Cannot assign drive letter to a USB flash drive - Win7

zjukaster · Oct 31, 2013

My 16Gb flash drive doesn't show up in the explorer window, when i go to Computer Management > Disk Management, i see it as unnamed removable disk, divided into 2 partitions - 200Mb healthy (EFI system) and 14.74Gb Unallocated. When i right-click on Disk box to and select "Change drive letter and path", it gives me the error "The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view/restart Disk Management / restart computer" Neither of the suggested restarts helps either.

In Device Management, non of the USB controllers looks suspicious either, according to Windows all drivers are working properly and are up-to-date.
Is there something else that could be done at this point or is the thumb drive is toast because i tend to just yank it out without safely unplugging it first?

thank you

dalaran · Oct 31, 2013

You need to have a formatted partition to be able to assign a drive letter

Create a new partition in your unallocated space, format it (FAT32), then windows should be able to assign a letter to it and use it

and about the EFI sytem partition, it can be used to use the flash drive as a bootable device
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_System_partition

Shaun o · Oct 31, 2013

Unallocated, what does it mean.

The partition size has been created.
But has not been formatted has it.
So a file table can be created, or the partition mapped to put data on it.

Once you do that you can assign a letter to the partition.

zjukaster · Oct 31, 2013

dalaran :

I cannot either partition nor format this drive. Only option i get when right-clicking on EFI partition is 'Help' and when right-clicking on Unallocated partition, i can choose 'Properties' or 'Help'.

In Properties pop-up window i can see that partition style is GUID (GPT) and have an option of updating or uninstalling the driver.

Formatting option is greyed out in 200Mb reserved partition (EFI) and is not present in 14.74 unallocated part.

Deleting the driver takes the flash drive offline but it is automatically reinstalls when i plug it back in without any changes.

thank you

dalaran · Oct 31, 2013

Not too sure why you can't crate a new partition, do you have administrative access?
You could also try another computer to see I you get the same behavior.

Shaun o · Nov 1, 2013

Strange, try the first option as said it could be down to using a limited user account. And not an Admin account.

Also have a check that the device does not have a write protect switch on it.
That would in effect cause the reason as to why you could not partition part of the space or format it.

zjukaster · Nov 1, 2013

I do have an administrative access and normally formatting disks of any kind is not an issue, except for this one.
USB drive doesn't have any write-protection switches on it.

I was able to format it to Fat32 on a Mac, all 16Gb of storage were recognized, but when i brought it over to my PC, it prompted me to reformat it, even though i use Paragon HFS+ for Windows software to be able to read and write on Mac-formatted drives, not to mention it was formatted to Fat32 which should be recognized by Windows anyway.

After formatting it again only 200Mb partition is visible in explorer.
In Disk management i can see 2 partitions - 200Mb Primary with drive letter assigned to it which i can format or assign a different letter and nameless simple 14.74Gb partition with 'format' option now available, but when i try to format it it gives me "An unexpected error has occurred. Chech system event log for more info" pop-up window. Restarting Disk Management and computer does not change anything.

Off-topic: is there a way to insert images in this forum i'm failing to see? Here's the screengrab hosted off this forum:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RLrpjsuJZTY/UnPD_jDelCI/AAAAAAAAGBc/Iinov3Bm7f0/w1011-h329-no/thumbdrive.PNG

dalaran · Nov 1, 2013

You could try deleting all partitions and start again from scratch,

http://www.rjdesigns786.co.uk/fix-usb-drive-by-using-diskpart-vistaxpwin7/

pretty much a last resort, if that doesn't work, if the drive is still under warranty I'd try returning it to get a new one, it might be defective

CoolWave · Jan 16, 2015

Hi! I feel your frustration! I have read all your descriptions & responses & it felt as if you were describing my problem because I too had the EXACT SAME experiences as you! Same 16GB Kingston Flash drive and believe me, I tried everything! From trying to use the diskpart command in DOS, to downloading other 3rd party utility programs for formatting USB flash drives such as HPUSB Disk and the the format utility from the manufacturer - KINGSTON! (...but nothing worked!

) I was already resigned that perhaps this drive is really damaged and was about to throw it away. Then, I tried one last thing and I am happy to share that I was finally able to fix this USB Flash drive by using the program -> 'Paragaon Hard Disk Manager 15 Premium'. With it I was able to erase the healthy partition, format the flash drive & turn it into 1 healthy partition using NTFS and was able to rename it and change the Drive letter too! It's a very powerful program and I am happy to find out that it not only works with my hard drives, but for flash drives too! Go get yourself a copy of this prog and resurrect your old Flash Drive! I am glad that there is a happy ending to this story after all! Cheers!

captmcnet · Mar 6, 2015

The one that worked for me , when Windows 'Change Drive Letter' refused to cooperate , is EaseUS Partition Mgr Free edition.

mandman · Aug 18, 2015

symptoms are similar to the problem I faced. USB was showing up in device manager(with no drive letter) but not in file explorer. Whenever I tried to format it from disk manager it showed an error 'virtual disk manager'-- Could not find specified file. After meddling for an hour and following many solutions I got one working for me on this webpage---
http://www.techhack.co.uk/2011/03/31/format-a-hard-drive-with-command-prompt/

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Cannot assign drive letter to a USB flash drive - Win7

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