USB Memory Stick/HDD Issues

Hi,

Just recently started using Windows 8 PRo.....I have a couple of usb keys that can no longer be used by Windows 8, however they work fine in a Windows 7 laptop.

They are detected in disk management, but are marked as unknown, I have tried to add them manually, but I get a Device Not Ready error....This is happening on a few different keys but not all of them.

Any suggestions folks?

my problem seems very similar to this

I too have a similar problem. Just tried to connect my USB 3 Sony 500GB HDD and won't recognise but fine in Windows 7 machine. Ridiculous the problems Windows 8 is coming up with!

Are they formatted to NTFS or FAT32?

Mine are FAT32. It is now not just limited to my Sony USB 3 HDD but also my Buffalo 1TB HDD and WD Passport 500 GB USB 2 drives won't recognise when attached. They are there in device manager and have tried to uninstall / scan for hardware changes and also tried the auto fix which was found in another post here. I intend to clean install this weekend and if this problem is still evident or the problem I have with the browser (different post) I will revert back to Windows 7. Had enough of Windows 8 - too many bugs.

Found a fix elsewhere and tried it with success. Firstly, in desktop mode, selected Manage from My Computer. This brings up Computer Management. Select Storage and Disk Management. Here you should see your drive. Select and right click to assign a drive letter. Once this is assigned explorer should open a new window (did for me each time) with the drive contents available.

Only issue is that I had to apply three different drive letters - in my case L, M & N - for each device to work independently. I did try assigning one letter but it seems to 'stick' to the last device used so you have to access disk management each time to get the drive working again. This way, I can connect all three separate HDDs and have all three open to copy data to and from.

Hope this helps anyone else having similar issues with devices connected but not seemingly 'working'.

Update: Still having browser problems so did a clean install Saturday 17 November. Following this installation, including installation of all available Windows 8 updates, no problems experienced with all three external HDDs. All now happy to share 'G' drive allocation done by Windows rather than me setting this.

stupid upgrade function.. Window 8 is a very, very good OS, but should only be installed by a clean install.

try running the windows update of windows 8

i had a problem before close to this one, after i upgrade to windows 8 my usb keyboard and mouse didn't work properly(i thought usb ports needs some updates) then i run w.update
after running the windows update they did work fine again