Windows OS Hub
  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange
  • Home
  • About

Windows OS Hub

  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange

 Windows OS Hub / Windows 10 / Windows Doesn’t Assign Drive Letter to External and USB Flash Drives

July 17, 2018 Windows 10Windows 8

Windows Doesn’t Assign Drive Letter to External and USB Flash Drives

Faced with such a problem: when I connect any external removable USB HDD or flash drive, Windows doesn’t assign a drive letter to it. When a drive is connected, a message appears indicating that a new device is installed, the drive appears in the Device Manager, but is not displayed in the File Explorer.

To make the drive available in the system, you must assign a drive letter through the Disk Management console each time manually. To do this, open the Computer Management console (via the Win + X menu) and go to the Storage section -> Disk management. In the list of drives, locate the connected removable USB drive. As you can see, the disk is online, it has one healthy partition with the NTFS, but it is not assigned with a drive letter. To assign a drive letter to it, right-click on the partition and select “Change Drive Letter and Path“.Computer Management Change Drive Letter and Path

In the window that appears, click the “Add” button, select “Assign the following drive letter” and select the letter you want to assign to the drive (for example, H: ) in the drop-down list and click OK.

Assign the following drive letter to the usb flash driveAfter that, the connected USB drive appears in the File Explorer with the assigned drive letter. However, after disconnecting the USB device or restarting the computer, the drive letter won’t be assigned automatically to it. I have to assign the letter again manually through Disk Management, and that becomes annoying.

Tip. Make sure that Windows recognizes the partition (s) on the connected USB drive and the partition is formatted with the NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT file system. If the file system is detected as RAW, or the disk is unallocated, most likely the USB flash drive is just a new one or the partition table is damaged and you have to repair the file system at first.

It seems that some feature of automatic detection of partitions on the external hard disks fails. How to solve this problem?

First of all, make sure that the Virtual Disk service is running. You can check the status of this service in the services management console (services.msc).

start virtual disk serviceOr from the command prompt:

sc query vds

sc query vds

SERVICE_NAME: vds
TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
STATE              : 1  STOPPED
WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
WAIT_HINT          : 0x0

sc query vds

If the service is stopped, start it from the graphical snap-in (Start button) or using the command:

net start vds

net start vds

net start vds

Check if the problem persists. If it does, make sure that the automatic mounting of new volumes is enabled.

Note. When the automount is enabled, Windows automatically mounts file systems of new disks connected to the system and assigns drive letters to the partitions. If the automount is disabled, Windows detects new disks, but doesn’t automatically mount them or assign any letters to the new volumes.

Open the command prompt as administrator and run the following commands:

diskpart

diskpart

Within diskpart, make sure that the automatic mounting of new volumes is enabled:

DISKPART> automount

DISKPART> automount

Automatic mounting of new volumes disabled.
As you can see, the auto-mounting is disabled. Let’s enable it:

DISKPART> automount enable

DISKPART> automount enable

Automatic mounting of new volumes enabled.
Exit diskpart

DISKPART> exit

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

Enable automount with diskpart

Note. By the way, the automount is also responsible for the fact that the system remembers the drive letters assigned to the removable drives at the previous connection (if these letters are not busy). To clear the saved associations, use the command DISKPART>automount scrub 

Restart your computer and verify if the letters are assigned to the external USB drives.

If not, check if the “hidden” and “do not assign a drive letter” attributes are set for the partition on the USB drive. Run the Diskpart command line and enter the following commands:

  1. List the disks: list disk
  2. Find the disk number assigned to your USB flash drive (in this example 1) and select it: select disk 1
  3. List the partitions on the disk: list part
  4. Select the desired partition: select partition 2
  5. Check the partition attributes: attributes volume
  6. As you can see, the “Hidden” and “No Default Drive Letter” attributes are enabled for this volume;volume attributes
  7. Disable these attributes with commands:
    attributes volume clear NoDefaultDriveLetter
    attributes volume clear hidden
    Volume attributes cleared successfullyclear volume attributes NoDefaultDriveLetter and hidden
  8. End the diskpart session by typing: exit

After that, this partition on the USB flash drive should automatically be assigned a drive letter on any computer.

Also keep in mind that if there are several partitions on the USB flash drive, then Windows will only see the first partition. The ability to create multiple partitions on removable USB drives appeared only in Windows 10 1703. Previously, in order to make second and subsequent partitions on the USB flash drive were accessible in Windows, you had to use a trick to make Windows recognize USB flash drive as a HDD). If your USB flash drive doesn’t appear in the Disk Management console, try using a different USB port, cable. Try to connect the USB flash drive directly to the computer (without the USB hub), check whether the power is on, and whether it is recognized on other computers.

23 comments
14
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
previous post
Configure Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) on Windows Server 2016
next post
RDP Scaling Issue on High-DPI Displays in Windows 10

Related Reading

How to Sign a PowerShell Script (PS1) with...

February 25, 2021

How to Shadow (Remote Control) a User’s RDP...

February 22, 2021

Configuring PowerShell Script Execution Policy

February 18, 2021

Configuring Proxy Settings on Windows Using Group Policy...

February 17, 2021

Updating Group Policy Settings on Windows Domain Computers

February 16, 2021

23 comments

doug April 29, 2015 - 4:05 pm

Thanks, this worked great! 

Reply
Alton August 1, 2015 - 6:50 pm

Finnally something that worked. 4  of my 9 USB keys no longer mount on my computer but worked on my wife’s so I knew it was a Windows problem. Gave up a year ago trying to solve the problem because none of the solutions on the web worked – and there are tons of them. So after loading Win 10 thought I would see if my keys worked they still didn’t so I did a google and this solution pooped up.
 

Reply
Asghar January 31, 2016 - 4:58 am

This fix worked like charm. Thanks for posting friend.

Reply
Jan May 9, 2016 - 2:50 pm

Great help! Thank a lot!

Reply
Ark May 31, 2016 - 8:54 am

Very helpful! Thank you very much!

Reply
Coral Bay CC June 9, 2016 - 4:23 pm

You rock!!!!  Been fighting this on a SBS 2011 server.  Enabling automount did the trick.
Thanks SO much!!

Reply
Hutch December 3, 2016 - 7:02 pm

Well done – automount worked like a dream in Windows10 Anniversary edition (on my laptop). Many thanks.

Reply
Sompop March 18, 2017 - 5:53 am

Good Job. Thank you verry much.

Reply
Virender Saini April 2, 2017 - 5:48 am

Virtual Disk service is running
aoutomount is anabled already
disk drive is showing in device manger
but drives still not shown in my computer

win 7 ultimate service pack 1 fully updated

plz help

Reply
urix June 16, 2017 - 9:19 am

Thank you!

I had exact problem and this solution helped me.

Reply
AT April 6, 2019 - 12:17 am

Thanks a lot!
It solved my problem!

Reply
Usman May 28, 2019 - 4:18 pm

every thing checked and correct but nothing is working for me
windows 10 64 bit pro
and USB flash drive is 16 GB Sandisk 3.0

Reply
Usman May 28, 2019 - 4:20 pm

And USB Drive is showing in Disk Management with its full capacity.

Reply
Andreas January 6, 2020 - 4:07 pm

After reinstalling Windows my Data disk for some reason became hidden.. I couldnt figure out why it wouldnt auto mount but this solved it. Literally the only page on the internet that had the solution thanks fellas 🙂

Reply
MM January 18, 2020 - 7:20 am

Thank you, mine was fixed in diskpart

Reply
jaz March 29, 2020 - 7:26 am

Thank you very much! I resolved my issue by setting the attribute of my disk. Thanks!!!

Reply
Chris July 12, 2020 - 3:47 am

Thanks for the post, the part about the hidden drive attribute helped. No idea how it got set to Yes but I cleared it and it mounts fine again.

Reply
MJ July 17, 2020 - 10:16 pm

Thank you very much!. I was also able to resolve this by changing attributes of the external SSD.

Reply
superpanda July 26, 2020 - 9:27 pm

Thank you very much. It solved my issues with the windows media creation tool

Reply
Alex September 20, 2020 - 1:33 am

Excelent way of dealing with this issue!, Thank you very much!

Reply
Kamil October 17, 2020 - 9:10 pm

Thanks, It’s working! It solved my problem!

Reply
Gyorgy Bakocs December 11, 2020 - 2:32 am

Widows is the stupidest OS I have ever used. (For some reason I have to use it sometimes.) I formatted a brand new SSD on Windows (NTFS). Then I used this SSD on my Linux Mint without any problem for weeks. My colleague copied some data from it to his MAC. There were no problems. And now I plugged in again to that Windows shit, and it sees RAW fs. Why anybody pays a dollar for this OS, I really do not understand.

Reply
MartyvH December 25, 2020 - 4:31 am

Great article! But all the measures above were fine and not the problem with my USB, a S$47 SanDisk 64GB stick (bought in Singapore but no warranty as I don’t live in Singapore and can’t get there at the moment….) My problem was that it just wouldn’t assign a drive letter. I was about to throw it in the bin. It said Healthy in Disk Management, you just couldn’t browse it. I assigned a drive letter and then the stick immediately opened in File Explorer. I restarted the computer, plugged in the stick and it again automatically recognised!

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Categories

  • Active Directory
  • Group Policies
  • Exchange
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • PowerShell
  • VMWare
  • MS Office

Recent Posts

  • Accessing USB Flash Drive from VMWare ESXi

    February 26, 2021
  • How to Sign a PowerShell Script (PS1) with a Code Signing Certificate?

    February 25, 2021
  • Change the Default Port Number (TCP/1433) for a MS SQL Server Instance

    February 24, 2021
  • How to Shadow (Remote Control) a User’s RDP session on RDS Windows Server 2016/2019?

    February 22, 2021
  • Configuring PowerShell Script Execution Policy

    February 18, 2021
  • Configuring Proxy Settings on Windows Using Group Policy Preferences

    February 17, 2021
  • Updating Group Policy Settings on Windows Domain Computers

    February 16, 2021
  • Managing Administrative Shares (Admin$, IPC$, C$, D$) in Windows 10

    February 11, 2021
  • Packet Monitor (PktMon) – Built-in Packet Sniffer in Windows 10

    February 10, 2021
  • Fixing “Winload.efi is Missing or Contains Errors” in Windows 10

    February 5, 2021

Follow us

woshub.com
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Popular Posts
  • Booting Windows 7 / 10 from GPT Disk on BIOS (non-UEFI) systems
  • How to Run Program without Admin Privileges and to Bypass UAC Prompt?
  • Removable USB Flash Drive as Local HDD in Windows 10 / 7
  • How to Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot on your Windows 10 PC
  • How to increase KMS current count (count is insufficient)
  • Error Code: 0x80070035 “The Network Path was not found” after Windows 10 Update
  • How to Configure Google Chrome Using Group Policy ADMX Templates?
Footer Logo

@2014 - 2018 - Windows OS Hub. All about operating systems for sysadmins


Back To Top