If you are facing the problem of Transcend USB flash drive not detected, you have come to the right place. This article will focus on the topic, explaining how to fix flash drive not recognized problem and how to use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover data.

Transcend USB Flash Drive Not Detected/Recognized

When you plug your Transcend USB flash drive into your Windows computer, but the computer cannot detect it, you may wonder what causes this problem so that you can take targeted solutions. Here, I will explain to you why the problem of Transcend USB flash drive not detected in File Explorer occurs.

Why Transcend USB Flash Drive Not Detected

When your Transcend USB pen drive not showing up, you may wonder whether the problem lies with the USB flash drive or the computer. In fact, both of these two aspects can cause this issue.

  • The USB port is damaged. If the USB port on your computer is damaged, the external drive cannot be detected.
  • The USB flash drive is attacked by viruses/malware. A virus or malware that infects the USB may modify the drive’s information or prevent it from being recognized, or even damage the drive.
  • The USB flash drive is physically damaged. If the USB connector is bent, broken, or exposed to water, its connection and recognition functions will be affected.
  • The USB driver is outdated or incompatible. Outdated USB drivers can lead to a host of issues including drive not detected that can disrupt your workflow and compromise the performance of your devices.
  • There is a problem with the USB file system. Recognition issues may occur if the USB file system is corrupted or incompatible with the computer.
  • The USB drive is not initialized. Since it is not initialized, the drive is not formatted or partitioned in the operating system and therefore cannot be recognized.
  • The partition on the USB drive is lost. If the partition is lost, the USB will show Unallocated in Disk Management.
  • The USB drive has no drive letter. When the USB is inserted into a computer, if no drive letter is assigned to it, the system may not recognize it.
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Take Some Basic Actions First to Check if It Can Be Fixed

After understanding the reasons, you can try some basic methods to see if they can work.

1. Use Another USB Port

When the USB port is not working, you may encounter the Transcend USB flash drive not detected problem. To solve it, you first need to check if the problem is related to a non-working USB port. You can connect the USB flash drive to another USB port or connect a different USB drive to this port to see if the USB drive can be detected. If the USB port is in good condition, check out more solutions.

2. Assign a drive letter

A drive letter is a single alphabetic character assigned to a physical or logical drive in the file system. It helps you identify and access different storage devices. You should check if the USB drive has a drive letter. If not, assign a drive letter to it: In Disk Management, right-click the USB drive partition and then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. In the new window, click Add, and then choose an available drive letter from the drop-down list. Finally, confirm in each open window to apply this change.

3. Show Hidden Devices

If you don’t turn on the Show hidden devices feature, the USB may not be displayed, and you will mistakenly think that it is not detected by your computer. In this case, you are supposed to turn on the Show hidden devices feature in Device Manager. Here are the steps.

Step 1: Right-click on the Start button and choose Device Manager to open it.

Step 2: Click on the View tab and select Show hidden devices.

show hidden devices in Device Manager

Once you have completed these steps, restart Windows to see if the USB is detected.

4. Update the USB Driver

Device drivers are an essential piece of software that helps different hardware components work smoothly with your computer. An outdated driver can lead to the issue of Transcend USB pen drive not detected. You need to update the USB driver to check if the issue can be fixed.

Step 1: Open the Device Manager and double-click on Disk drives to find your USB flash drive.

Step 2: Right-click on it and choose Update driver.

update the USB driver in Device Manager

Step 3: In the new window, select Search automatically for drivers.

If there is an available update, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the whole process.

Before You Do More: Recover Data From Transcend USB Drive

You have just tried some basic methods to fix Transcend USB drive not recognized. Before you implement more advanced methods, you need to recover data from this undetected drive to prevent severe disk damage and complete data loss. To recover data from a USB drive that cannot be accessed normally from File Explorer, you need to use data recovery software. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the most ideal choice.

Why MiniTool Power Data Recovery is so suitable to do a Transcend USB flash drive recovery? Here are some persuasive causes and outstanding features.

As a professional and robust recovery tool, MiniTool Power Data Recovery can retrieve almost all types of files including documents, audio, videos, photos, and more. In addition to Transcend USB drive recovery, it also supports a range of disk manufacturers, such as Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate, SanDisk, and more. Besides USB drive recovery, it is also highly suitable for SD card recovery, hard drive recovery, SSD data recovery, etc. What’s more, whether your drive is uninitialized, unallocated, or the file system is damaged, your data can be easily recovered with the help of this tool.

As mentioned above, unsupported file systems may also cause the USB drive not to be recognized. Luckily, this tool supports most file systems including Ext2/3/4, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, etc. Having strong compatibility, it can be used on a variety of Windows systems including Windows 11/10/8.1/8. There is a high probability that you don’t need to spend time upgrading your Windows.

Last but not least, it offers various editions that you can choose according to your situation. The free edition – MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free permits the free recovery of up to 1 GB of files. If you want to retrieve more data, just upgrade to a full edition, which has no data recovery capacity limitation.

Now click on the following button to download and install this Transcend USB flash drive data recovery tool on your computer to get started.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

After the installation is done, do as follows.

Step 1: Go to the location where you choose to store the MiniTool Power Data Recovery software and launch the app. Wait for the disk information to load. Once you access the Logical Drives section of the main interface, all disk partitions on the computer are shown under this tab, encompassing existing partitions, deleted partitions, and unallocated space.

You can see that there is another option next to the Logical Drives, the Devices section, which usually contains fewer elements. It displays the entire internal or external disks connected to your computer instead of specific partitions.

Having known the functions of each section, you need to find your USB drive. Move the cursor to it, and click on Scan to scan for data on it.

scan the USB flash drive in the main interface of MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Step 2: You should be patient to wait for the scan process to be completed. Once it ends, all the data will be shown by their paths. You can find the wanted files under the Path tab, but there are some effective ways for you to locate them quickly.

Firstly, next to Path, there is a Type column that categorizes files based on their type, such as documents, pictures, audio, videos, and more. Click on the small arrow in front of All File Types to expand it. Then double-click on the specific file type to find out the required files.

Secondly, the Filter feature allows you to filter files according to the file type, file size, file category, and modified date. You are expected to click on the Filter button in the upper-left corner to choose the classification criteria you want.

Thirdly, the Search feature allows you to search for the needed files by typing the keywords of the file name and pressing Enter.

find the required files using different features in MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Once you find the file, you can use the Preview feature to confirm if it is the one you want.

Tips:
Most files can be previewed without limitation, but a small number of file types need to be smaller than 100 MB.

Step 3: Select all the files you want to restore and click on the Save button. When a new window pops up, you need to choose a new location instead of the original USB drive to store the recovered files. Then click on OK to begin saving.

save the required files to a new location using MiniTool Power Data Recovery

When the recovery completes, a new window will show up on the screen with the size of the recovered files and the free remaining recovery capacity.

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How to Fix Transcend USB Flash Drive Not Detected Deeply

Fix 1: Create a New Partition

If there is no partition on the Transcend USB flash drive, Windows will not be able to detect it. So, you need to create a new partition manually. Here is how you can do it using Disk Management.

Step 1: Right-click on the Start button and choose Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click the unallocated area on your USB drive and choose New Simple Volume.

Step 3: In the New Simple Volume Wizard window, select Next.

Step 4: Type the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then select Next.

Step 5: Choose a drive letter to identify the partition and select Next.

Step 6: In the Format Partition dialog box, select Format this volume with the following settings and choose an appropriate file system. Then select Next > Finish.

After that, open the File Explorer to see if the Transcend USB flash drive shows up.

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Fix 2: Use the Transcend USB Flash Drive Repair Tool

When you identify that your Transcend USB flash drive is still not detected after trying the above ways, you can use the official Transcend pen drive repair tool, JetFlash Online Recovery, to repair it. This tool will restore your flash drive to factory default settings, thus fixing the problem itself.

Step 1: Go to the JetFlash Online Recovery download page to download and install the repair tool on your computer and reconnect the Transcend USB flash drive to your PC.

Step 2: Launch the software, select the pen drive capacity, and then click OK.

Step 3: Select the Repair drive and erase all data option and then click on Start.

Step 4: Now Your USB flash drive will be formatted. You need to wait until the format process ends. Once completed, click on Exit to unplug your USB drive.

Now re-insert your USB drive to see if the problem is solved.

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Tips to Protect Data on Transcend USB Flash Drive

As shown in the instructions above, several methods can help you make an unrecognized Transcend USB drive appear. Moreover, MiniTool Power Data Recovery can help you recover data even if the USB drive has a malfunction. However, if you don’t want to go through so much trouble, you need to take some measures to protect the drive and files on it.

  • Perform a virus scan. If the problem of Transcend USB flash drive not detected is solved, it is recommended that you remove USB viruses to prevent them from further damaging the drive and causing other problems.
  • Check and repair disk errors regularly. Regularly checking your Transcend USB flash drive and repairing faults promptly can prevent serious disk damage and data loss. Connect the USB to the PC first. Open the File Explorer and right-click the USB to choose Properties. Switch to the Tools tab. Under the Error-checking section, click the Check button to start the repair process.
  • Back up your data regularly. With a backup, you can easily access your data when data loss problem occurs or your Transcend USB pen drive cannot be detected or even stops working. You can use this professional backup tool, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to back up files on USB drive. As a comprehensive Windows data protection service, it not only supports file backup, but also supports disk cloning, file synchronization, etc.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Verdict

Now you should have a deeper understanding of the problem of Transcend USB flash drive not detected. This article lists some solutions to help you get rid of this annoying problem, such as changing a USB port, updating the USB driver, creating a new partition, etc.

However, it is important to note that these methods need to be followed in a specific order. If the problem is not solved after trying several basic methods, you have to use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover data from the inaccessible USB first. After restoring all files, try to create a new partition or use a USB flash drive repair tool to deal with it.

Welcome to contact us via [email protected] if you have any confusion in using MiniTool products.

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