[Solved] USB Drive Detected But not Accessible

"I have a Sandisk USB flash drive that worked well before. But now it seems there is something wrong with the device. Every time when I plug it into the PC, it is detected but cannot be opened or accessed. Is there any way to fix the problem? I have many important files on it."  

Error: USB Drive Appears on My Computer But Not Accessible

Have you ever been caught in a similar situation mentioned above? If you are one who is tired of the USB drive detected but not accessible problem? Now you are relieved! On this page, we created some troubleshooting steps to help. Just try them one by one until your problem is fixed.  

When you said the USB is detected but is not accessible,  did you mean the pen drive not showing data or that the pen drive is detected but not showing in My Computer?

Method 1. If a USB Drive Just Cannot Be Opened

If the USB can be detected by your computer but is not accessible, you can get off the data by using a data recovery tool. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can recover data from inaccessible, corrupted, damaged, and RAW drives. 

Follow the steps below to restore files from a USB flash drive effortlessly.

Step 1. Select a drive and start scanning

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and hover over the partition where you lost data. This could be an internal hard disk, external disk, USB, or SD card. Then, click "Scan".

Step 2. Check and preview scanned files

Use the file format filter on the left or upper right corner to narrow the scan results until you find the files you need. Then, you can click the "Preview" button or double-click a file to preview its content, if you'd like. 

Step 3. Recover lost data to a secure location

Click the checkbox next to the file and click "Recover" to restore the lost data to a secure place. We recommend that you do not store the recovered data on the disk where you lost it earlier.

Other key features of EaseUS data recovery software:

• Recover data from emptied Recycle Bin, HDD, SSD, USB, pen drive, SD card, external hard drive, and more
• Restore more than 1000 types of files, including photos, videos, documents, emails, etc.
• Repair corrupted files during data recovery on Windows 11/10/8/7 and macOS

Method 2. If Pen Drive Is Detected But Not Showing in File Explorer

You should do one more thing to check if it appears in Disk Management or not. To open Disk Management, just press the Windows+R key to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc in the empty box, and tap OK.

Does your USB drive appear in Disk Management

Now check if your USB pen drive is showing up in Windows Disk Management. Go on with the coming two symptoms & solutions.

If the USB drive appears in Disk Management:

It suggests that there are errors or corruptions on the disk. Then also try the EaseUS data recovery software to recover data from the USB drive and format the device to repair it. 

To format the USB pen drive:

Step 1. Right-click the removable disk partition and choose Format...

Step 2. Select a proper file system and perform a quick format. Click OK.

If the USB drive doesn't appear in Disk Management:

Go to Device Manager to check if it is listed there. If yes, try to update the USB flash drive driver to check if it helps. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Open "Computer" > select "System Properties".

Step 2. Click "device manager" on the left taskbar >  Next to "USB controller", click "+" (plus).Then you'll see a yellow exclamation mark.

Step 3. Right-click and choose "Update Driver Software"

Step 4. Click "automatically search for driver software online... "

Wait patiently and let the driver be installed, then reboot your computer. Then reconnect your USB drive to the PC and check whether the USB drive can be accessed.