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USB Drive Detected But Not Accessible: 7 Ways to Fix It

You may need to assign your USB drive a new letter

5 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Key notes

USB flash drives are portable memory devices you can easily plug in and use with any computer. You can use them to transfer files between computers, store documents, music, and photos, and install the software.

When you insert a USB drive into your computer, it will often automatically detect it if you plug it in correctly. If it does not detect the drive properly, you cannot access its files. Find out why this happens and how to resolve it.

Why is my USB drive detected but not accessible?

USB drives are not always recognized by your computer, especially if they do not meet the device’s specifications. This can be due to several reasons, such as:

How do I fix a USB drive that is not accessible?

We recommend you try out the following first before jumping to the slightly technical solutions:

1. Reinstall the USB driver

2. Update USB drivers

Another potential method that is way faster would be to use a third-party driver updater tool. Outbyte Driver Updater is a tool that makes it easy to update your drivers.

The software scans your computer in a matter of seconds and checks whether there are any issues with your USB drivers.

Outbyte Driver Updater

3. Check for Windows updates

4. Run the CHKDSK command

5. Rename the USB drive letter

6. Disable USB selective suspend settings

7. Format the drive

If you’ve tried all the above, but your USB drive is still not accessible, it means that the file system on your drive is not recognized. This could be because the USB driver is corrupt or the disk has been damaged.

To make your data accessible again, you must format the drive to another file system, such as FAT32 or NTFS. If you lose your files, there is a way torecover deleted files from your USB.

You should also consider getting anew USB flash driveif yours is faulty. Elsewhere, yourTV may also not read your USB, so check out our informative article for possible fixes.

For any feedback on this topic, leave a comment down below.

USB Drive Detected But Not Accessible: 7 Ways to Fix It#

Why is my USB drive detected but not accessible?#

How do I fix a USB drive that is not accessible?#

1. Reinstall the USB driver#

2. Update USB drivers#

Outbyte Driver Updater#

3. Check for Windows updates#

4. Run the CHKDSK command#

5. Rename the USB drive letter#

6. Disable USB selective suspend settings#

7. Format the drive#