Usb Drive Can Be Accessed But Does Not Display In Windows Explorer

System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

I plug in a USB drive into any of my 3 USB 2.0 sockets. The drive does NOT show up in Windows Explorer. Yet I can launch Windows Explorer, type "E:" in the address bar and CAN access the USB drive. I tried this with several USB drives - same behavior. So I can access the USB drive, but the drive letter does not display in Windows Explorer.

Solution anyone?

 

I would start here
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/330140/my-drive-does-not-appear-in-windows-explorer-view

 

Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately none of the solutions at the above link solved this problem. The USB drives are not corrupted - I have no trouble accessing them. And there IS a drive letter assigned to the drive - I can see the drive letter in the device manager. The drive letter just does not display in Windows Explorer.

 

One more piece of information. I find that if I reassign the USB drive letter from E to G or higher in the alphabet, the drive DOES show up in Windows Explorer view. But if I assign the drive either E or F, the drive does NOT show up in Windows Explorer view. Very strange.

 

Do you have a built in card reader? Certain letters are reserved for my two built in card reader slots. (they were E and F until I added a partition then the optical drive was assigned the letter E and the card reader now uses F and G).

Hint: look for the external USB drive under Devices and Printers. It will show at the top Mass Storage Devices with a letter.

 

No, I do not have a built-in card reader. There are no other devices.

 

Run this tiny portable utility. It will show all the drive letters that are in use.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driveletterview.html
Post a screenshot.

 

Fascinating utility - thank you. I have attached a screen shot of the output of DriveLetterView. Notice that it shows E & F in the list even though there is nothing connected. What does this mean?

 

As per the included help file, you can delete E & F.
Then they will become available again.
PS A restart might be needed.

 

Unfortunately this did not work. I deleted E & F as you suggested. Rebooted. Now E & F were no longer in the list when using the utility. Plugged in one and then a second hard drive - still did not show up.
The answer to my problem may be to reinstall Windows 7. But I need my laptop as is for now and don't have the time to reinstall all the software.

Any other suggestions?

 

You can repair Windows 7.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243190/how_to_repair_a_corrupt_windows_7_installation.html
All your files and programs will be intact but, you'll have to re-download all the updates.