The flash drive writes: “insert a disk into the device”, what to do

Some users are faced with the fact that after connecting a removable USB device to a computer, the flash drive says: “insert disk into the device.” In this case, the USB drive is displayed in Explorer, but the user is unable to access the information on the portable flash drive.

On this computer, there is an occurring problem with a flash drive: “insert disk into device.” This means that the Windows operating system does not recognize the connected USB flash drive.

With the problem “flash drive: insert a disk into the device” users encounter in the following situations:

1. The user inserts a USB drive into the appropriate slot on the computer.
2. Then he opens Explorer, sees the removable disk icon, clicks on it to access the contents of the flash drive.
3. In the “Insert Disc” window, the operating system asks you to insert a disc into the device.
4. In the Windows Explorer window, the connected flash drive is displayed, but the total size and amount of free disk space are not indicated under the name of the USB drive.

This problem is caused by various reasons:

• Malfunctions in the hardware of the removable drive or mechanical damage.
• Problems caused by a virus infection.
• Driver failure.
• File system error or corrupted partition structure on the flash drive.

Often, damage to a flash drive occurs in the event of a sudden power outage, if at that time various active file writing operations are performed on the device, or a failure occurs after the USB drive is incorrectly removed from the PC.

In the instructions of this guide, we will try to fix the problem with the USB flash drive: “insert the disk into the device” in several ways: using the system tools of the Windows operating system, or using third-party software, in this case, the HDD Low Level Format Tool program.

Solution to the problem: the flash drive does not work, insert the disk into the device – 1 way

In some cases, simply formatting the USB flash drive helps. These actions can be performed from the Explorer window – the Windows file manager.

Do the following:

1. Right click on the USB drive in Windows Explorer.
2. In the context menu that opens, select the “Format …” item.
3. In the “Format USB Drive” window, select the file system, and then click on the “Start” button.

In the column “Capacity:” it says “capacity unknown”, this is normal for such cases. You can assign a suitable name for the flash drive in the “Volume label:” field.

4. A warning window will appear telling you that formatting will destroy all data on this drive. Agree to delete information.

As a result of this operation, the USB drive will become available for further operation in normal mode.

But, it often happens differently: in the window with information about formatting, it will be written: “Windows cannot complete formatting.”

In this case, you need to try other methods to recover the flash drive.

Solution to the problem: does not see the flash drive, insert the disk into the device – method 2

One option is to use the Disk Management snap-in, a system tool designed to work with disks on a computer.

Go through the following steps:

1. Press the “Win” + “R” keys.
2. In the “Open:” field of the “Run” dialog box, paste the command: “diskmgmt.msc” (without quotes).
3. Press the “Enter” key.
4. The Disk Management tool window displays all the disks on this computer.
5. Find a removable device.

It is possible that this drive has unallocated space. Therefore, it will say: “Not allocated.”

6. Right-click on this disk (flash drive).
7. In the context menu, click on “Create a simple volume …”.
8. In the New Simple Volume Wizard window, click the Next button.
9. In the “Specify volume size” window, leave the values ​​unchanged.
10. In the “Assign drive letter or path” window, a free drive letter is indicated, click on “Next”.
11. In the “Format Partition” window, select the file system (FAT32 or NTFS), if necessary, assign a volume label (the name under which this USB drive will be displayed in Explorer) for the flash drive.
12. In the final window, click on the “Finish” button.

In the Disk Management window, a removable USB drive will appear with the assigned name and the new file system.

The Windows Explorer window displays the USB drive, indicating the free disk space on the drive.

Another solution to the problem: the flash drive asks to insert a disk into the device – method 3

If the Windows OS system tools did not help, you can try to solve the problem using third-party software. There are special programs designed to repair flash drives: HDD Low Level Format Tool, JetFlash Online Recovery, D-Soft Flash Doctor and others.

In this tutorial, we will use the HDD Low Level Format Tool. The HDD Low Level Format Tool application performs low-level formatting of the device on a PC.

We will use the free version of the application, which is not much different from the paid counterpart. The free version has a disk space limit for time formatting: the limit is 180 GB per hour or 50 MB per second.

The official website has installation and portable versions of the application. The utility works in English.

You need to go through the following steps:

1. Run the HDD Low Level Format Tool on your computer.
2. In the license agreement window, click on the “Agree” button.
3. A window will open to select how to use the program. Click on Continue for free.
4. The next window will display all disks detected by the program on this computer.
5. Highlight the USB drive and then click on the Continue button.

To choose the right drive, be guided by the connection interface (USB), the model of the removable device and its capacity.

6. In the next window, in the “Device details” tab, all known information about this external drive is displayed.
7. Open the “LOW-LEVEL FORMAT” tab, click on the “FORMAT THIS DEVICE” button.
8. In the warning window, click the “Yes” button.
9. The window displays the progress of the flash drive formatting process. This operation takes some time.
10. After completing the low-level formatting of the flash drive, close the HDD Low Level Format Tool window.

You will need to follow these steps:

1. Open the Disk Management system tool on your PC.
2. In place of a removable device, you will see your USB drive with the RAW file system. In fact, this is the absence of any format on this disk.
3. Right click on the drive.
4. In the context menu, select the “Format …” item.
5. In the window that opens, assign a label to the volume and select the appropriate file system.
6. Click on the “OK” button.
7. Agree to a format that will destroy all data on this drive (they are not there).
8. As a result, a working USB flash drive with a new file system will appear in Disk Management.

If, after performing all the proposed methods, the flash drive does not show signs of life, then most likely it will not be possible to restore the device.

Article Conclusions

Some users are faced with a situation where, instead of opening the contents of a USB drive, they see a message stating that they need to insert a disk into the device, although the flash drive was connected to the computer. Problems like this occur due to file system errors or USB drive hardware failure. The user can solve problems that have arisen on a flash drive in several ways using the built-in Windows tools or third-party programs.