Here's the situation: you need to find USB VID PID for your flash drive and you've been clicking around Device Manager for ten minutes getting nowhere. The identifiers are there. Windows just makes it genuinely awkward to find them, and if something has gone wrong with enumeration, they might not show up at all. This guide goes through the actual steps in order, from the most common mistake (wrong Device Manager entry) through to driver fixes and hardware diagnosis.

TL;DR

To find USB VID PID, open Device Manager, right-click your drive under Disk drives or USB Mass Storage Device under Universal Serial Bus controllers, choose Properties, open the Details tab, and select Hardware Ids. If you see VID_0000 or Code 43, you have an enumeration failure. Switch ports, uninstall the device, reboot, and recheck. If it still fails on a second PC, the drive hardware is likely gone.

⏰️ 13 min read ✅ 80% success rate 📅 Updated August 2026

Key Takeaways

To find USB VID PID, look under Hardware Ids in the Details tab, not the General tab.
VID_0000&PID_0000 means Windows failed to read the device descriptor. It is not the real ID.
Code 43 (Device Descriptor Request Failed) is fixable by uninstalling the device and re-enumerating after a reboot.
Rear motherboard ports enumerate USB far more reliably than front-panel headers or cheap hubs.
If the drive never shows a proper hardware ID on any PC, the controller is likely dead.

At a Glance

Difficulty: Intermediate
Time Required: 15 to 30 mins
Success Rate: Around 80% for software-side failures

What Stops You From Being Able to Find USB VID PID

The most common reason people can't find USB VID PID is simply that they're looking at the wrong Device Manager entry. This happens a lot. Windows splits the USB drive across two separate nodes: one under Disk drives (which shows the drive's friendly name, like "SanDisk Ultra") and one under Universal Serial Bus controllers (which shows "USB Mass Storage Device"). The Hardware Ids, which contain the actual VID and PID strings, live in the Details tab of either of those entries. But if you right-click the drive in File Explorer and look at properties there, you'll never see them. That's not where they live.

The second cause is a genuine USB enumeration failure. When Windows plugs in a USB device, it sends a request to read the device descriptor, which is a small block of data the drive's controller sends back containing the vendor ID, product ID, and revision. If that read fails, Windows gives up and logs a placeholder: USB\VID_0000&PID_0000 or sometimes USB\UNKNOWN. You'll also see this alongside a Code 43 error in Device Manager, officially called "Device Descriptor Request Failed". That's not your real VID and PID. It means the drive didn't respond correctly.

Enumeration failures have a few causes. A dodgy USB port (especially a front-panel header that shares bandwidth or has a loose connector) is the most common culprit. Cheap unpowered hubs are another. But sometimes it's the drive itself: a worn or physically damaged connector, a failing flash controller, or firmware corruption. The distinction matters because port and driver problems are fixable in software. A dead controller is not.

Driver problems also play a role. An outdated or corrupted USB Mass Storage Device driver can prevent Windows from completing enumeration even when the hardware is fine. And occasionally, leftover ghost entries from old USB devices confuse Windows into assigning the wrong driver instance to a new device. Clearing those out (covered in the advanced section below) often sorts it.

According to Microsoft's USB identifier documentation, the hardware ID string format is USB\VID_v(4)&PID_d(4), where v(4) is the four-digit hex vendor code and d(4) is the four-digit hex product code. So USB\VID_0781&PID_5581 would be a SanDisk drive. That's the string you're looking for.

Find USB VID PID: Quick Fix via Device Manager

Start here. This takes five minutes and fixes the problem for the majority of people who just haven't found the right place to look.

Check Hardware Ids in Device Manager Easy

Open Device Manager
Press Windows + X and click Device Manager from the menu.
Expand the right sections
Click the arrow next to Disk drives and also expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Your USB flash drive will appear in one or both. Under Disk drives it shows a friendly name. Under USB controllers it shows as "USB Mass Storage Device".
Open Properties on the correct entry
Right-click the USB Mass Storage Device entry (or your drive name under Disk drives) and choose Properties.
Go to the Details tab
Click the Details tab at the top. In the Property dropdown, select Hardware Ids.
Read your VID and PID
You'll see one or more strings like USB\VID_0781&PID_5581&REV_0100. The four characters after VID_ are your Vendor ID. The four after PID_ are your Product ID.

You've found your USB hardware IDs. Copy them from this field directly.

If you see multiple entries under USB Mass Storage Device, check each one. Unplug the drive and see which entry disappears. That's yours.

If the Hardware Ids field shows USB\VID_0000&PID_0000 or the entry has a yellow warning triangle, you have an enumeration failure. Move on to the intermediate fixes below.

More Ways to Find USB VID PID: Port and Driver Fixes

These are the fixes that sort out the majority of enumeration failures. The goal is to get Windows to successfully read the device descriptor so it can report the real VID and PID rather than placeholders. Plan for 15 to 30 minutes here.

Switch USB Ports and Remove Hubs Easy

Unplug the drive completely
Remove it from the current port.
Remove any hub or extension cable
Plug the drive directly into the PC. On a desktop, use a rear motherboard port, not a front-panel header. Front-panel USB headers are often underpowered and share bandwidth in ways that cause descriptor read failures.
Reopen Device Manager and recheck Hardware Ids
Follow the steps in Solution 1 again. A proper VID and PID string should now appear.

Hardware Ids now shows a real VID and PID string. You're done.

Uninstall the Failing Device and Re-enumerate Medium

Find the problem entry in Device Manager
Under Universal Serial Bus controllers, look for "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)" or "USB Mass Storage Device" with a yellow triangle showing Code 43. You can read more about Windows error codes like this in the Microsoft Device Manager error code reference.
Uninstall the device
Right-click the entry and choose Uninstall device. Confirm when prompted. Do not tick "Delete the driver software" unless you're sure you want to remove the driver entirely.
Unplug the drive and reboot
Remove the drive, restart Windows fully, then plug the drive back in after the desktop loads. Windows will re-detect it and attempt enumeration fresh.
Recheck Hardware Ids
Go back to Device Manager and check the Details tab again. This one often needs a second reboot before it sticks, so if it still shows VID_0000 after the first restart, reboot once more before assuming it's failed.

Device Manager now shows a proper hardware ID with real VID and PID values.

Power-Cycle the System to Clear USB Bus State Easy

Shut down the PC fully
Not restart. Shut down. On laptops, remove the charger and, if possible, the battery. On desktops, unplug the power cable from the back of the tower.
Wait 30 to 60 seconds
This drains residual power from the USB bus, which can hold a confused device state even after a software reboot.
Boot and reconnect
Power the PC back on, let it reach the desktop, then plug the drive into a rear port and check Hardware Ids in Device Manager.

Enumeration completes correctly and Hardware Ids shows the real VID and PID.

If you're also dealing with driver issues on other devices, our guide on fixing USB driver problems on Windows covers the broader USB stack in more detail.

Advanced: Find USB VID PID When Device Manager Still Fails

If you've tried the above and still can't find USB VID PID, the problem is either a deeper software issue or the drive is genuinely failing. These steps take 30 minutes or more and require PowerShell and some comfort with Device Manager's hidden device view.

Query VID and PID via PowerShell Medium

Open PowerShell as Administrator
Press Windows + X and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) or Terminal (Admin).
Run the query
Paste this command exactly:
Get-WmiObject Win32_PnPEntity | Where-Object { $_.DeviceID -like 'USB\VID_*' } | Select-Object Name, DeviceID
Press Enter.
Read the output
Each row shows a device name and a DeviceID string like USB\VID_0781&PID_5581&REV_0100\.... The VID and PID are right there in that string. This works even when the Device Manager UI is showing confusing or truncated results.

You can see the full VID and PID in the DeviceID column. Copy them from the terminal output.

If the drive shows VID_0000 in PowerShell output too, the descriptor read is genuinely failing. Move to the hardware test below.

Clear Ghost USB Device Entries Medium

Enable hidden devices in Device Manager
In Device Manager, click View then Show hidden devices. Greyed-out entries will now appear.
Uninstall old USB Mass Storage Device entries
Under both Disk drives and Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click each greyed-out USB Mass Storage Device entry and choose Uninstall device. Avoid anything labelled as a hub that's part of your chipset (Intel USB 3.0 Root Hub, for example). Only remove the greyed storage device entries.
Reboot and reconnect
Restart the PC, plug the drive back in, and recheck Hardware Ids in Device Manager.

Old conflicting entries are gone and Windows assigns a clean driver instance to the drive, showing the correct hardware ID.

Test on a Second PC to Rule Out Hardware Failure Easy

Plug the drive into a different Windows machine
Use a rear USB port on the second PC.
Check Hardware Ids on the second machine
Follow the Device Manager steps from Solution 1. If the VID and PID appear correctly here, the original PC's USB ports or drivers are at fault. Reinstall the chipset or USB controller drivers from your motherboard vendor's support site.
If it still shows VID_0000 on the second PC
Open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) and check if the drive appears there at all. If it doesn't appear in Disk Management on either machine and Device Manager only ever shows VID_0000 or USB\UNKNOWN, the drive's flash controller is almost certainly dead. At that point, Windows cannot recover the VID and PID from software alone.

If the drive shows USB\UNKNOWN or VID_0000 on every PC you try, this is a hardware fault. The controller or connector is damaged. Professional data recovery tools may be able to read the internal identifiers directly, but standard Windows methods won't get you there.

For drives that appear in Disk Management but have no proper hardware ID, the chipset driver is usually the culprit. Download the latest USB or chipset driver package from your motherboard manufacturer (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Intel, AMD) or from your laptop vendor's support page. Reinstall it, reboot, and reconnect the drive. This is also covered in our article on reinstalling chipset drivers on Windows.

HowToGeek has a solid overview of finding USB VID and PID on Windows if you want a second opinion on the Device Manager method.

Preventing USB VID PID Problems

Most of these issues are avoidable. The single biggest thing you can do is use Safely Remove Hardware before unplugging. It sounds old-fashioned, but it properly closes the USB stack and prevents the drive from being left in a state that confuses Windows on the next plug-in. Click the little USB icon in the system tray, wait for the "safe to remove" message, then unplug. Takes three seconds.

Second: use rear motherboard ports. Front-panel USB headers are routed through a cable inside the case, and on cheaper cases that cable is often loose, underpowered, or wired to a shared hub. Rear ports connect directly to the chipset. For any device where you need reliable identification, that's where it should go.

Third priority list for keeping your USB stack healthy:

Keep Windows Update current, including optional driver updates. The USB stack in Windows gets patches that fix enumeration edge cases.
Avoid cheap unpowered hubs, especially for flash drives. If you need a hub, get a powered one.
Don't use drives with visibly damaged connectors. A bent or corroded USB-A plug will cause intermittent descriptor read failures long before it completely stops working, and those failures are what produce VID_0000 entries.
If you're using USB drives regularly on a shared or work PC, check Device Manager for ghost entries every few months and clear them out. They accumulate and can cause driver assignment conflicts.

If you're managing USB devices across multiple machines, our guide on managing USB devices on Windows has more on keeping the USB stack clean long-term.

Find USB VID PID: Summary

The short version: to find USB VID PID, go to Device Manager, find your drive under Disk drives or USB Mass Storage Device under Universal Serial Bus controllers, open Properties, click the Details tab, and select Hardware Ids from the dropdown. That's where the identifiers live. If that field shows VID_0000, you have an enumeration failure caused by a bad port, a hub, a driver problem, or a failing drive. Work through the port swap, device uninstall, and power-cycle steps first. If those don't fix it, use the PowerShell query to cross-check, clear ghost entries, and then test on a second PC. Persistent VID_0000 on multiple machines means hardware failure and Windows won't recover the real identifiers from software alone.