Windows 8.1 setup isn't recognizing my USB drive. Help please :D

Joninho

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Nov 10, 2013
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So I'm trying to install windows 8.1 pro by creating media, the problem is, when I select 'usb flash drive' it says that it can't find a drive. Help???
 

kewlguy239

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Sep 9, 2012
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if your flash drive is plugged into a front port USB, try moving it to the rear onboard usb ports. depending on your hardware configuration, it may not detect front usb ports until after chipset drivers or OS is installed.
 
You might have to enable boot to USB devices in the bios.

Also, I have found that some USB ports are bootable and others are not on the same system.

And, on top of that, some devices are uefi compatible (work with secureboot) and others are not, if you are trying to use Secure Boot and full uefi mode.
 
ugh, do you have Windows set to show all files and not hide anything?
Also, since you're in the drive itself, I can't tell anything about the drive, like the size and used space, and file system.

How did you create the USB to boot to Windows installation?
 

tibbit

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Apr 17, 2014
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I had this problem. I solved it by changing USB flash drives.
Thing is, both drives were FAT32, 7.45 GB free space but only the Kingston drive was detected.
The Sandisk drive was not. In fact, none of my USB flash Sandisk drives were detected.

I should mention that the Sandisk drives were not detected by the Windows 8.1 install program but they were detected and were usable elsewhere in Windows 7.
 

jwholt

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Sep 24, 2014
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I can confirm sandisk drives are not being recognised by the windows setup program when trying to create the USB flash media.

 

JTRod8

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Oct 26, 2014
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Did anyone find another solution besides switching usb drives? It wasn't working with my WD external and I bought a usb stick... which happened to be sandisk.
 

OSU_Matthew

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Apr 27, 2011
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I don't have a solution, but I can confirm that the issue appears to be the program's ability to recognize SanDisk branded flash drives. I am having the exact same issue--the windows creation tool recognizes flash drives from other manufacturers, but will not recognize SanDisk flash drives, even after formatting the drive, restarting the computer, and trying every USB port on the computer.
 

birdman55

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Dec 12, 2014
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I too am having the same issue -- reading a recovery drive made on a SanDisk 32GB Cruzer Glide USB Flash Drive (USB 2.0) on a brand new HP Envy 810-160 Desktop.

The Recovery Manager software in Windows 8.1 completed making the Recovery Disc on the SanDisk Flash Drive, but when I tried to read in to do a clean install on an SSD drive (Samsung SSD 850 Pro) it could not recognize that the flash drive was inserted no matter which USB 2 Port I put it in.

OK, drive back to Wal-Mart and buy a PNY 32GB Flash Drive and make another Recovery Drive. Interesting that I could even make another Recovery Drive since Microsoft states that only one Recovery Drive/DVD/CD Set can be made per computer. This gave me a hint that even though the Recovery Drive created on the SanDisk completed without errors, Windows 8.1 must have known it did not get created properly.

The PNY Flash Drive worked perfectly to reinstall Windows 8.1 onto my SSD drive!!! Why the SanDisk Flash Drive failed is a mystery, but who cares since all I need to know is NEVER BUY SANDISK for Recovery Drives! Someone else in this thread mentioned they had good luck with Kingston Flash Drives also.


 

Narsue

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Jan 29, 2015
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Hey I just got my sandisk to install windows as a usb bootable disk.
I was unable to get windows setup to recognize the usb as stated by others here.
I instead chose the option to save to iso.
Next you want to clean the usb as stated below.

As posted by rickyjim on (http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/Create-a-bootable-Windows-installation-drive-using-Sandisk-USB3/td-p/299653)
To create a bootable USB flash drive
Insert a USB flash drive into a running computer.
Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
Type diskpart.
In the new command line window that opens, to determine the USB flash drive number or drive letter, at the command prompt, type list disk, and then click ENTER. The list disk command displays all the disks on the computer. Note the drive number or drive letter of the USB flash drive.
At the command prompt, type select disk <X>, where X is the drive number or drive letter of the USB flash drive, and then click ENTER.
Type clean, and the click ENTER. This command deletes all data from the USB flash drive.
To create a new primary partition on the USB flash drive, type create part pri, and then click ENTER.
To select the partition that you just created, type select part 1, and then click ENTER.
To format the partition, type format fs=ntfs quick, and then click ENTER.
Important
If your server platform supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), you should format the USB flash drive as FAT32 rather than as NTFS. To format the partition as FAT32, type format fs=fat32 quick, and then click ENTER.
Type active, and then click ENTER.
Type exit, and then click ENTER.
When you finish preparing your custom image, save it to the root of the USB flash drive.

Then use a third party app (rufus) to mount the image to usb.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/file-folder/fl/burn-iso-usb.htm

Note:
I wasn't able to boot through my back usb ports and I also had to manually select the usb from the boot menu on startup. This may just be me but seems to be working fine through the front usb ports.
 

ownleame

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Feb 20, 2015
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I had a similar problem. None of my USB Flash drives would be recognized by windows 8.1. Here's how I fixed it:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Go to Hardware and Sound
3. Go to Power Options
4. Go to your current power settings (in my case it was "Balanced (recommended)" and click on "Change plan settings"
5. Go to "Change advanced power settings"
6. Go to drop down list of "USB settings" and click the + button to reveal drop down list
7. Click the + button on USB selective suspend setting
8. Change "On battery" and "Plugged in" settings to Disabled.
9. Click Apply
10. Restart Windows

Hope this works for you.
 

Cpu386

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Jun 18, 2015
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Well, at first, when Windows 8.1 wasn't accepting both my Sandisk  and Sony Keys, I thought it was for the size, being them both *only* 16 GB Keys (and it was asking for 16 GB -  it could have been a matter of some few more bytes). So I kept a 32GB key, but it was a Sandisk one, and when it still did not find it while trying to create the rescue disk, I searched the web and stumble on here. I tried the battery trick even if it sounded strange: pc was in use, so it should not have a matter of usb dropped for saving power. It did not work. Then I plugged in both Keys and finally Win 8.1 rescue creation saw the second (and only the second) which was the 32 GB Sandisk.
 
Thus try this: plug in two Keys, you might be lucky and Windows will see the second one.
 
 

Paul Randleman

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Jun 13, 2015
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Holy shit. Seemingly so complicated, yet so easy. Swapped it from the front to the back and PRESTO! Thanks dude.. This answer should seriously be upvoted.. If you're messing with diskpart and active that is an obvious solution dur! This is the correct answer to this thread.
 
Sorry to necro this post but just wanted to add that if Microsoft's Media Creation tool is not detecting your USB drive(make a bootable USB flash drive) just select to download the .iso file. Rufus detected my Lexar USB flash drive when the Media Creation tool could not and mounted the .iso file.