Windows 11 only allowing access to first partition on USB sticks

Aenfa · Sep 27, 2023

Windows 10 has allowed access to all partitions on USB sticks since the Creators Update but Windows 11 seems to have gone back to only allowing access to the first partition. Only first partition show up in File Explorer and no way of mounting the other partitions using Disk Management as all the options are greyed out when right clicking them.

Does anyone else have this problem and is there any way to fix this so all partitions on USB sticks are accessible just like it was in Windows 10 since the Creators Update?

Bree · Sep 27, 2023

Aenfa said:
Windows 10 has allowed access to all partitions on USB sticks since the Creators Update but Windows 11 seems to have gone back to only allowing access to the first partition. Only first partition show up in File Explorer and no way of mounting the other partitions using Disk Management as all the options are greyed out when right clicking them.

Does anyone else have this problem and is there any way to fix this so all partitions on USB sticks are accessible just like it was in Windows 10 since the Creators Update?

I can see both partitions on the removable USB stick, Disk 1 below. There may be something about the way your partitions are set up, post a screenshot of your Disk Management.

Berton · Sep 27, 2023

I also have no issue with 2 or more partitions on a USB Thumb/Flash or External HDD but they do have to be formatted and assigned a drive letter in Disk Management before File Explorer and older Windows Explorer can see them.

Aenfa · Sep 28, 2023

The strange thing is that it shows up exactly the same in Windows 10 Disk Management as it does in W11 yet W10 mounts them all so they are accessible. The stick was partitioned using Linux. It looks like Linux has partitioned it in such a way that Disk Management doesn't see them properly. The last partition is exFAT while the others are Linux formatted.

Bree · Sep 28, 2023

Aenfa said:
The strange thing is that it shows up exactly the same in Windows 10 Disk Management as it does in W11 yet W10 mounts them all so they are accessible.

Make sure that automatic mounting is enabled for your W11 machine.

Enable or Disable Automatic Mounting of New Drives in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the automatic mounting and assigning of a drive letter when a new drive is connected for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows will automatically mount new basic volumes that are added to the system, and assign them drive letters by...

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Berton · Sep 28, 2023

I use GPARTED on my Linux for managing partitioning and Windows does have issues with most of the formats it can do. GPARTED can do FAT32 in larger drives than 32GB of Windows, have an HDD at 500GB FAT32. Large drives on Windows seem to be best with NTFS or exFAT, my WD My Book 4TB drives came packaged as usable on PC and Macintosh and formatted as exFAT. Mac OS X and maybe newer macOS has issues with NTFS, read but can't write without adding another app. Mac OS X format on mine was HPFS.