Is USB Flash Drive Driver Necessary?
Yes, depending on USB Flash Drive you want to use in your Windows computer, USB Flash Driver for such flash drives or card readers must be installed. You can download and install USB Flash Drive Driver from manufacturer website or download driver update for USB Flash Drive in Windows 10 using ‘Device Manager’. This way, you can fix problem with your USB flash storage device if occurred.
If you are unaware, drivers are important software to communicate your hardware device with Operating System installed in your computer. For example, if you have NVIDIA graphics card, Realtek sound card, Qualcomm Atheros Network Adapter or other hardware integrated/connected into your computer, then drivers for these hardware device must be installed to function.
Similarly, USB Flash Drive is hardware device and its driver is also required to install to function in Windows computer. ‘USB Flash Drive’ is flash memory data storage device with USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface.
Typically, USB Flash Driver is not necessary. USB Flash Drive stores data and perform applications that run on your Windows computer without any installation requirements. USB Flash drive is plug & Play storage device includes custom version of applications for Microsoft Windows that is loaded when flash drive is inserted into computer, but no data or software is installed.
USB Flash Drive not working in Windows 10
In case if USB Flash Drive is not showing in ‘File Explorer’ of your computer even when USB drive is connected properly, then problem with USB drivers, drive letter conflicts, problem in Windows Registry, incompatibility with Operating System or hardware device and file System errors are some possible reasons behind this issue.
If found that your USB Flash Driver is problematic, either it is not installed properly, missing/outdated or is not compatible in your computer, then we recommended you to reinstall or update your USB Flash Drive Driver to fix. Let’s go for the solution.
How to fix problem with USB Flash Drive Driver in Windows 10?
You can fix USB Flash Drive not showing up in ‘File Explorer’, USB Flash Driver not showing in ‘Device Manager’, USB device not recognized or similar issues with our instructions below.
Method 1: How to update USB Flash Driver in Windows 10?
Step 1: At first, connect USB Flash Drive into USB port of your computer.
Step 2: Press ‘Windows + X’ keys together from keyboard and select ‘Device Manager’
Step 3: In the opened ‘Device Manager’, locate and expand ‘Disk Drives’ category
Step 4: Right-click on your problematic USB Flash drive and select ‘Update Driver’ or ‘Update Driver Software…’
Step 5: Select ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’ and follow on-screen instructions to finish update process
Step 6: Once done, restart your computer to see the changes and please check if USB Flash Drive is showing up
Method 2: How to reinstall USB Flash Driver in Windows 10?
You can fix problem USB Flash Drive by uninstalling the incorrect USB Flash Drive Driver installed and then reinstall the correct one.
Step 1: Open ‘Device Manager’ and expand ‘Disk Drives’ category
Step 2: Right-click on your USB Flash Drive and select ‘Uninstall device’
Step 3: Follow on-screen instructions to finish uninstall process. Once done, restart your computer to see the changes.
Step 4: After restart, open ‘Device Manager’ again and click on ‘Action > Scan for hardware changes’. This will reinstall the correct driver for your USB Flash Drive in computer.
Method 3: USB Flash Drive not showing up due to Drive Letter Conflicts
If drive letter of your USB Flash Drive is same as one of the drive letters of your hard disk partition, you won’t be able to see USB Flash Drive in File Explorer. So, you can fix this by assigning a new drive letter to your USB drive.
Step 1: Right-click on ‘This PC’, or ‘My Computer’, or ‘Computer’ icon on the desktop and select ‘Manage > Disk Management’
Step 2: Right-click the volume on your USB Flash Drive and select ‘Change Driver Letter and Paths’
Step 3: In the new window, click on ‘Change’
Step 4: Assign a new drive letter to your USB and click on ‘Ok’
Method 4: USB Flash Drive not showing up due to File System Errors
Note that Windows OS based computer can read the USB Flash drive with these file Systems including FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS. And another file System is RAW File System can’t be recognized by Windows Operating System. If your USB Flash Drive or pen drive was created but not yet initialized, it will also be indicated as RAW File System.
If found that your USB Flash Drive is showing ‘RAW File System’ in computer, then you need to repair your USB Flash Drive with file System errors, and you can fix it by converting RAW to NTFS or FAT32 file System that is supported by Windows. But before converting RAW USB drive to NTFS or FAT32 file system, you should make sure that you have created backup of your personal files stored in USB Flash Drive storage device.
How to format USB Flash Drive to convert RAW to NTFS or FAT32 File System?
Step 1: Right-click on ‘This PC’, ‘Computer’ or ‘My Computer’ icon on the desktop and select ‘Manage > Disk Management’
Step 2: Right-click on your USB Flash Drive and select ‘Format’
Step 3: In the opened ‘Format’ window for USB Flash Drive, select ‘NTFS’ or FAT32 from ‘File System’ dropdown, check ‘Perform a quick format’ checkbox and then hit ‘Ok’ button to start formatting.
Step 4: Once done, unplug your USB Flash Drive and then re-plug into USB port of your computer, and check if the trouble is resolved.
Conclusion
I hope this post helped you on How to fix problem with USB Flash Driver, USB Flash Drive not showing up in Windows 10 with several easy steps. These steps mentioned above can delete your personal data stored in your USB Flash Drive especially ‘method 4’ helps to format your USB Flash Drive to convert RAW file system to NTFS or FAT32 file system. So, we recommended you to create a strong backup of all files stored in USB Flash Drive on some safe storage media. That’s all. For any suggestions or queries, please write on comment box below.
