This tutorial will show you how to see the history of all USB storage devices ever connected to your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC.
When a USB storage device is connected to your computer, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR key is created in the registry.
Each USB drive will have its own subkey created under the USBSTOR key with details about the drive. Each will have a FriendlyName property to make it easier to ID the USB drive.
This information provides you a history of all USB drives that were ever physically connected to your computer.
Reference:
Contents
- Option One: Find USB Drive History in PowerShell
- Option Two: Find USB Drive History in Device Manager
- Option Three: Find USB Drive History in Registry Editor
1 Open Windows Terminal, and select Windows PowerShell.
2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR\*\*\ | Select FriendlyName3 You will now see the FriendlyName listed of all USB drives ever connected to your PC.
1 Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc).
2 Click/tap on the View tab, and click/tap on Show hidden devices to check it. (see screenshot below)
3 Expand open the Disk drives category to see the friendly name of all drives ever connected to your PC. (see screenshot below)
A drive with a grayed out icon is a hidden device not currently connected.
1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshots below step 5)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR
3 Expand open the USBSTOR key in the left pane to see a list of all USB storage devices ever connected to the PC.
4 Expand open a listed USB storage device, and click/tap on its subkey (ex: "000016A29874B745&0").
5 In the right pane of the subkey (ex: "000016A29874B745&0"), you will see the FriendlyName string value (REG_SZ) for the name of the USB storage device.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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