USB Flash Drive doesnt show up as a disk in anything but shows up in "Safely remove hardware"

jcg_

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Nov 10, 2014
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My flash drive is a hp x755w and i have a windows 8.1 hp pc. To begin with it was showing up but not functioning properly (would not read some files, corrupted files). I tried formatting it, both with quick format and full format, both were unsuccessful. After this i tried formatting it through diskmgmt.msc, following an online tutorial. This also didnt work however when i unplugged it and plugged it back in again it showed up as if it had reformatted correctly. However after some use it completely froze and i had to unplug it. Since then it will not who up in File Explorer or Disk Management, even in the bottom section.

Update:
I tried on another PC where it recognises that it is plugged in and named x755w, but it doesnt figure out what type of device it actually is, showing it under "Unspecified". Again not showing up in anything else. In terms of getting a warrant replacement i dont think that is possible as i didnt buy it directly from HP.
 
this may not apply to your situation, or it may -

i had the same issue with flash drives and external HDDs not showing up, and not showing up in "safely remove" utility, but were showing or recognized in BIOS. These were flash drives that i knew were good, had worked the day before and had files on them i needed.

for whatever reason, i kept finding my Sata mode set to "Raid" - and even though i'd go back to AHCI it would be back at Raid when i'd check it on reboot.

Finally on the first page of my UEFI BIOS i turned "Inter Rapid Storage Technology" off and it stopped bios from switching to RAID and all my external drives are now recognized

btw, i'm running windows 7 64bit

if you don't have a UEFI BIOS, then simply in your bios select "default settings" and see if that doesn't bring back your usb connected devices