How to turn USB back on

Before I remove a device from USB (especially flash drives) I've been turning it off.

Good enough.

But how do I turn it back on? I can restart my computer, which does it, but that is a bit extreme I think.

It is probably something incredibly simple, but I'm missing it.

Just got a TomTom for Christmas, unplugged the wireless controller my boy was testing out, but now I'm going to have to reset this computer to test my TomTom it appear.

He gets to play with his Wii, I get to play with my TomTom. Life is like that sometimes.

 

OK, it isn't a power issue. Thinking about it the power came up OK, but after recycling the computer it saw the new device (which it didn't before).

I suspect device manager is the key, but something isn't quite right.

 

Device Manager > right-click the top icon in the pane > Scan for new hardware

 

If satrow's suggestion doesn't work what about just logging off and logging back on rather than a complete reboot? Maybe that will reset USB device detection?

 

A flash drive has no power switch so how do you "turn it off"?

 

OK, brain fart on my part. Power was getting to the device (as shown by a little green light), and I missed it

Embarrassing, but there you go. Thanks for the help.

For Plodr, there is an option to safely remove a USB device. You can usually get by without using it, but when I'm dealing with a storage device I usually go through the exercise, lest I corrupt something I want to keep.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

I always use the safely remove. Even though it appears that the data has been transferred, I have, on several occasions, been told I can not remove the device yet because something is using it. I wait and try a minute or two later then it allows me to remove it safely. For me, it is not worth the risk of corrupting my data so I choose to use the safely remove icon.