Win10 doesn't recognize SD-card removal

I never had this problem with Windows 7, nor with Windows 10 Pro after I upgraded.
However, I recently replaced motherboard, etc in my system, and did a clean Windows 10 Pro installation on a new drive. Activation was successful with no problems.

Now, if I plug an SD card into my USB3 external card reader and access it, then remove the SD card, Windows does not automatically realize that it has been removed. This causes confusion if I try to switch between SD cards.
I checked the disk policy for that drive, and it is set to Quick Removal, not Better Performance.
Is there some way I can get it to recognize disk removal automatically??

OS: Windows 10 [Version 6.3.19042]

hsehestedt said:

Could you provide a little more detail as to how you know that Windows is not recognizing the removal of the SD card? What are you seeing specifically that leads you to this conclusion?

Also, could you please try this:

Start with SD card inserted.
Open a command prompt and run the command "diskpart". Wait for the "DISKPART>" prompt.
Run the command "list disk".
All disks (including the SD card) should be listed. It should be obvious which the SD card is by its size.
Remove the SD card.
Run "list disk" again.
Does the SD card still show up?
Run "exit" to exit from diskpart.
Close the command prompt.

Well, this is interesting...
First, let me address DISKPART... I have the SD card inserted in the reader. I know it is inserted, because it shows up in Explorer, as SDHC (E:). Here is a current drive listing from another program:

Code:

                            NDIR.EXE, Version 2.49
**************************************************************************
                               Disk Drive Summary
=======================================================================
   file sys      total space          free space     [Cluster Size] UNC path
   ========  ==================  ==================  ========================
c: NTFS         999,556,489,216     865,533,218,816  [  4096] New Lands
d: NTFS       1,023,080,546,304     706,011,217,920  [  4096] Bulker
e: FAT32         15,923,150,848      15,914,369,024  [ 32768]
f: NTFS       2,000,395,784,192   1,182,916,231,168  [  4096] FlashGamer
h: BluRayRE                                                   no media present
z: FAT                4,924,416           3,547,648  [   512] SAFESPOT
***************************************************************************
              4,038,960,894,976   2,770,378,584,576  Total Physical space

The SD card is E: in this listing...

however, this is what DISKPART shows right now:

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.610

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: GORLASH

Code:

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online         1863 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 2    Online          953 GB      0 B
  Disk 3    Online           14 GB  3072 KB

DISKPART>

So I'm guessing it is listing the drives in this order: C:, D:, F:, E:
however, the free space listed is completely irrelevant.

> removal of SD card:
Once I remove the SD card from the reader, it is *still* shown in Explorer.
From a console, I can change to E:, can even execute DIR and get the listing for the no-longer-present drive.

*however* ... once I execute 'list disk' in DISKPART, the drive is removed from Explorer... interesting...

I use USB 2-drive docks and the Safely Remove may not see an individual drive but does see the dock which usually can be removed. Seems to be issues with removable devices.

Berton said:

I use USB 2-drive docks and the Safely Remove may not see an individual drive but does see the dock which usually can be removed. Seems to be issues with removable devices.

So there's no established technique to fix this issue??

I've had this particular USB3 card reader for years now... removal-detection always worked fine under Windows 7 (but then, many things worked fine in Win7, that don't in Win10)... after I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro on that machine, earlier this year, this still worked fine. It's only now that I've done a clean re-install of Windows, that I am having this issue...

- - - Updated - - -

hsehestedt said:

I don't use SD cards much on my main PC. I tend to use them only in my laptop simply because it has an SD card slot built in. However, I do recall sometime in the past having some odd behavior with a USB SD card reader. In my case, I had to resolve this by installing the latest card reader drive from the maker of the SD card reader chip maker. I believe it was realtek in my case.

Maybe that's worth a shot pursuing if you know who makes your card reader.

Well, that may be worth trying... I'm pretty sure I never installed a specific driver for the reader, because USB3 card readers are pretty mature tech which typically don't require dedicated drivers, but I'll look into it...

I use the reader frequently, for SD cards, because I have several cameras that I use frequently, and it is significantly easier to just pull the SD card and read it, than to use the other convoluted techniques that each camera maker offers!!

hsehestedt said:

Maybe I can help a bit further. Please gather the following info for me:

Open Device Manager.
You will probably find the card reader under the category "Portable devices". Expand that and then right-click on "SD card" and select "properties".

Go to the "details" tab. Select "manufacturer" from the list of properties and tell me whom is listed there.

Now select "Device instance path" from the list of of properties. Copy the whole sting and paste it into your response (it may be on the long side).

Based upon that, I'll see what I can figure out.

Okay, let me look at this...

Manufacturer: Genesys Logic USB3.0 Card Reader

Device instance path: USB\VID_05E3&PID_0748\000000001206

[deleted: incorrect comments about this ID]
I now have the SD-card reader (which is actually a multi-card reader) directly plugged into a USB3.1 motherboard plug, so the secondary hub has been removed from the equation...

Okay, I found the home page for this reader...
4-in-1 USB 3.0 SD/TF Card Reader – UGREEN

The reader itself is made by ugreen, but it uses the Genesys Logic controller chip, with the previously-listed USB IDs.
There are no separate drivers available for this reader.