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There are times after I eject a USB Flash drive, I want to copy some more files over to the USB Flash drive. In this case, do I always need to unplug the drive and plug it back in? Is there a way to "reconnect" or "un-eject" the drive?

To eject, that are two ways:

  1. Right click the drive (say H:) and choose Eject
  2. Click "Safely remove hardware" from the icon tool

But there seems to be no way to un-eject or reconnect a drive.

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2 Answers 2

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You need to remount the drive. Depending on the operating system there are several ways to do this.

Assuming Windows:

  1. Right click My Computer and select Properties (or you can simultaneously press Win+Pause/Break key). In System Properties window, go to the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button. In Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can just click the Device Manager link located at the left hand sidebar when you are at the System Properties window.

  2. Click View from the menu bar and select “Devices by Connection“.

  3. Find the parent USB Root Hub of the USB device that has a yellow color exclamation mark. Right click on the USB Root Hub and select Disable. Again right click on the same USB Root Hub that you’ve just disabled and this time select Enable.

    Window

From Remount Ejected or Safely Removed Drive.

A little Google-Fo will yield results for OS X and various Linux distro's.

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  • 4
    note that disabling & re-enabling the Root Hub will reset all devices on that hub -- it will work, but that could be a nasty side effect under some circumstances. if there are other USB drives on that hub, you should eject/unmount them all before performing this procedure. Mar 20, 2010 at 14:18
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    Why is a restart required before this will work? : screenshoot.me/JuItNj
    – Pacerier
    Oct 5, 2011 at 7:23
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    I too get the same dialog box as @Pacerier.
    – HNL
    Dec 22, 2011 at 8:58
  • @HNL exactly, that sorta defeats the purpose
    – Pacerier
    Dec 23, 2011 at 16:43
  • @Pacerier: Maybe you get the restart required message because you're using Win XP and Josh K isn't.
    – martineau
    Sep 20, 2012 at 17:40
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A reboot is required with Windows 7, simply logging off and back on isn't sufficient. Given than, what not save time and just reboot without the above procedure?

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