USB not showing up in Disk Cleanup

[Bangkok Barry]

While using Win 10 Home, my USB (SanDisk Ultrafit 250GB) that I keep permanently in my laptop (Asus Vivobook 14) to use as backup doesn't show up in Disk Cleanup. There is no dropdown menu and only my main C disk shows up. The USB otherwise works fine, as far as I can tell. The problem might have occurred after I uninstalled One Drive. Re-installing though didn't solve the (minor) problem, and Google threw up nothing, only instructions for if the USB is not working at all.

 

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

[sammieuk1]

Try to look here and see if a drive letter has been assigned is a possibility????

  

1. Open Disk Management with administrator permissions. ...
2. In Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) the volume for which you want to change or add a drive letter, and then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. ...
3. To change the drive letter, select Change.

[RichCor]

...as sammieuk1 suggests, open Disk Management and see if the drive shows up in the display

 

Directions:

<Windows-Key>+X

select Disk Management

see if your "Removable" drive (the USB Stick) shows up in the bottom section of the display

 

[Bangkok Barry]

Very late getting back to this.... the USB does show up in Disk Management. Now, perhaps related, I get an error notification each time I plug into the laptop. I do the recommended scan and repair which says the error is fixed, but then it happens again each time I plug in. This is happening on two 32GB USBs that I have, and a 250GB that I use for backup also doesn't show but has no error report.

 

I also have a 1.5TB disk which does show up in Cleanup as it should, so I'm mystified. Three of my four USBs don't show, one does. I noticed that the one that does show is NTFS while the others are exFAT, so I converted one to NTFS to check if it made a difference. It didn't.

[userabcd]

Open disk part in windows and if you see the drive there delete all the partitions. Be careful, only select sdb or sdc ie the usb drive.

 

After deleting all the partitions on the usb...format the usb.

 

Unlug and plug, then see if it works and if the errors are gone.

 

Also you can try the cmd line and open a terminal as admin:

Type list disk and press enter (disks will be listed)

Type Select disk 2 (the usb drive whatever that number is) and press enter

Type clean and press enter and wait for the usb to be cleaned.

Type create partition primary and press enter.

Type format fs=ntfs and press enter (you can change ntfs to exfat or fat32 or whatever format you want)

Type assign an press enter (it will assign a drive letter to your usb)

 

 

 

[teacherclaire]

13 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Very late getting back to this.... the USB does show up in Disk Management. Now, perhaps related, I get an error notification each time I plug into the laptop. I do the recommended scan and repair which says the error is fixed, but then it happens again each time I plug in. This is happening on two 32GB USBs that I have, and a 250GB that I use for backup also doesn't show but has no error report.

 

I also have a 1.5TB disk which does show up in Cleanup as it should, so I'm mystified. Three of my four USBs don't show, one does. I noticed that the one that does show is NTFS while the others are exFAT, so I converted one to NTFS to check if it made a difference. It didn't.

I had similar issues with a San Disc. You look for the "remove hardware and eject hardware" and wait until you receive the message that you can.

 

That's the reason why the scan it, or there's a problem with drive x show up if you don't do that. 

 

    As others have already pointed out, go to Disc management, then see what the disc shows you and Format it.

 

Also see if there's an issue with the drive letter, use what the machine suggests. 

 

Use FAT 32 that will always work. 

 

  

Edited November 18, 2020 by teacherclaire

[teacherclaire]

13 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Very late getting back to this.... the USB does show up in Disk Management. Now, perhaps related, I get an error notification each time I plug into the laptop. I do the recommended scan and repair which says the error is fixed, but then it happens again each time I plug in. This is happening on two 32GB USBs that I have, and a 250GB that I use for backup also doesn't show but has no error report.

 

I also have a 1.5TB disk which does show up in Cleanup as it should, so I'm mystified. Three of my four USBs don't show, one does. I noticed that the one that does show is NTFS while the others are exFAT, so I converted one to NTFS to check if it made a difference. It didn't.

I don't really understand why you want to see them at Clean Up. They do not sample as much junk as ordinary drives do. 

 

Save your stuff, Format them and you'll see them again. I use a better program, called Easus, but the Window one is okay for that. 

 

Do not just pull them out. You need to use the remove hardware option. 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by teacherclaire

[Bangkok Barry]

7 hours ago, teacherclaire said:

I don't really understand why you want to see them at Clean Up. They do not sample as much junk as ordinary drives do. 

 

Save your stuff, Format them and you'll see them again. I use a better program, called Easus, but the Window one is okay for that. 

 

Do not just pull them out. You need to use the remove hardware option. 

 

 

 

Thanks for your input but I have done all you suggest, including not just pulling them out. I'll look at Easus. They might not collect as much junk as a normal drive, but they do build up over time. It might or might not become a problem, but I prefer to anticipate rather than react. It isn't a big deal, but I was just seeking to widen my knowledge by learning from someone why it happens.

[JayClay]

I didn't even realize that usb drives were supposed to appear in disk cleanup?

 

Disk cleanup clears out things such as temporary application files, system update history, 

internet temp files etc... None of which should be accumulating on your USB drive.

 

It might be wiser to invest your time into figuring out a system of organising the data you put onto the drive so you know where everything is, where to find it, and what to remove when space is getting tight.

 

For drives that have gotten out of control already, treesize is a good tool to find out which folders are using up the most space.

Edited November 19, 2020 by JayClay