Speed up slow USBs, recover lost files and fix ‘device not recognised’ error messages
Bootable USB stick won’t boot
You’ve made a bootable USB stick but Windows ignores it? You probably need to rejig your BIOS settings. For older computers running Windows 7 or earlier, tap F2 or Delete (Del) after switching on, then use the cursor (arrow) keys and Enter to navigate the BIOS screens: you’re looking for something like ‘Boot Order’ or ‘Boot Device Priority’. Your USB stick must be higher in this list than the hard drive.
To access the modern ‘UEFI’ BIOS on newer Windows 8.1/10 PCs requires different methods. In Windows 8.1, press Win+C then click Settings followed by ‘Change PC settings’. In Windows 10, click Start then Settings. Now click ‘Update and recovery’ followed by Recovery, then ‘Restart now’ under ‘Advanced startup’. Finally, click Troubleshoot, then ‘Advanced options’ and UEFI Firmware Settings, then click Restart.
USB running much slower than normal
If your USB stick is slow and unresponsive, you may have attached it to an older type of USB port. All modern PCs have one or more USB 3.0 ports, identified by a blue plastic insert; but many still have older (and slower) USB 2.0 slots as well. Your PC might even have some archaic USB 1.1 ports lurking around the rear. So, take your stick out and slot it into a different socket – preferably one with the blue interior. Incidentally, this applies to multi-USB hubs, some of which support only old USB 2.0/1.1 connections.
Files won’t save or become corrupted
Bad news – your USB stick might be faulty or fake. Fake USB sticks appear to work perfectly until their real capacity is reached, then chaos beckons. There’s no fixing them.
Even if your stick definitely isn’t fake, most faults are still almost impossible to repair. However, you might be able to recover lost files. Download and launch the free version of file-recovery program Recuva (automatic download from www.snipca.com/18185), select your USB stick and click Scan. Tick the files you need to rescue, then click the Recover button.
USB stick doesn’t appear in Explorer
If you see ‘USB Device Not Recognized’ after inserting your stick, try plugging it into a different USB port. If that does no good, launch Disk Management by pressing Win+R, typing diskmgmt.msc and pressing Enter. Look for a drive labelled ‘Removable’ that matches your stick’s capacity. If it’s listed as ‘Healthy’ and has a ‘Primary’ partition, then Windows might have failed to assign it a drive letter. Right-click the partition then choose ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’. Now click Add and choose a drive letter. If it doesn’t appear in Disk Management then press Win+R, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. Double-click both Disk Drives and ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ and look for entries with a yellow triangle. Right-click any you find, choose Properties, note the error message in ‘Device status’ then search Google to investigate the problem.
USB stick won’t work in your TV
Many modern TVs have USB ports and will play video files straight from a USB stick – but only if the drive is formatted in a way they’ll recognise. Windows’ preferred file system, NTFS, won’t work with some TVs, so you’ll need to format your USB stick to the older FAT32 file system. Press Win+E to launch Windows/File Explorer, right-click your drive, then choose Format followed by FAT32 from the ‘File system’ menu. Now click Start.
USB stick is write-protected
If you can’t write to your USB stick, look for a physical switch – some devices have tiny toggles that you can flip with a thumbnail or pen tip. If not, a Registry key may have become stuck with the wrong value. Back up your PC, then press Win+R, type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies and look for or create a key called StorageDevicePolicies. In the right-hand pane look for or create a new ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ and call it WriteProtect. If you do need to create a key or value, right-click in the relevant pane, point to New then choose the relevant option. Double-click WriteProtect and set its value to ‘0’.