USB flash drives problem


  1. ash55
    Posts : 114
    Window 10 Home 64 bit
       New #1

    USB flash drives problem


    Here's an odd one! I put a flash drive in the PC today and the files on it showed as info I know that's not on it. In fact, it contains Windows install files I made just the other day and then used it for a clean installation. Then I formatted the drive but it still showed the same older files. I then put the drive in a different PC and it came up as empty. I then put a different flash drive in my PC with a bunch of music files on it and unbelievably it showed the same files as the other drive I put in earlier ??
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  3. bobkn
    Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       New #2

    This suggestion is a little random, but...

    Is "file history" turned on in that Control Panel?
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  4. ash55
    Posts : 114
    Window 10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    bobkn said:
    This suggestion is a little random, but...

    Is "file history" turned on in that Control Panel?
    I don't know where to check that?
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  6. bobkn
    Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       New #4

    ash55 said:
    I don't know where to check that?
    One way to open the Control Panels window is to type "control panel" into the search box in the left side of the task bar (lower left screen corner).
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  7. ash55
    Posts : 114
    Window 10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    bobkn said:
    One way to open the Control Panels window is to type "control panel" into the search box in the left side of the task bar (lower left screen corner).
    Sorry I didn't mean the control panel LOL but the file history
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  8. Try3
    Posts : 16,949
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       New #6

    Keep an eye on this similar thread - Windows 10 does not recognize change of external hard drive

    I suggested there -
    "Personally, when I cannot identify a fault other that it is within Windows rather than an application, I run
    - SFC
    - Repair install
    Actually, I would normally first confirm that the fault really is a Windows fault by seeing if it was apparent during Safe mode as well but that does not seem relevant to this case."

    Denis
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  9. Pejole2165
    Posts : 920
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #7

    I made a post asking about "ghost" drives in device manager, Windows creates one under the hidden Shadow volumes section each time you use a USB storage media.
    The thing is Windows will create a new entry regardless of whether the device is the same, or plugged into the same USB port. So you end up with an endless listing of "ghost" drive entries. I have seen replies from people saying Windows only holds 30 of these and deletes the oldest, but I had over 30 listed, and 1 person said their works servers had 1000's of these entries. Also people say it's to do with the system protection restore pints, but I have restore disabled and still get the entries.
    I am wondering if this is why some people are seeing previous files on a drive they know they had formatted or changed files on. Yours is the second post I have seen about this.
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  10. ash55
    Posts : 114
    Window 10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Pejole2165 said:
    I made a post asking about "ghost" drives in device manager, Windows creates one under the hidden Shadow volumes section each time you use a USB storage media.
    The thing is Windows will create a new entry regardless of whether the device is the same, or plugged into the same USB port. So you end up with an endless listing of "ghost" drive entries. I have seen replies from people saying Windows only holds 30 of these and deletes the oldest, but I had over 30 listed, and 1 person said their works servers had 1000's of these entries. Also, people say it's to do with the system protection restore pints, but I have restore disabled and still get the entries.
    I am wondering if this is why some people are seeing previous files on a drive they know they had formatted or changed files on. Yours is the second post I have seen about this.
    Interesting. Just one more MS bug I guess.

    I just rebooted and the problem has gone. Both USB drives are now showing the correct files. "Ghost drives" seems about right for this week
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  12. Pejole2165
    Posts : 920
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #9

    Well the drive listings I mention persist across re boots, may be machine specific (settings different maybe), each is related to the drives I plug in and is listed as "error 45, this device is no longer attached". It seems that Windows just keeps creating a new entry instead of using an existing one for the same device. If I manually delete the entries they are only re created on plugging in a USB drive, and if I then un plug the drive and plug it into the same port, another new entry is created.
    Baffling behaviour.
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