Fix: Flash Drive Blinking Red But Not Working In Windows 10

Why Is Flash Drive Blinking Red but Not Working?

Most of the Flash Drives come with an indicating light mounted on their external body, and the light is configured to blink, stay on or change colors as per the functioning. The role of the light is to either keep you updated on the successful data transfer taking place between the drive and other systems or to inform you of an error occurring inside the mechanism of the drive.

When your flash drive is blinking in a uniform motion, it means that your flash drive is working normally. However, when your flash drive instantly starts blinking faster, suddenly stops blinking or starts blinking red, which is not it’s a normal color pattern. It might mean something is wrong with the drive and below are several possible causes:

1. USB device drivers error: This issue could also occur if the USB device drivers of your operating software are not installed or updated or fail to install correctly when you plug in that Lexar flash drive.
2. Connection issues with the system: The red light may stay on because of some error in communication resulting from the improper connection. The flash drive may not be inserted into the port correctly. Furthermore, the USB ports may get clogged with dirt and fluff or even stop working altogether if the system is old and unclean.
3. Faulty flash drive: There may be a good chance that the flash drive you are using is old, jagged, and has failed to respond due to malfunction. If you have correctly plugged the drive into the USB ports of different systems and the Lexar flash drive red light stays on, the device can be faulty itself.

Methods to Fix Flash Drive Blinking Red But Not Working

Method 1: Try Another USB Port

Sometimes when your drive is blinking red but not working properly, it might be an issue with the USB Port of your system to which the drive is plugged.

So, you need to plug out the flash drive from a USB port it’s plugged into, and then try another USB port. If it still doesn’t work, you can try to check your USB flash drive by connecting it to another computer.

Method 2: Update device driver

An outdated device driver is also likely to be the reason why your USB flash drive is blinking red but not working. Therefore, updating your device driver is also a solution worth trying.

1. Connect the USB flash drive to the PC, right-click on This PC and choose Properties.
2. Click Device Manager then expand Disk drives. Find and right-click the problematic USB drive and select Update driver.
3. Click Search automatically for updated driver software.
4. Wait for the driver to be updated, then reboot your computer. Afterward, you can try to reconnect your USB flash drive to your PC and check whether the USB drive shows up or not.

Method 3: Clear Virus

If the flash drive is infected with a virus, there is also a chance that its light is blinking red but not working. Therefore, you can run a reliable anti-virus program to check the disk for the virus. If some viruses are found, clean up them as soon as possible. If not, proceed to the next method.

Method 4: Change Registry

Editing the Registry settings can also prove to be a lifesaver in such situations.

1. Search for Regedit through the search panel on your Home screen. Now, navigate to the Registry Editor and enter into the window.
2. Inside the Registry Editor, open the folders one by one on the left panel: Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > USBSTOR
3. Now, on the right panel, right-click Start and choose Modify.
4. In the popup menu, change the Value Data to 3 and click OK
5. Now, try to connect your Flash Drive and see if the issue is resolved or not.

Method 5: Manual Repair

If your USB flash drive remained unresponded to the fixes above, I’m afraid there are physical corruptions on your device. In such a case, sending your device for manual repair is recommended. Is your device still under warranty? If so, you can get it replaced.

Friendly Reminder

The issue itself isn’t a big problem, but the potential risk of data loss matters. So in addition to the above five methods to fix the flash drive blinking red but not working issue, we recommend you to back up the important data of your flash drive regularly. Besides, if unfortunately, you really lost your data, Bitwar Data Recovery will help you recover the deleted or lost data of the flash drive.