Finding the USB Storage Drives Ever Connected to Your Computer

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Do you know Windows actually keeps a history of all USB drives ever connected to your computer? Every time you plug in a USB device into your computer, Windows not only installs the drive and gets it ready for you to use but also writes an entry into the system to keep a history of what’s happened.

You can check those hidden unconnected USB devices by turning on Show hidden devices in Device Manager.

Device Manager show hidden devices 2 - Finding the USB Storage Drives Ever Connected to Your Computer

Or use tools such as NirSoft’s USBDeview that displays such a history in a more comprehensive way.

NirSoft USBDeview 600x329 - Finding the USB Storage Drives Ever Connected to Your Computer

Or, in a PowerShell way, which is pretty cool:

$Path = 'HKLM:\System\Current\Enum\USBStor\*\*'

Get-ItemProperty -Path $Path | Select-Object -Property FriendName, CompatibleIDs, Mfg

PowerShell list usb drives 600x236 - Finding the USB Storage Drives Ever Connected to Your Computer

Basically, what it does is to perform a query to a Registry entry that stores all USB storage connection information, and list them with specified columns. Not sure how much of a value this would give to you but I am sure it would be a good example showing you how much PowerShell can do. Enjoy.

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