USB flash drive not seen by file managers at start up

When I start my desktop computer with a USB flash drive inserted in either of the case's top front two USB 3.0 slots, neither Windows Explorer nor XYplorer (my main file mgr) recognize it, even after refreshing. But after pulling it out and reinserting, they do. How do I go about figuring the source of the problem? There is another USB 3.0 header on the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 mobo, but it has a broken pin, which led to using the unused one. Win 10 Pro x64 1709. Thanks,

Maybe uninstalling all USB flash drives will resolve the issue.

1. Please type Devmgmt.msc into Start Menu and press Enter key to open Device Manager.

2. From Device Manager expand Disk drives.

3. From Device Manager menu bar click View and click Show hidden devices.

4. Under the Disk drives one at time right click USB flash drives and select Uninstall.

5. Reconnect your flash drive to install new driver for it.

Reboot to check if issue resolved.

Run my favorite program USB Device Tree Viewer . Then plug in the USB drive to see if the device is detected at all.

If not, then I would check the physical connection. Does this happen with all devices, including 2.0 devices?

If it does show up then save the report - File->Save report from selected item. Then plug in the device again in the same port so that Windows does detect the drive. Save the report again and compare them to see if there's any difference.

I always thought....that the USB drive, being portable is not meant to be left in and used on a permanent basis as there is no code/firmware for it to do so. I could be wrong.

FreeBooter: I didn't realize it at the time of the OP, but the problem applies only to the behavior of a specific PNY USB 3.0 flash drive, whether in a 3.0 or 2.0 port. A different USB stick, a Patriot, shows on boot. Back to the PNY, in Disk Drives it shows, or showed until I deleted it. Having done that and rebooted, the file manager behavior for it is still the same; i.e., it's seen after being reinserted. However, it no longer shows in Disk Drives, whether plugged in at boot or after reinsertion, and no new hardware is found, so no driver to install. The current list is below. The "USD DISK 3.0 USB Device" was there when the PNY was, and it's driver is current.

PolarNettles: Did you check the link you offered? There have been changes re Tree Viewer.

Plankton: Permanent??

highstream said:

PolarNettles: Did you check the link you offered? There have been changes re Tree Viewer.

What changes are you referring to? It looks the same to me.

PolarNettles said:

What changes are you referring to? It looks the same to me.

At the site you link, the Tree View links are just code to use with win 1607. And the other link on that page goes to an MS USB View page, where it's described as part of Windows Debugging Tools. But in those I can't find anything called USB View or that suggests that. I assume you have a lot more familiarity with these tools than I do.

highstream said:

At the site you link, the Tree View links are just code to use with win 1607. And the other link on that page goes to an MS USB View page, where it's described as part of Windows Debugging Tools. But in those I can't find anything called USB View or that suggests that. I assume you have a lot more familiarity with these tools than I do.

The download link is at the top of the page - USB Device Tree Viewer

Thanks for clarifying that. See the screenshots below: left by the arrow is immediately after reboot and right is after reinserting the USB stick. What does "set address failed" specifically mean? Thanks,

Can you save the report (File->Save report from selected item) in both the good and bad cases and attach them to this thread?