No Media Error – Windows

 If you use external hard drives on a regular basis, you might face the “No Media Error”. This error can occur at any time without any warning even if your external hard drive worked fine the last time you used it. Basically, your external hard drive, USB Flash Drive or SD Card doesn’t show up on the computer when you connect it.

There are a lot of things that can cause this issue and that is why there is a wide range of solutions available out there. It can be because of the corrupted drivers, faulty port, less power in the port and several other things causing the issue.

Some Errors Message:

External hard drive says no media in Disk Management

USB no media

In order to fix the USB no media issue, we need to understand what could have caused this problem first. This will help you analyze the issue on your own and you can easily avoid these triggers ahead as well. Mostly, the USB drive no media error is caused by these problems.

• It can be infected by a malware or virus.
• The USB drive can have a bad sector or a corrupt storage.
• Any other logical or physical issue with the USB drive.
• You could have removed the USB drive while the computer was still accessing it.
• The file system or the index table in the drive can also be corrupted.
• The Master Boot Record or the Partition Boot Record in the device could be compromised.
• The media could have exhausted its read/write cycle.
• The USB drive could be write-protected or have restricted settings.

HOW TO FIX No Media ERROR in Windows

Fix Error #1: Change USB port

When the USB flash drive shows as no media Error in the Disk Management, you can first try to change the USB port and reconnect it to your PC via a new USB port.

1. Unplug the USB from your computer correctly.
2. Reconnect the USB flash drive to your PC with a new USB port.
3. Check if the Disk Management can detect your USB flash drive as a normal removable disk.

If the front USB ports did not solve the problem, it might be an insufficient power supply. Try to connect the USB drive to the Internal USB port in the computer’s motherboard, where the power supply is much higher.

Fix Error #2: Enable/Reinstall in Device Manager

1. Also, press Win + X to load the power user menu. Then select Device Manager.
2. Locate your USB flash drive under the Universal Serial Bus Controller with the name USB Mass Storage.
3. If it’s marked with a red mark or an arrow mark, right-click on it and select Enable. If no red mark or arrow is found, the drive has already been marked. At this time, select Uninstall from the context menu, remove the USB drive and re-plug in. By doing these the driver will be re-installed.
4. Reboot the computer and reconnect the USB flash drive to your PC. Then you can check if the removable disk is still shown as No Media.

Fix Error #3: Change drive letter 

Although no partition can be found on the USB drive, you will see a drive letter is assigned to the whole drive. Now you can try changing the drive letter and then run CHKDSK to repair hard drive errors.

PART 1: Change USB Driver Letter

1. Run diskmgmt.msc to load Disk Management from the Windows Start menu.
2. Right-click on the USB flash drive which shows no media there and select Change Drive Letter and Paths…
3. Click Change in the next pop-up window to set a new drive letter to the USB flash drive.
4. Click OK to confirm the operation.

PART 2: Run CHKDSK to Repair USB Errors

1. At the power user menu, Run Command Prompt as Administrator and allow its changes to your PC.
2. Step 2. In the Command prompt window, type chkdsk M: /R  and hit Enter. (Replace M: with the drive letter of your own USB flash drive.)
3. Step 3. Let the process run and check if it shows up as a regular storage device on your PC or not when the progress is finished.

Fix Error #4: Scan and RepairErrors

In case that the USB drive might have been infected by viruses, try this way to repair it:

1. In Windows Disk Management or Windows File Explorer, right-click on the partition of the no media USB drive and select Properties.
2. Approach to Tools and then click the Check button located under Error checking.
3. In the next window, you will be given the instruction on whether you need to take further steps to scan and repair the drive.