USB Drive (F:) Not visible in Explorer, but is shown in Disk Manager

mfaklis · 09 Aug 2023

I keep my Windows 10 Pro x64 up-to-date. For a while now, when I insert a USB drive that maps to drive F:, it is not shown in Explorer or "safely remove hardware". It is shown in Disk Management. To eject it, I must do so in Disk Manager.

If I insert a second USB drive, it doesn't map to drive F: , and is visible in Explorer. The sfc and dism commands show I have a clean system.

Does anyone have a clue what is going on here?

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎2021-‎11-‎17
OS build 19045.3208
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19041.1000.0

pepanee · 09 Aug 2023

My suggestion is a workaround, and not the fix for this:

Is it only that one USB that maps to drive F: ?
Change its drive letter to a different letter in Disk Management, and see if it shows up.

If this works, then plug in all your USBs, one by one, and change their letter to a different letter other than F:, if any of them want to be recognized as F:

Try3 · 09 Aug 2023

If you have ever mapped a network drive to F:\ that could interfere with a USB on that drive letter.

All the best,
Denis

hsehestedt · 09 Aug 2023

There are a couple of possibilities here:

1) You note that this drive is shown is Disk Management but not in File Explorer or by the Safely remove hardware tool. When you look at that drive in Disk Management, does it show the drive with or without a drive letter? It may be as simple as you needing to assign a drive letter to it in Disk Management. To do this, simply right-click the graphical representation of the disk in Disk Management and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

2) There is another possibility here. I ran into this because I had written a program which included the ability to determine the first available drive letter and I was stumped when it would sometimes skip drive letters. I finally figured out what was happening...

If you have a drive connected that previously had the drive letter F: but that disk has been wiped (for example, by doing a "clean" in diskpart), then, even though that drive letter technically no longer has F: assigned to it, Windows seems to reserve that drive letter for the drive. I guess the assumption is that you will probably repartition the drive, format it, and assign a letter. In that case, it can simply reassign the same letter it had before. However, if you physically unplug the drive, then that drive letter will once again be available.