Chris B: Flash Drive “Malfunctioned”, HELP?
I took my USB Flash Drive out of a computer (without doing the “Safely Remove Hardware”, like almost everyone does), and when I plugged it into a computer, it showed the following message, “One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.”
I figured it was just that computer, however, I plugged it into three different computers, so it is not hub problems.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the hub driver… no success.
I have had this Flash drive for a while, and this problem never has occurred before. I honestly do not care that much about the files ON the flash drive, I just want it to work again.
So I thought, “Well, I’ll just have to format it again…” but the problem is, it won’t even show up on the computer to BE reformatted.
I need some help =[
“I figured it was just that computer, however, I plugged it into three different computers, so it is not hub problems.” hub = port.
And the USB did not show up under disk manager.
Answers and Views:
Answer by dj990
Unplug the USB flash drive from your computer and connect it into an open USB port on a different computer. Check to see if the flash drive works correctly on the second computer, which will indicate the problem is with the USB port on the first computer and not the flash drive itself.
Plug the flash drive back into the original USB port if the drive is not being recognized in a second computer. Click on the Windows “Start.”
Choose the “Control Panel” option and then scroll through the list of options and click “Administrative Tools.” Double-click the first option that appears in the new menu screen labeled “Computer Management.”
Formatting the drive
Formatting the drive
Scroll down through the options in the right panel of the new window that will pop up and click on the “+” sign next to the entry labeled “Disk Management.” Find the name of the USB flash drive in the center panel of the window and right-click it. Click on the option named “Format…” from the menu that will appear.
Wait for a box to pop up, asking if you want to format the drive and click “Yes.” Choose the option labeled as “NTFS” from the drop-down menu. Click “Start Format.”
Navigate back to the Control Panel once the formatting process has completely finished. Click “Device Manager.” Click “Continue” if your operating system opens a new window asking what action you want to take.
Click on the plus sign next to the “Universal Serial Bus Adapters” option to bring up a new menu. Right-click on the USB port you are using and choose “Update Driver.” Wait for the driver to finish downloading and then attempt to use the USB flash drive again.
*
If the USB port on your computer does not work, you will either need to take the entire PC to a computer repair shop or manually replace the entire motherboard on your own.
*
Any data that was on the USB flash drive will be completely wiped out once the formatting process is finished.
Leave a Reply