Question PC will no longer recognize thumb drives

[John Biddle]

My PC, which seems to work as always in every other respect, will no longer recognize my USB thumb drives. It does recognize my external hard drive and my phone. I've tried multiple different thumb drives on multiple different USB ports with no luck. The PC beeps when I connect them as if it sees the device, but the device doesn't show up in file manager.

I tried to make a bootable thumb drive and was advised to format the thumb drive, which I did, and none have worked ever since. I only did that to one of them.

 

[COLGeek]

Try booting into safe mode and try your USB drive again.

 

[John Biddle]

I did that, no luck. Guess I'll just have to buy an external dvd for the nonworking PC that started this whole mess.

I will be able to boot that PC from the external DVD drive, right? Same as if it was a thumb drive? Since I can't get this PC to boot properly, can I install the software to read the drive in safe mode?

 

[COLGeek]

This is a truly odd case.

I wonder what would happen if you booted this system with a live Linux distro. This could rule out whether a hardware or software problem.

 

[John Biddle]

Interesting idea but I don't have one and know nothing about using linux. I see there are DVD drives that say they need no software. Does that mean I could use that drive to boot from with a Windows boot dvd I create on my other PC?

 

[COLGeek]

Interesting idea but I don't have one and know nothing about using linux. I see there are DVD drives that say they need no software. Does that mean I could use that drive to boot from with a Windows boot dvd I create on my other PC?

Yes. I have such a device should I ever need it. Just select from boot devices.

 

[stonecarver]

All 3 thumbs are the same brand/size, bought in a 5 pack.

It's a Dell XPS 8900.

Solution worked on these Dells

8100
8300
8500
8700

The Dell 8900 I have not had hands on like the others but same issue seems to have popped up on you.

Seems to get every once in a blue moon the USB thumb drive driver gets corrupt.

Every thing else still works but the thumb drives. Why IDK but I have fixed all as post #6 listed.

Also a easy test is to pull the cables off your working OS "C" and if you have more than one drive unplug them as well.

With a spare drive install windows on it and than test the system out and see if those USB thumb drives start to show.

No harm but it would 100% prove hardware issue or a driver issue.

Could it be that the 5 pack of USB thumb drives are the issue?

Just an FYI when you follow the directions in post #6 when you uninstall a device in your Device Manager on restart your Windows digs into your Windows system 32 folder/ Drivers and reinstalls a fresh un corrupted driver for the device you uninstalled.

Just remember when your in the device manager and you uninstall a device you will get a pop up asking if you also want to delete the DRIVER say NO.

Restart and new drivers will be installed.