Detecting USB drive insertion and removal using windows service and c#

You can use WMI, it is easy and it works a lot better than WndProc solution with services.

Here is a simple example:

using System.Management;

ManagementEventWatcher watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher();
WqlEventQuery query = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_VolumeChangeEvent WHERE EventType = 2");
watcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(watcher_EventArrived);
watcher.Query = query;
watcher.Start();
watcher.WaitForNextEvent();

This works well for me, plus you can find out more information about the device.

using System.Management;

private void DeviceInsertedEvent(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{
    ManagementBaseObject instance = (ManagementBaseObject)e.NewEvent["TargetInstance"];
    foreach (var property in instance.Properties)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(property.Name + " = " + property.Value);
    }
}

private void DeviceRemovedEvent(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{
    ManagementBaseObject instance = (ManagementBaseObject)e.NewEvent["TargetInstance"];
    foreach (var property in instance.Properties)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(property.Name + " = " + property.Value);
    }
}            

private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    WqlEventQuery insertQuery = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN 2 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_USBHub'");

    ManagementEventWatcher insertWatcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(insertQuery);
    insertWatcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(DeviceInsertedEvent);
    insertWatcher.Start();

    WqlEventQuery removeQuery = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM __InstanceDeletionEvent WITHIN 2 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_USBHub'");
    ManagementEventWatcher removeWatcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(removeQuery);
    removeWatcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(DeviceRemovedEvent);
    removeWatcher.Start();

    // Do something while waiting for events
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(20000000);
}

Adding to VitalyB's post.

To raise an event where ANY USB device is inserted, use the following:

var watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher();
var query = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DeviceChangeEvent WHERE EventType = 2");
watcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(watcher_EventArrived);
watcher.Query = query;
watcher.Start();

This will raise an event whenever a USB device is plugged. It even works with a National Instruments DAQ that I'm trying to auto-detect.