USB hidden files virusUSB flash drives, portable drives are good for transferring data between Computers but sometimes they can also infect your machine by carrying unwanted stuff like Viruses, Trojan backdoors and malwares. There is a famous USB pen drive virus that not only infects your files but also makes them hidden. It creates an empty shortcut of your files and folders which leads to nowhere. Scanning your USB drive for viruses removes the shortcut virus but your fails to recover your precious data which is still present under the drive but hidden. This guide will help you recover your hidden files, make sure you follow the steps below carefully!

How to Show/Recover Hidden Files in USB:

Before we begin, we must first tell the Windows to show hidden files first.

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Open Windows Explorer > Go to Tools > Folder Options > Go to View Tab > Check “Show Hidden Files”

Once you have done that you need to Open Command Prompt (cmd).

Open Start Menu, type “cmd” and press Enter. Or just press WindowsKey+R.

Type the following commands into the text box.

attrib -h -r -s /s /d k:\*.*

Note: Replace “K” with the drive letter and then press Enter.

usb-hidden-files-virus

Now all your files will start showing in your USB drive.  If you see a folder without name, rename it to recover its data.

Useful information:

  • This will work on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Windows RT
  • Run Command prompt with administrator account.
  • Scan your USB flash drive using antivirus or anti-malware to get rid of virus first.

41 COMMENTS

  1. It is not complete solution. Trojan remains in PC/laptop. Next time when you use USB this trojan will again infect USB

  2. I’ve been using the same command but file is not found. I’ve replaced “K’ with my drive letter H… but it’s not working…

  3. Unchecking the “”hide protected operating system files (Recommended) “” did nothing…

    But this solution helped! ! Thank you genius! 🙂

  4. THANK YOU !! to Justin (the author) this may be a piece of cake for you , but you’re a life saver! 🙂

  5. Its a great help. Thank you..
    After running the command I see some other files with different name and contains more than 1 mb data. I think that is the virus.

  6. Thank you so much it works. After implement this command, two folders emerge in my thumb drive 1) system volume information 2) folder without name.

    I create temporaty name for this folder and can access it… all my file inside there.

  7. Oh man..! Guys, you are so great. I’ve been searching for an article like this for years. You guys have saved a lot of my data.. Cheers!

  8. Thanks a lot from bottom of my heart…
    One stupid person introduced this virus in my laptop hard-disk, and my kid’s pics were there in that..
    today with help of your article I am able to recover them

    Thanks a Lot

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