How to "eject" non-existing USB drive from Windows 7 host?
Steps to remove "ghost" devices from a system
Open command prompt (CMD) and do the following steps (type the following without quotes):
- type "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1"
- type "start devmgmt.msc" Device manager should open.
- select "view -> hidden devices"
- open up "disk drives"
-
Remove any faded out items which match with your USB drive's identifier
Reboot is not necessary in most cases, but might be a good idea.
Plug the device to different USB port. Then Windows realizes it's indeed a newly plugged device, and the old ghost gets banished.