Can't "see" the USB flash drive

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Guest

Even though my Device Manager sees my USB flash drive and updates correctly
every time I insert it or remove it (including assuring me that it's
operating properly), neither Windows Explorer nor My Computer sees it as a
drive that can be opened or saved to. I even tried finding it via MS Word in
trying to save a doc to it...it's simply not there. Any ideas?
 
Did you remember to assign it a drive letter?

Right click on My Computer, select Manage and then on the next screen, click
on Disk Management.
 
Assuming Windows XP, why is that necessary? In my experience a flash drive
is recognized immediately once it is plugged into a USB port, and the drive
letter is automatically assigned.
 
A couple reasons
1. Because the user MAY have assigned the same letter to another "drive".
2. Because the drive content may be corrupted and it needs formatting
 
The system is smart enough to assign the next unused drive letter. However,
the flash drive could be corrupted (almost always because of something the
user did), and would indeed need to be re-formatted. Every flash drive I
have ever seen comes pre-formatted, so a format is not needed initially.
 
I think you may have a slight misunderstanding on the "assignment" of
drive letters. The system WILL assign the NEXT letter AFTER the last
local drive. That letter may have already been assigned to a a SUBST or
network drive and then the (1.) is the cause, and the flash drive won't
appear.
 
That's a fairly rare scenario, isn't it? I have 4 PCs in a home network with
mutual access of folders/files between PCs and their storage devices, use
broadband, have been online for years, and have yet to find a need for the
SUBST function or a network drive.
 
Sounds like in your case yes, BUT frequently people will do something
"cute" like assigning "F" for files to a network drive and then are
mystified when the flash drive doesn't appear.
 
Yeah, I kinda thought that too.

Bob I said:
Sounds like in your case yes, BUT frequently people will do something
"cute" like assigning "F" for files to a network drive and then are
mystified when the flash drive doesn't appear.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you! In Disk Management, it showed up with the same drive letter as a
networked drive from work. Reassigning the letter to something else did the
trick! Much obliged!
 
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