I bought a Lenovo T7 desktop from a used-equipment sale after a college shut down. It works well for video editing, photo editing, and some gaming, but none of the USB ports will recognize devices used for data transfer. My keyboard, mouse, and Xbox controller work normally, but a portable Samsung SSD, SD card reader, phone, and camera either go completely undetected or only charge without transferring data. I've tried several fixes and even considered reinstalling Windows, but the built-in recovery process asks for a USB drive—which the computer currently cannot recognize. Could the previous owner have disabled USB storage, and what's the best way to reset or reinstall the system?
2 Answers
Use another computer to create a bootable Windows installation drive, then boot the Lenovo from it and perform a clean installation. During setup, delete the existing Windows partitions and install to the unallocated space. This avoids relying on the installed recovery environment and may remove software policies that are blocking USB storage.
Since this came from a college, USB mass-storage access may have been disabled through Windows policy or firmware. A clean install is also strongly recommended for any used computer, both to remove old management settings and to protect your data. Check Device Manager while connecting a drive to see whether it appears under Disk drives or Universal Serial Bus controllers, possibly with a warning icon.
It doesn’t appear at all when I connect a drive. I also haven’t wiped the system yet—how can I reset it if the recovery tool requires a USB drive?
That makes sense. I’ll create the installer on another computer and try booting the Lenovo directly from it.