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How To: Find Your Missing USB Drive in Windows 7 & Vista

Reporter: [+]  Under: Computer  On July 18, 2010  7 Comments  Add to Bookmark  Add to Readlist

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Sometimes when you plug or attach a USB drive into your computer you won’t see it in drive list or AutoPlay in Windows 7 or Vista. Today we take a look at how to change the drive letter so you can can access it.

Locate and Access the USB Drive in Windows 7 & Vista

The problem is when you plug in a thumb drive or external USB hard drive…nothing happens. You hear the USB sound but AutoPlay doesn’t run, and when you look in Computer you don’t see the drive. More than likely Windows named the drive to a letter that is already in use.

To fix the problem right-click on Computer from the Start Menu or Desktop Icon, and select Manage.

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In the Computer Management window, under Storage, click on Disk Management to see a list of drives connected to your machine.

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You should be able to determine which one is the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type. Here we’re trying to find a 4GB thumb drive. Right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

sshot-2010-07-15-[20-41-34]

Now click on the Change button…

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You can select from a list of drive letters to rename it. Make sure it’s not one already in use or could be in use at some point. Pick a letter toward the end of the alphabet for best results.

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You will be prompted with a warning dialog making sure you want to change the drive letter…click Yes.

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Here you can see we changed the drive from the letter “J” to “U”…

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If you have AutoPlay enabled, you’ll see the familiar screen asking what you want to do with the drive.

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You will also see it in Computer now and be able to access the files and programs from it.

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That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely annoying when you plug in an external USB drive and Windows doesn’t give you access to it right away, but following these steps solves the issue.


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  On July 18, 2010(2 years, 10 months ago.)
  • Andhrooy

    That will only work if the drive you cannot find is in Computer Management, storage, disk management.
    Since it is not in my case your advice is useless.

  • Edroan

    This does not work! The computer does not see the drive.

  • …….

    Doesn’t work it says that the file has no media files

  • kyle b

    Here’s a great general device driver download and install guide: http://www.driverstorer.com/drivers.html

  • Scooby_dobby_doo

    thx a lot man u rock

  • Euphoria8891

    holy shit thanks a lot dude. this was -the- solution to my problem. at first my pc couldn’t find my psp type a driver when all along it just wasn’t assigned a letter. thanks !

  • major JB

    No Help can see Key board Mouse camera, and Printers but no USB Drive?


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