Is your Windows 11 PC showing two drives when you connect a USB drive? Would you like to see one drive when you connect a USB drive? Read on to know why a USB drive shows up as two drives and how to fix it.
Why does a USB drive show up as two drives?
A USB drive connected to a PC or Mac shows up as two drives because there are multiple partitions on it. If you are wondering, it’s possible to create partitions on a USB drive as well.
In short, when there are two partitions in a USB drive, Windows 11 File Explorer shows two partitions. Simple as that!
IMPORTANT: Back up all data from the USB drive before trying out the solutions below, as these solutions require erasing the drive or deleting partitions, which cause data loss.
Delete partitions and create new via Disk Management
Step 1: Ensure the USB drive is connected to your Windows PC.
Step 2: Right-click the Start/Windows logo button on the taskbar and then click Disk Management to open the same.
Step 3: In the Disk Management window, locate the USB drive. The number of partitions appears next to the USB drive’s entry. A “Removable” text appears for the USB drive which should help you identity the USB drive.
Step 4: Right-click one of the partitions of the USB drive and then click Delete Volume. Once again, ensure that you are deleting a partition from the USB drive only.
Step 5: Click the Yes button when you see the confirmation dialog to delete the selected partition.
Step 6: Next, right-click on the other partition on the USB drive and then click Delete Volume. Click Yes when you get the prompt. This should delete all partitions on the USB drive.
Step 7: Now that you have deleted both the partitions, it’s time to create a new one. Right-click on the unallocated space and then click New Simple Volume.
Step 8: Click the Next button. Click the Next button again when you see the Specify Volume Size dialog.
Step 9: Click the Next button when you get the Assign Drive Letter or Path. Here, if you wish to change the default drive letter, you may select an available one.
Step 10: Finally, select NTFS or FAT32 as the file system and then click the Next button.
Step 11: Click the Finish button to create a single partition on the USB drive. From now onwards, the USB drive will show up as a single drive.
Delete partitions and create a new one on the USB drive using Command Prompt in Windows
Step 1: Search for Command Prompt in the Start or taskbar search, right-click on its entry, and then click the Run as administrator option to run Command Prompt as administrator.
Click the Yes button when you get the User Account Control prompt or type the admin password if asked to do so.
Step 2: At the Command Prompt window, type the following commands and press the Enter key after typing each command to execute it.
Step 3: diskpart
list disk
The Command Prompt will now display all connected internal and external drives to your PC, including the USB drive. Identify the USB drive that’s showing up as two drives.
Note that selecting the wrong drive will erase all data on it. Proceed only if you are sure.
Step 4: Type select disk # and then press enter key. Here, replace # with the number shown by the Command Prompt for your USB drive in the previous step. For instance, if your USB drive number is 2, then the command would be select disk 2.
Press the Enter key to execute it.
Step 5: Type clean and then press the Enter key.
Step 6: Type create partition primary and press Enter.
Step 7: Next, we need to set a drive letter to the created partition by typing the assign letter=X command. Here, you may replace the letter “X” with something like D, E, or any other drive letter that is unused.
Step 8: Next, you need to format the partition created in the previous step. Type, format fs=ntfs quick or format fs=fat32 quick and then press the Enter key. That’s it! You may exit the Command Prompt window once you see the “100 percent completed” message.
In addition to these methods, you can also use third-party tools to delete partitions and create new partitions on USB drives.
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