"We can't find a USB flash drive" is an annoying error that occurs when you upgrade Windows 10 by creating a bootable USB drive with the Windows Media Creation Tool. The strange thing about the Windows media creation tool can't find USB flash drive error in Windows setup is that you can see the USB on your computer, but the system says it's not.
No matter how many times you refresh the drive list, the media creation tool can't find USB. Windows 10 installation has to suspend because you don't have other options to move on unless you can figure out why your USB flash drive is not showing up.
The official Windows Download Tool not recognizing USB Drive
Worry not for this error. We're going to share some experience in troubleshooting the Windows media creation tool "We can't find a USB flash drive. Windows 10 setup error 64-bit or 32-bit". The full explanations of all the solutions are below.
Some users have also reported that they encountered a media creation tool can't find USB issue exclusively with SanDisk USB drive. So, you can use different USB flash drives, like Lexar and Toshiba, if it's the SanDisk USB flash drive that Windows Media Creation Tool can't find even on several computers.
If there are bad sectors on your USB drive, we can't find a USB flash drive problem that could still appear. You can use a professional partition tool - EaseUS Partition Master to check and repair the file system to troubleshoot.
EaseUS disk management tool provides full-around partition solutions for both beginners and experts. You can use it to create a partition, resize/move the partition (allocate space from D drive to C drive), merge/wipe/format partition, clone disk, wipe data, and so on.
Before creating the bootable USB drive, the installer formats the USB. It can also cause we can't find a USB flash drive problem if the formatting goes wrong. In this case, reformat your USB and check if the Windows media creation tool can recognize the USB.
If the USB flash drive is set as the primary drive, it will not show up in the drive list. Then, you will get a Windows media creation tool can't find USB error. It is also possible that the USB drive has a primary disk in it.
To create a bootable USB drive to upgrade Windows 10, you can use some simple utilities instead of the Windows media creation tool. Rufus helps to format and create a bootable USB drive in an easy way.
In addition, you can try updating the USB driver in the Device Manager, checking the file system, reformatting the USB drive, as well as checking the primary partition, and applying another tool to create Windows 10 installation bootable USB.
"Anybody can help me? I'm trying to create a bootable USB drive using Windows 10 media creation tool, it keeps saying USB cannnot be found, I've tried it on my other laptop and get the same results, in fact, My Windows file explorer could see my USB drive but creation tool will not find it." - Kate.
Media Creation Tool is generated by Microsoft and has been considered as one of the most popular tools to download Windows system and create a bootable USB/DVD automatically. It provides ability to restore your Windows system if fails to boot Windows, upgrade the installed system and fix the booting errors after after installing a Windows update. But users describe their results so far as "encouraging, but not perfect". Continue reading.
Media creation tool faces this problem if the partition type is set to GPT. This happens even when users format the USB drive to FAT32 with sufficient storage space. GPT disk is comparatively advanced than MBR disk which triggers most users to initialize their USB drive to the former for availing its complete benefits. You can use the Diskpart command to convert the GPT disk to MBR without any data loss. If you have been facing USB not found error, then you can easily convert your GPT disk to MBR for resolving the same.
For this you will have to first download Windows 10 Media Tool in the same USB which you wish to use as the installation media. You will be required to copy it to your USB if the tool is already downloaded in your computer. Next you will have to directly run the tool from the same USB for creating a bootable USB or installation media. This solution often gets tried out by users in the search of a solution without actually knowing the reasons behind the problem and the corresponding solution mechanism.
Because Windows 10 creation tool won't won't recognize any usb 2.0 flash drives, so, you can try to update your USB drive via the device manager. If you still have no luck, you might have to purchase a new USB drive that's a different brand. Don't use the Sandisk as media creation tool doesn't compatible with Sandisk.
If all the solutions can't solve your problem, don't worry. There is always an alternative tool on Windows that can be able to help you create a bootable USB drive so that you can easily reinstall or do a fresh installation of Windows 10, and you will never get any errors during the creation process. It's iSeePassword WiZISO program! It's a reliable program that provides 5 powerful features including ISO burn, ISO Edit, ISO Create, ISO Extract and Copy Disc, each feature could meet your different demands when you're dealing with ISO image file. With the help of this WizISO, users can easily make a Windows 10/8/7 bootable USB drive from ISO on your Windows or Mac OS X, easy and safe.
1To use this program you need to prepare a empty USB drive with at least 8 GB and format it with Windows. Then download and install iSeePassword wizISO program on your computer, (Windows and Mac version are all available). After installation, launch it.
Well, if the Windows 10 media creation tool not recognizing USB drive, don't worry. Just try iSeePassword WizISO tool which makes it pretty easy to creating a bootable USB drive. Please share your experience about how you solve the "Media Creation Tool Not Recognizing USB" issue.
If your computer does not support Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery, Dell provides operating system recovery image for Windows, Ubuntu, or Linux that was factory installed on your computer. You can download and use the Dell operating system recovery image to perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows, Ubuntu, or Linux on your Dell computer. The Dell OS recovery tool provides an interface to quickly download and create a bootable USB drive to reinstall the operating system.
If you download a large file through a Dell online application (such as the Dell operating system Recovery Tool), you may receive a "Not enough space on drive" error. This is due to a space limitation on the hard drive where the files are being saved to. Some operating system recovery images can be up to 16 GB in file size.
The operating system recovery image may not contain the latest device drivers for your Dell computer. The latest device drivers are available at Dell.com/support/drivers. After the operating system is installed, Dell Technologies recommends that you download and install the latest device drivers.
To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you'll find step-by-step instructions. On that website, you can select a version of Windows and create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. To go directly to one of the versions, select one of these links:
When creating a USB bootable media, many users are troubled by the Windows 10 media creation tool we can't find a USB flash drive error. If you are also trying to fix the issue, this post of MiniTool Partition Wizard is what you need.
The media creation tool is a practical utility that can be used to create a bootable USB drive for reinstalling or upgrading Windows 10. However, a lot of users encounter the Windows 10 we can't find a USB flash drive error in the Setup screen. Here is a true example from the answer.microsoft forum:
According to user reports, the Windows 10 media creation tool we can't find a USB flash drive error often appears on the Select a USB flash drive screen. No matter how many times they click on Refresh drive list, the Windows 10 setup not finding USB error still pops up. The strange thing is that the USB flash drive can be seen in the File Explorer or Disk Management.
As mentioned above, the associated USB driver issues are responsible for Windows 10 media creation tool we can't find a USB flash drive. To resolve the problem, connect the USB to your computer and follow the steps below to update related USB drivers.
Step 2. To create a bootable USB from the ISO, you need to use a professional ISO burn tool like Rufus. Click here to open the official website of Rufus, then download and install it on your Windows 10 PC.
Step 4. Now, the tool will automatically detect the USB drive. Click on Select to choose the ISO file you downloaded, and then you can specify the partition scheme and label. After that, click on START to start creating a bootable USB from the ISO file.
It your machine's USB ports are still usable, suggest you try connect with external cable keyboard and cable mouse before pressing power button. After those external devices can be detected, proceed the installation and then we can troubleshoot within Windows 10 UI later on. Once you have the Windows 10 logic, go to Lenovo website to download their latest device driver and test. Good Luck.
I just had this same issue. I chose to do a reset of a Lenovo mini and mouse and keyboard wouldn't work at the set up portion. Works in Bios though. Anyway, the solution for me was to install windows from a USB drive.
Diskpart is a tool built-into the Windows operating system which helps users manage disks and partitions installed on it. It can help you manage, rename, or format the drivers you have connected to your computer.
You can use this tool easily to prepare your USB drive for the installation. The cleaning process is somewhat different than the usual formatting so we recommend you try out this method. However, you will have to be extremely careful when locating the name and the number next to your USB drive! 2ff7e9595c
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