If the computer does not see the memory card. The computer does not see the memory card: SD, miniSD, microSD. Probable causes of the malfunction and their solutions

Hello. Your The computer does not see the flash drive , memory card or hard drive and you are wondering what to do? Surely every computer user has experienced a similar situation, or even more than one.

Today I will help you with this issue. I’ll tell you what problems there are with displaying usb devices and how to solve them. By the way, the last article was about data recovery from a flash drive. If you are interested in this, then replenish your knowledge.

Your computer does not see or detect the flash drive, hard drive and memory card. Let's look at the possible reasons for this situation. At the end of the article, do not forget to watch a visual video lesson on how to make a flash drive or hard drive work.

A short outline of the article

• Device Definition


• Power indicator


• Front USB ports


• Not enough food


• USB disabled in BIOS


• USB device not recognized


• Outdated drivers


• Viruses


• Different file systems


• Conclusion

Determining the device

The first step is to determine exactly how the computer does not see your USB drive. This answer will make it clear whether it is possible to recover data from a flash drive or not.

To do this, you need to go to Windows Device Manager.

In order to enter it, you need to right-click on the my computer shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu, go to properties, click on device manager.

After that, select disk devices.

We got to the device manager and the disk devices tab. If your flash drive or memory card appears in this list, then it is highly likely that you can recover data on it. If there is no flash drive there, then the memory card controller is most likely burned out. I recommend trying to connect your USB device to other computers.

If nothing changes and the flash drive is still not visible, then the problem is probably a faulty controller. It’s unlikely that you will extract data from such a USB device; you can, of course, contact special institutions that do this (they are not in all cities), but they will charge you a tidy sum for the work. So think about whether you need it or not.

Your flash drive is visible as a device, but it does not appear in my computer or Explorer, or asks to be formatted. To do this you need to go to disk management. To get into it you need to perform the following steps. Here are screenshots for clarity:

The device is displayed, writes its volume and file system - it is ready for use and functions normally.

The device is displayed, shows its capacity, but does not display the file system and writes “not defined”. In order to use it, you need to right-click in the Not Defined window and select Format. You can check the quick formatting box and click OK. After the device is formatted, it should work in normal operating mode.

Displayed as a removable device, says no media and does not show the file system. All these parameters indicate that this device is not working properly, there is internal or external damage to the controller. You can hardly read information from such a flash drive without special expensive equipment.

Power indicator

When you connect the flash drive to the computer, a small indicator on the USB device should light up. If it lights up and starts blinking, then everything is fine with the flash drive, but not with the operating system, you need to look for the reason in it. If the flash drive indicator does not light up, then the problem may be in the device itself or the connected port of the computer.

Front USB ports

There have been cases when a flash drive is connected to a computer via the front USB ports, but the flash drive does not work. Perhaps these front usbs are turned off or they forgot to connect them to the motherboard.

Not enough power

Power shortages mainly occur when connecting hard drives through the front USB ports of the computer, hubs and hubs. It is best to connect such devices directly to the USB connectors on the motherboard, that is, at the back of the computer. If you use a usb hub or hub, then disconnect unnecessary devices, this may help. The reason may also be a low-power computer power supply.

USB disabled in BIOS

This problem is rare. Mainly in computer clubs and similar entertainment establishments. What is it for? To prevent a person from introducing viruses and downloading various programs and unnecessary information onto the computer. This is more of a protective measure. If this is a home computer, then you need to go to the BIOS settings and check the box to enable the launch of USB devices in the motherboard.

USB device not recognized

The usb device is not recognized and when you connect a flash drive, the operating system gives it an already used letter (volume label in use). This does not always happen; there are other cases. In order to fix this you need to go to the computer control panel.

I showed how to enter it above, or you can open the Run window - the keyboard shortcut Win + R (the checkbox between Ctrl and Alt plus the letter R) and type the command diskmgmt.msc. Go to disk management, find the desired device - a flash drive, right-click on it and select Change drive letter or drive path. In the window that appears, you can add or change this letter.

Outdated drivers

It is possible that your drivers are outdated - update them. To do this, you need to find out what manufacturer and model of your motherboard is. Usually written on the packaging box, if you saved them, of course. If not, then use the Everest or Aida program. Using them, you can find out the model of your motherboard and a lot of other useful information about your computer. After you have found out everything, you need to go to the manufacturer’s official website, find the required motherboard and download drivers for the chipset and usb device, if any.

Viruses

There have been cases where the computer does not recognize the flash drive due to viruses that have appeared in your operating system. To do this, I recommend using good anti-virus programs and doing a full virus scan at least once a month. If you don’t have it, you can use the free Kaspersky Yandex antivirus version, or purchase a paid product.

Different file systems

This happens, but very rarely. Your computer does not see the flash drive due to a conflict between the file systems of the computer and the flash drive. Most flash drives work in two file systems: FAT and FAT32, and hard drives work in NTFS.

You can try formatting your flash drive in a different format such as FAT32 or NTFS. Maybe after this everything will work fine.

Helpful information. On a flash drive in FAT and FAT32 format, you can upload information in one file of no more than 4 Gigabytes, and on a hard drive much more. Therefore, if you encounter such a problem, be prepared for it and keep it in mind.

And for dessert, watch a short video tutorial on how to make your computer see a flash drive and hard drive. For convenient and enjoyable viewing, I recommend watching this video in full screen, that is, in full screen mode.

The computer does not recognize the flash drive and hard drive

If your SD card doesn't show up in Windows Explorer when you plug it into your PC's Card Reader, don't despair. This is a common problem with Windows, and although very frustrating, it is usually very easy to fix.

Below is a list of fixes that have worked for other Windows users. Start at the top of the list and work your way down until you find the fix that works for you.

Method 1: Update your drivers

In 80%, this problem is solved by installing drivers.

The driver can be downloaded from the official website of the laptop manufacturer.

For lenovo laptops

For HP laptops

For Asus laptops

For Aser laptops

For other brands of laptops, installing the driver for the card reader is similar.

Here are the websites of other manufacturers:

• Dell - https://www.dell.com/support/home/ru/ru/rubsdc?app=drivers
• Prestigio - http://www.prestigio.com/MultiBoard_Drivers
• Toshiba - https://support.toshiba.com/drivers

Method 2: Run Windows Installer

1. Click Windows + R.
2. Enter " services.msc" without quotes in the launch field and click Enter key .
3. Find Windows installer.
4. Then right click on it and click " Start".
5. You can then run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter again.

Try checking if Card Reader is recognized in Explorer.

Method 3: Reinstalling the controller

1. Press the keys Windows + R on keyboard.
2. Enter devmgmt.msc in the "Open" text box.
3. Expand universal serial bus controllers from the window.
4. Right click on drivers and select " Delete" .
5. Click " OK" in “Confirm request to remove device.”
6. Restart your computer, the drivers will be automatically installed on your Windows 10.

Method 4: Test your SD card on another PC.

If your SD card is faulty, your computer will not recognize it. To check, you need to find another computer with a card reader and test your SD card on that computer to make sure it works.

If your SD card doesn't work on another PC, it's probably faulty and you need to replace it.

If he really works in another computer, then it is not a faulty card, but it may be that your card reader is faulty.

Method 5: Disable then enable the card reader

Go to Device Manager as above - when I do this, there are no SD host adapters, but there are memory technology devices that have a RealteK PCIE Card Reader. Select that, then click Driver, then Disable, confirm the pop-up, then back to the driver screen click Enable and its pop-up - the SD card now appears as before and is accessible.
I don't know why it works, but it did for me."

If you don't know how to do this, follow these steps:

1) On your keyboard, press the key Win+R(key Windows and key R) simultaneously to bring up the launch window.

2) Enter devmgmt.msc in the launch field and click " OK" .

4) Go to the tab Driver. Click " Disconnect device" .

5) When prompted to turn off the device, click " Yes" .

6) Double-click the card reader to open the Properties windows. Click " Turn on device", to turn the device back on.

We hope these tips help you troubleshoot your SD card issue. Please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. We are always happy to hear about new solutions!

Method 6: Clean the SD card and reader

Another very common reason for an unrecognized SD card is a very simple one: a dirty SD card or a dusty card reader. Or it will lead to poor contacts between the card and the reader.

So the second thing you need to do is give your card a clean and remove any dust from the reader and then try the card again.

• To clean the card, dip a cotton cloth in a little rubbing alcohol or water and lightly wipe the dirty area, paying particular attention to the metal contacts.
• To clean your reader, use a compressed air device to blow dust out of the reader. Alternatively, you can buy a contact cleaner from Amazon that you can use to clean the reader.

Rostislav Kuzmin

Greetings, dear reader! Today we will touch upon a topic that is pressing and, at times, delicate. We will talk about how to restore a micro SD memory card. Why is the topic sensitive, you ask? Yes, because we sometimes store files of a very personal nature, near and dear to our hearts. We don’t want to lose them or expose them to human judgment. If something is wrong with an important micro SD, is it possible to recover the information? Can an ordinary user handle it himself or does he need to go to a service center? Let's figure it out.

The miniature dimensions of microsd have made it so popular that it is widely used in smartphones, tablets, cameras and other gadgets. Its device is extremely simple. There is essentially nothing to break there. But, there are several main reasons why a flash drive may become inoperable.

This can be either mechanical damage or software malfunctions:

1. Manufacturer's defect
2. Constant temperature changes
3. Failures in the reader
4. Damage to the reading program
5. Exceeding the service life.

Often, one of the main reasons is the constant change of location of the flash drive - from the camera to the phone and back, several times a week. So, friends, it is better for each device to purchase its own “native” minimap.

Helper programs

Available programs help you reproduce data on a micro SD memory card. They can recover data on any hard drive, conduct diagnostics and find possible errors in operation.

I'll tell you about the most popular of them:

• CrystalDiskMark. Universal Japanese development for any type of solid drive. Quite easy to use. Easily and quickly performs a test check of the actual write/read speed of the card.
• Check Flash. A software tool with wide capabilities. Easily finds errors and displays them on the screen. The settings allow you to work both without formatting and with it. Does not require installation on a computer.
• HD_Speed. The miniprogram runs on Windows OS. Quickly diagnoses flash memory and demonstrates its speed characteristics. Issues a scan report for the selected file, where you can easily determine where the card is damaged.
• Flash Memory Toolkit. You can take full advantage of the program's potential only after purchase. Advantages include the ability to recover deleted files and create backup copies. Thoroughly scans the drive for errors and stated speed.

It is worth noting that all these programs work successfully on a PC. In order to diagnose removable memory with their help, you need to purchase an additional card reader.

Formatting on PC

If the memory card is not detected on the device, the first thing you need to do is format it. The procedure will clean and determine the presence of bad sectors on it.

If the micro sd does not work you need to:

1. Insert the card into the card reader and wait until the computer detects it.
2. Find the card in the My Computer menu. Right-click on it.
3. In the context menu that pops up, select the “Format” function and click “Start”.
4. Wait for the process to complete.

If you enable the “Quick Format” option, then the process of recovering files from a formatted miniflash drive will proceed without problems. Completely clearing the card takes a longer time, as it involves completely overwriting the information.

What to do if the computer does not see the drive? You just need to rename the drive in the Disk Management menu and format the micro SD using utilities.

If you don’t have a special card reader, you can try connecting a device with a solid drive via a USB cable to a PC and work that way.

Formatting on your phone

There is no need to remove additional memory from your smartphone; formatting is easy to do directly on Android:

After formatting, the files will be completely erased.

If the smartphone does not see the additional device, there may be several reasons for this:

1. Mechanical failure or damage. In this case, recovering files from a mini flash drive becomes impossible.
2. Incompatibility with the device. If the technical characteristics of the micro SD are higher than the capabilities of the smartphone, then it simply does not recognize it. Buy a card that matches your device
3. The SD and phone contacts do not match. Make sure the card contacts are working properly. If everything is ok, reinstall it again. If it is damaged, buy a new one
4. Software read error. You need to find out which program is not reading the micro sd and in the settings specify the card as the storage location for the files.

Recovery after formatting

You ask me: “How to recover photos and videos after completely clearing the card?” For an answer, as always, you should contact the developers of smart programs. They came up with something interesting! Special utilities will help you recover lost files only if no new ones have been written to the card. Saving new files will overwrite old information and it will be impossible to restore deleted information.

You can even recover photos from a micro SD that is damaged and unreadable. Such programs are not cheap, so before thoroughly cleaning the card, you should once again make sure that a backup copy has been created from it.

Famous manufacturers

If the question is “How to restore a damaged micro SD memory card?” becomes unsolvable, it’s worth purchasing a new one.

Here are proven manufacturers with affordable prices:

• Transcend. Specializes only in the production of memory cards. It is distinguished by reasonable price and high reliability. Headquarters - Taipei, China.
• Kingston. An American manufacturer specializing in the production of RAM and permanent memory. All cards have high speed characteristics.

We reduce risks

A memory card, like any other device, has its own technical characteristics. Before purchasing it, you need to understand how it will be used, in which device it will be used. Don't skimp on extra memory. Purchase media that meets your device's requirements.

Remember! The norm for any mini-flash drive is the amount of rewriting of no more than 20% per day of the total volume. This means that you cannot overwrite more than 6 GB of information per day from a 32 GB card. This way you will maintain good performance properties for the entire warranty period.

Buy media only from trusted suppliers and well-known brands. Chinese manufacturers often deceive consumers by providing deliberately incorrect information about the characteristics of the card. Always check the actual capabilities of these drives with special utilities before using them for the first time.

Bottom line

Any solid electronic storage medium can fail at the most inopportune moment. To avoid losing files saved on it, act promptly. Under no circumstances should you record new photos and videos over previous information. Otherwise, this will result in the loss of old important files.

Data from a card that has just undergone deep formatting must be restored using special paid programs in service centers. Quick formatting treats data in a more gentle way. An ordinary user can also restore them.

After the data has been recovered from the card, you must check it for serviceability. Repeated recording of seized files onto damaged media will lead to their inevitable loss!

All smartphone models suffer from the fact that they get very hot while recording video. The mini-memory slot is often located near the processor, so the card can simply melt. It would be better to buy two 32 GB drives than one 64 GB drive. Consistently use two cards of smaller capacity and you won’t have to ask yourself how to recover photos from a burnt flash drive.

I would be very glad if I helped save more than one of your valuable files. Subscribe to my blog news and tell your friends about it, dear readers.

Bye everyone!

Thank you for your attention! See you again on my blog. Sincerely, Rostislav Kuzmin.

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Today, the method of storing data on portable flash drives has gained quite a lot of popularity. And now all flash drive manufacturers are struggling to create the smallest in size and largest in memory capacity flash drives; Micro SD cards occupy the leading position in the minimum sizes.

Micro SD flash cards are currently the smallest data storage devices that have been put into mass production.

Due to their very fragile structure, these drives quite often become unusable due to physical damage or incorrect completion of work with such flash drives.

There are often cases when, after a short period of working with a card, it becomes unreadable or is not detected by devices at all, so you cannot rely on the long-term operation of such a drive. I advise you to use a Micro SD card as a space for work, and not for permanent storage of information. Although every day manufacturers of such SD cards are improving their durability, and are bringing them closer to the possibility of using them for permanent and long-term storage of information.

Reasons why the computer may not detect the Micro SD card:

· Hardware problem.

· Flash drive failure.

· Assigning an already assigned partition letter.

· File system conflict.

· Malicious programs in the operating system.

If your Micro SD card is no longer detected by your phone, camera or other device, then you need to remove it and insert it into your computer to diagnose, identify and fix the problem.

Let's move on to considering and eliminating the most common causes of malfunction of such a flash drive.

How to check if the Micro SD card is detected on the computer?

In order to understand whether your computer has detected your Micro SD card, you can use 2 methods.

First way. Open my computer and check the connection of the new partition. If you have a new disk, then the flash drive has been identified.

Second way. If nothing appears in Explorer, then it’s worth checking whether the computer has even detected that an SD card is connected to it. To do this, go to my computer, right-click on the computer and select “Manage” from the drop-down menu.

After which the Computer Management window will open, there is a menu on the left side. We need to select the “Disk Management” section.

In the displayed statistics, we can see all connected drives to the computer, determine their volume, or set the partition letter.

If you did not see your SD card in this list, then read the following reasons and their solutions.

Hardware problem

If you are trying to connect your SD card to your computer through an adapter or through a card reader, and nothing happens, you should first check that these pairing devices are working.

If you use a card reader to connect the card, then try inserting a known working Micro SD card into it, if a known working card is also not detected, in this case, check and reinstall the card reader drivers. If after all the attempts nothing has changed, then most likely the problem is in the card reader.

If you are using a laptop, then most likely you are trying to insert an SD card through an adapter, directly into the built-in card reader of the laptop. If nothing happens when using this connection method, then I recommend checking the drivers for the built-in card reader first, and then checking the functionality of the adapter.

Drivers for card readers can be downloaded and installed from the manufacturers’ official websites; if you have a portable card reader that connects via a USB port, then download the drivers from the manufacturer’s website. If you use a laptop's built-in card reader, then you can download drivers from the official website of your laptop manufacturer.

In order to check whether the driver of your card reader is detected by the system, you need to open the “Device Manager”, to do this, press the key combination Win + R and in the “Run” line that opens, enter the command “devmgmt.msc”.

The Device Manager window will open in which you can see devices that do not have a driver installed. Such devices will be marked with a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. If there are no such devices, then expand the “Portable Devices” section and make sure that the computer has detected the card reader itself in order to discard the option of a non-working device.

Flash drive failure

If you have checked the functionality of the above devices and are convinced that they are working properly, then it is worth checking the Micro SD card for physical damage, cracks, chips, deformation or damage to the outer layer, since such a flash drive consists of many small tracks, which are easy to scratch and tear.

Try connecting it to some device: smartphone, camera, etc. If the flash drive is not detected in any device, then most likely it is physically damaged and cannot be repaired. The only thing that can motivate you to contact the service center is the presence of important information on the card.

Assigning an already assigned partition letter

This type of problem occurs quite often. This happens when an SD card is connected to a computer, the system assigns it the same letter as the existing partition, because of this a conflict occurs and we do not see our flash drive in the list of computer disks.

In order to resolve this type of problem, open the “Computer Management” section described above.

After getting into the “Disk Management” section, we need to find our flash drive, focus on its volume, select a disk that matches the capacity of our Micro SD card. Right-click on it and select “Change drive letter or drive path...” from the drop-down menu.

A window will open in which we need to click the “Add” button.

In the window that opens, select the letter for this section and click “OK”.

Done, we have assigned a letter to our partition, now we check its presence in Explorer.

File system conflict

There are often cases when a flash drive is detected, but it cannot be opened. The reason for this may be a file system conflict or a damaged file system of the Micro SD card itself. If the data on the flash drive does not play any role for you, then you can try to format it into the NTFS file system.

To do this, right-click on the flash drive and select “Format” from the drop-down menu.

In the formatting window that opens, in the “File system” section, select NTFS, set the Volume Label and click the “Start” button.

Thus, we formatted the Micro SD card into NTFS format, after which you can open it.

Malware in the operating system

When faced with the problem of identifying a Micro SD drive, you may not even suspect that the culprit for all this may be malware, so-called viruses, which can block USB ports and prevent the computer from working with your memory card.

In this case, it would be best to conduct a full system scan with your antivirus program, or resort to free antivirus programs that can help you with this.

I will recommend one of these to you - Dr.Web CureIt!

The program is absolutely free and is intended only for scanning and finding virus programs and removing them.

To download this program, go to the official Dr.Web website at https://free.drweb.ru/cureit/

Download the program and start scanning.

When finished, remove all malware found and after restarting the computer, try connecting the Micro SD card again.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons why your computer does not see the Micro SD card, so it is impossible to unambiguously answer the question “Why does my computer not see the memory card?”, since this can be caused by problems of various kinds. To avoid making mistakes and solve the problem, you should take turns following all the steps described in this article.

Also, do not forget that when formatting, all information from the flash drive will be deleted.

And I still advise you not to store important information on drives of this type, as they most often fail due to their very fragile structure. Use this type of drive to directly work with files, saving them in more secure locations.