ADW seems to come with now if they don't work them maybe try this

RESCUE AV BOOT SCAN

Go to here 5Bootable AntiVirus Rescue CD for Windows: Free Download and usefully the Kaspersky one is ok > make a bootable diskor USB stick set the BIOS to boot from what drive you are going to use an itwill run through the machine from the very start of power on. It would pick upanything that is lurking in or around the registry at least.

 

[jumanji]

Thank you ICit2 for chipping in for the malware check.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thank you ICit2 for chipping in for the malware check.

No probs mate it was just an afterthought.