Unable to Connect to any External Drives

Win 11 Pro 64 bit 24H2
Dell Precision Laptop

Windows no longer connects to any external drives. They show up in Device Manager, but are not detected by windows explorer, or disk manager virtual disk manager despite numerous scans. I've tried plugging in to every USB port on the machine without success. Rebooting didn't help. I did a Repair Install using Windows Update, but I still can't connect to Flashdrives, Solid State, or any External HDDs.

First, how many external drives do you have plugged in? If more than one, disconnect all external devices INCLUDING any usb hubs. Plug in one flash drive directly into usb port.. Is that drive recognized and accessible?
If it is, IMO it would point to a power issue ie:not enough power from PS to run multiple drives OR if you've been using a hub, it will have to be a powered hub to provide power to the usb devices connected to it..

Remove all external drives. Go to Device Manager>click view>click show hidden devices. Non-present devices appear with a ghosted icon. Expand the "Disk drive" section. To manually remove these ghost devices, Right-click on each non-present device and select ‘Uninstall’ in the fly-out menu.

Do the same thing for "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" category and "Universal serial bus devices"

OR
You can use a tool to remove them all at once. Remove "Ghost Devices" from Device Manager...

Restart computer. Plug in flash drive again. Is it recognized?

Good advice.

Also, check Disk Management to see if they're recognised and assigned a drive letter

… and, just make sure this is all in order

When I finally got back to this computer today, BitDefender was scanning a "new drive" that it had detected. This was the sole external drive that I had left plugged in when I abandoned this computer last night. I wondered if it would eventually detect it without further messing around...

Nothing other than the Browser window was visible on the screen. Using a keyboard shortcut I opened Task Manager. No instance of Win File Manager was running. After clicking show hidden devices, Device Manager showed no ghosts. Following a reboot, the system now appears normal and file manager detects and properly displays my SS ext drive.

File Manager seems to have caused this issue IMO. I don't like it when things fix themselves, so I consider this as an ongoing problem and I'm keeping an eye out for any abnormalities....

Thanks to all who responded, and any additional suggestions to prevent a reoccurance are greatly appreciated.

antspants said:

Good advice.

Also, check Disk Management to see if they're recognised and assigned a drive letter

Click to expand...

After several scans yesterday, DM still did not find any external drives.

Ed McCauley said:

When I finally got back to this computer today, BitDefender was scanning a "new drive" that it had detected.

Click to expand...

Hi, Ed

If this happens again or is still happening. Disable or uninstall BitDefender. Turn on Windows Security for protection for the interim.

Reboot without BitDefender active, see if the drives show.

antspants said:

Hi, Ed

If this happens again or is still happening. Disable or uninstall BitDefender. Turn on Windows Security for protection for the interim.

Reboot without BitDefender active, see if the drives show.

Click to expand...

Is this type of failure known to occur with BD?

Ed McCauley said:

Is this type of failure known to occur with BD?

Click to expand...

I did read of some instances. Here is one mention of it from Feb 19th.

Google something like: BitDefender preventing file explorer from seing new (or just) external drives

I uninstalled BitDefender Total and the problem was gone.

Click to expand...

antspants said:

I did read of some instances. Here is one mention of it from Feb 19th.

Google something like: BitDefender preventing file explorer from seing new (or just) external drives

External hdd (external hard disk - drive) USB Drive can't be viewed in windows explorer.

External hdd (external hard disk - drive) USB drive can't be viewed in windows explorer. The disk can't be ejected. Forces a hard reset of the pc.

community.bitdefender.com

Click to expand...

That sounds exactly like my experience. Thanks--I think you nailed it.