Cannot Access Usb Storage Devices

I have a problem with a computer accesing usb storage devices be it usb drives or external hard drives.

This computer is running windows 7 professional 64 bit sp1 and this didn't start happening until about a week ago. Before this i had no trouble using storage devices. Computer model is an ultra small form factor hp elite 8200

I did a virus scan etc .. and everything came up clean. I did a system restore and it didn't make a difference. I haven't really installed anything that would cause issues.

when i insert a usb drive or external hard drive its detected in the system and even in the disk management section but i cannot access the drive data.

There is zero issues with these devices because i am using them in other computers without any problems. I tried all usb ports and its the same issue on all 8 i have , the ports are also NOT faulty as i plugged mouses and keyboards and verified they work, its just usb storage devices that it won't allow me to access.

Normally when i would insert one i would get a windows tab saying if i want to use the drive as a back up or explorer the files, or at the very least it would show up in my computer under a drive letter, in this case it shows no drive letter at all but i can see it in the disk management section as healthy.

I obviously don't want to mess with the hard drive itself or usb drives as they have crucial work and personal data besides its only this specific computer that has this issue.

Help please ?

 

Hi my friend Have you tried usb's in another machine checking if they works or not ?

 

Hi, As you say they work on other systems, the drives should be o.k, but I think it could be a faulty driver problem in your Windows 7 system that does not find them
Have you tried looking in disk management, at the disk/usb as you say it/they showed there, and right clicking, choosing properties, tools, then error checking to check the drive/usb for errors.
I have had a similar problem, finding the usb sticks would work on other laptop/pc systems(Windows 7, and even Vista) Windows 8, and 10 sometimes said they needed formatting, if they were recognised.
I got around it in a similar way to yourself. But as you say it is very inconvenient.
I did try uninstalling usb drivers, and letting Windows reinstall on restart, on mine, with some success, and as the usb drives/sticks would appear to have worked previously on your system, worth a try.
As you have asked , I thought I would look up Microsoft's Community, and this post my interest you-I don't have the problem right now, so I cannot test it, but although it mentions Windows 10, much information could apply.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...s/1bfe20b0-dfc3-406b-aed3-0364c6a4b53c?auth=1

Good luck

 

I did indeed as per my opening post , they work just fine in other computers its just this specific one it won't access the data

 

I tried this and still have issue

I really don't know why this is happening ( specially since it was working fine before) i never really encountered something like this. In the past i gotten about 2 or 3 bad external drives and once they begin to go bad they are not detected however this is not the case here. The drives work 100% they function in every other computer i tested , its just this computer that recently just decided not to open the drives.

Drives show up in disk management, they are named in my bottom tab, but i don't see a letter assigned to them or such an option to access their data ( ON 1 ( one) specific computer).

It does this to ALL usb external drives , this is a work pc so i constantly need to stick and eject and move data from usb storage devices

 

Try Microsoft's fixit tool
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Tips-for-solving-problems-with-USB-devices

 

I am sorry my fellow , i haven't read your post carefully , you can try baklogic's solution , i have solved a lot of problems with Microsoft's fixit tool

 

Some fixit tools are difficult to find since windows 10 came out, but I am pretty sure this one still works with Windows 7, too.

 

Well today i powered on this computer and without doing anything it just starting reading the data off the external usb storage devices , i downloaded the microsoft usb tool just in case because well i see this issue possibly coming back.