# Card Reader Not Appearing as a Windows Drive



## TrashShooter (Sep 26, 2021)

I just purchased a Canon 1DX Mark III and yesterday was my first opportunity to shoot with CFExpress cards. Since my card reader hasn't arrived yet, I borrowed on from another photographer at the game. The USB ports are fine as they work with all other readers and USB devices. The card reader (Hoodman Steel) lights up when connected to the USB port but Windows (10) isn't recognizing the card. When I look at the drives in "My Computer" it doesn't even appear as the card reader is there. The card reader is operational as my colleague could attach it to his Windows 10 pc and it would see the cards but when another colleague tried it on their Windows 10 pc, she experienced the same issue as me. 

I've rebooted the PC, reformatted the CFExpress cards, tried connecting on different USB ports, ran "Find New Hardware" from the laptops Device Manager and no luck. My Windows 10 software is up to date and my firmware version on the camera body is 1.5.0.

Has anyone run into this before?


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## Bennymiata (Sep 27, 2021)

Personally, I always plug the card into the reader before plugging in the card reader.
If I plug the reader into my pc before putting in the card, it will not recognize the card reader.
I don't know if you've tried this, but give it a go.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 27, 2021)

Did he give you the cable that came with the reader? Are you plugged in to a USB 3 port?

High speed card readers can be finicky about your cable, it must be the right type as well as the USB port. They are supposed to be backwards compatible with older ports, but I'd suspect thats the issue.


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## TrashShooter (Sep 27, 2021)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Did he give you the cable that came with the reader? Are you plugged in to a USB 3 port?
> 
> High speed card readers can be finicky about your cable, it must be the right type as well as the USB port. They are supposed to be backwards compatible with older ports, but I'd suspect thats the issue.
> 
> ...


Yes. It's a USB 3.0 port and we used the flat cable that came with it. So confusing..... And I have a feeling that whoever I call for support (Microsoft, Lexar, Hoodman) is going to point at someone else.


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## JPAZ (Sep 27, 2021)

My CFExpress reader was problematic until I went into Windows "Disk Management" and added it as a new drive (I assigned R: to it). Now, I plug in the reader to a USB port, put the card in, and the R: drive immediately appears in file manager. When I am finished, I need to first "close" the card through windows than "disconnect" the drive / reader. Never had to do this with any other camera memory or reader but it really is pretty easy and seem to work well.


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## TrashShooter (Sep 29, 2021)

I got it to work! Just wanted to post what I did although it could have been the different reader (although I don't know why)

1. I updated the bios of the Windows laptop. Its an ASUS UX303UA. (There was a bios update available).
2. After the bios update and searched for updated drivers on the Asus website and found an update for card readers. I ran that. When my card reader arrived today from Amazon, it worked right away. This is the link to Amazon for the reader that worked. https://www.amazon.com/CFexpress-Ad...ndows/Mac/Linux/Android&qid=1632939053&sr=8-1


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