Most USB sticks will not read

Community Support
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1

Hello, thanks in advance for taking the time to read and consider.

My machine (details below) will not read most USB flash drives. It will briefly acknowledge that they exist, I can see them briefly in Devices and Drives under This PC, and then they will disappear.

I can successfully use this USB-A port to connect to other devices (specifically recently, I downloaded a program to a LEGO robot via this port).

I have updated BIOS and Driver bundle today and restarted, which enabled me to read one of three USB sticks I am trying to read. Two are old (including the one that read successfully) and one is new.

What else can I try to make this work?

Thanks again.

2

Most USB drives are formatted with, I think, the FAT filing system, which works across all operating systems. However there are other formats that won’t work on Windows.

So my first suggestion is that you try reformatting one of the sticks where you don’t need the data on it; just be careful no to erase your main drive! I don’t know how to do that on Windows 11, but there should be a utility for it.

3

Also, check your logs in Event Viewer - if you can find some, paste them here, especially if they sound relevant to the USB system or detected drives. Readers should be able to advise better if they can see these.