
If you are trying to connect your mobile or external device to your Windows 10 computer but suddenly encountered an error saying, “A device attached to the system is not functioning”, read on as this post will guide you on how you can resolve this error using a couple of potential fixes. In this case, it is possible that the connected device is not working for some reason and this error pops up when you connect your device or when you try to move or copy files from your computer to your external device and vice versa.
As you can see, the error message is pretty straightforward, and it mostly occurs when you connect plug and play devices such as USB drives, printers, external storage devices, and many more. And when you open the Device Manager to check the device, you will most likely see a yellow exclamation mark on the device which indicates that the device is currently having problems. To fix this problem, there are several options you can check out. You need to check the status of the device or check the compatibility between the external device and the drive types. You also have to make sure that the device is connected properly or check if the device has been formatted properly. For more details, follow the given suggestions below.
The first thing you can do to get rid of the error is to check the status of the external device, especially if it’s a plug-and-play device. So when your computer boots, check if it is able to detect the device or not.
As you know, when you connect an external device to your computer, Windows installs drivers to communicate with the device, the same way as any hardware you connect to the motherboard and if the driver ends up getting corrupted or is incompatible, then you need to update the device driver. To do that, follow the steps below.
Note: If updating the device drivers didn’t work, you can try to reinstall them instead.
The first thing you have to do before you further troubleshoot the problem is to check the hardware connections of your computer and see if there are damaged ones, just like with USB ports, it would also affect the overall connectivity of the device with the computer. So if you notice some irregularities in the connecting cable physically, you might have to buy another one and replace it and then see if it fixes the problem or not.
You might also want to check if the external device is properly formatted especially if you’ve recently formatted it. If a device wasn’t formatted properly, then it’s no wonder why you’re getting the “A device attached to the system is not functioning” error. To fix this, you need to use Disk Management. From there, you can find the devices connected but are not visible. If you are using an admin account, then to fix this error, you have the option to format the drive or create new partitions using the interface. Once you do this, it should resolve the problem.
If a third party program like antivirus is the one that’s causing the problem, you can try to put your computer in a Clean Boot State to isolate the issue by following these steps:
/c ren %systemroot%System32Spupdsvc.exe Spupdsvc.old
Customers will most likely encounter the “We couldn’t update system reserved partition” error when upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This error may also come with error code 0xc1900104 or error code 0x800f0922.
“We couldn’t update system reserved partition” Windows 10 upgrade error is normally caused by too little space on the System Reserved Partition (SRP). The System Reserve Partition is an additional small partition created by Windows, which stores boot files. The SRP can be filled up with security apps and third-party anti-virus. Once this partition has insufficient space, the system will not be able to upgrade to Windows 10.
Caution: The following steps are complex and need to be done by experienced users especially using the command line. Once an error is made in entering commands, there’s a chance that your device can be put in a no-boot situation, or data stored on the device can possibly get lost.
To upgrade to Windows 10, your device needs to have at least 15MB free space on the System Reserved Partition. Follow the procedure below and then try upgrading again.
NOTE: While in Admin mode, some apps like OneNote will not run.
Doing this method will make a permanent, but small increase in the free space of the device’s SRP.
a. Open the Run window by pressing the Windows key + R. Type diskmgmt.msc then hit Enter. b. Select System Reserve partition then right-click on it.
c. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths then select Add.
d. Type Y for the drive letter then click OK.
e. Click on the Start button and search for cmd. In the results, right-click on Command Prompt then choose Run as administrator. The command prompt window will appear.
f. Type Y: at the command prompt then press Enter.
g. Once you’ve switched to drive Y, type takeown /d y /r /f . then hit Enter.
NOTE: Ensure that the space and period after “f” is included in order for the command to work properlyh. Type icacls Y:* /save %systemdrive%NTFSp.txt /c /t then hit Enter to back up the permission to the drive.
NOTE: Ensure that all files are marked as successful and that no files are marked as failed.
i. Type whoami then hit Enter. Record the username that appears. Afterwards, type icacls . /grant <username you got from whoami>:F /t then press Enter.
NOTE: Ensure that there’s no space between the username and “:F” or the command will not work.j. In the File Explorer, open the SRP drive and select the Boot folder. Choose the language folders you want to permanently delete. Language folders are named with four letters split with a hyphen. For example: de-DE is the German language while en-US is the U.S. English language.
2. Truncate the NTFS Log:
a. Open the Command Prompt then type chkdsk /L Y: to check the size of the NTFS Log. If the NTFS Log size is less than 5000KB, you need not truncate the file.
b. Type chkdsk /L:5000 /X /F then hit Enter to truncate the NTFS Log.
c. Return to Disk Management window. Select Action menu then select Check if the device’s SRP now has a larger amount of free space. Once there’s enough space, right click the System Reserve Partition then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Choose Y: then select Remove.
3. If there’s still not enough available space after truncating the NTFS Log, resize the USN journal:
a. Open the command prompt then type fsutil usn queryjournal Y: to display the size in hex value. Convert the hex value to decimal then divide it by 1048576. The result you will get will be in MB. If the journal size is 30MB or more, proceed with truncating the file.
NOTE: To convert the Hex value to Decimal, open the Calculator app in Windows then choose View menu. Select Programmer then choose Hex. Type the Hex value then choose Dec.
b. Type fsutil usn deletejournal /D /N Y: then hit Enter to delete the journal. Type fsutil usn createjournal m=1500 a=1 Y: to recreate the journal having the new log size value.
a. Type icacls Y: /restore %systemdrive%NTFSp.txt /c /t in the Command Prompt. Check if the files were successfully processed before proceeding. If you see a message saying some files failed while processing, this is normal since some of the files have already been deleted before performing a backup. However, if there are no successful files indicated, the command was not properly executed.
b. Type icacls . /grant system:f /t then hit Enter to adjust the ACL back to System. Now, you can set the owner of the drive by typing icacls Y: /setowner “SYSTEM” /t /c then press Enter.
c. Check if the device’s SRP now has enough free space by going back to Disk Management and refreshing the data. If the SRP already has sufficient space, you can now remove the drive letter. Right-click on the System Reserved Partition then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths. Select the Y: drive then choose Confirm deleting the drive letter by clicking OK.
This method makes a larger, but temporary, increase in the SRP free space.
1. Be sure you have an external drive having at least 250 MB free space and formatted as NFTS.2. Open Run by pressing the Windows key + R. Type mscthen to choose the Recovery Partition. Right-click on it then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
3. Select Add then type Y for the drive letter, click
4. Click on the Start screen then type cmd in the search bar. In the results, right-click on Command Prompt then choose Run as administrator. The command prompt window will appear.
5. Switch to another drive by typing Y: in the command prompt. Once you’re in the drive Y, type takeown /d y /r /f .
NOTE: Ensure that space and period after “f” are included in order for the command to work properly.
One common issue when trying to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8 is incompatible software. Any installed software or app that isn’t compatible with Windows 10 will prevent you from continuing with the set-up. Normally, you’ll get an error message “What needs your attention” and it will ask you to uninstall a list of apps manually. Unfortunately, some users reported that they couldn’t find the app it asks to uninstall. In some cases, users said they’ve already uninstalled the app but it still won’t start the Windows 10 Setup.
This type of issue normally occurs because of the following:
Here are some steps you can take whenever you encounter this error.
Note: Before taking any steps, make sure that you’re highly equipped to do so. Some steps might affect the system and even do more damage to your computer. You might also want to consider using an automated tool instead.
A clean boot is normally done to start Windows using the least set of drivers and startup programs available. By doing this, it eliminates possible software issues that happen when installing or uninstalling a program in Windows 10.
Before performing a clean boot, make sure to take note of the following:
Here are the steps to perform a clean boot.
Instead of using the “add or remove programs” feature in Windows, you might need to manually install the program directly from the C drive. To do this, follow the steps below:
Note: In some cases, you may also need to search for files related to the program. You can use the search bar under Drive C to do this. Delete those files as well.
Before upgrading to Windows 10, create a new user account. Make sure it has administrative privileges. From there, run the upgrade.
If you still can’t run Windows 10 Setup after the above methods, you might need to rely on a third-party service. Microsoft recommends Revouninstaller that can help you.
Before using this software, reinstall the application or utility that Windows 10 wants you to install. Then, use Revouninstaller to delete the program completely.
Some users who experienced this issue reported that it was solved after disabling or completely uninstalling the anti-virus software installed in their system.
If after trying the above methods, the problem still persists, it might be best to use a trusted automated tool to fix the issue.