How to Recover Files Hidden by a Computer Virus

by Daniel Gubalane on Nov 29, 2012

The first step is to remove the virus infecting your USB Flash Drive. Run an antivirus scan through your infected USB Flash Drive. This can be done by going to Computer, right click on your Flash Drive icon and click on the option that says Scan with….

If you are not familiar with using an antivirus, please read my blog post “How to Use an Antivirus”.
The second step is to open the Command Prompt of your computer. You can do this by clicking on Start, type cmd and hit Enter. A black window will appear.

Next, go back to Computer and identify the Drive letter of your USB Flash Drive. This looks like this Removable Disk(G:). If the name of your USB Flash Drive looks the same as this, that means its drive letter is G.
We are almost there. On the Command Prompt window, type “G:” without the quotes and press Enter. Type “attrib –s –r –h /s /d” without the quotes and press Enter again. This is the most critical step. After doing this, you have to wait for the drive letter to appear again.

When the drive letter finally appears again, it’s time to go to Computer and click on your USB Flash Drive. If you see a folder named Recycler, delete it immediately.

If your files and folders are already shown, then the process is successful. If not, look for a folder named “_” and open it. Tadaah! There are your important files.

If in any way an error appears, write a comment below and I will try to answer it as soon as I can. Else if this tutorial worked for you, please share it so that your friends will learn how to recover their files and you can give me more visitors on my blog.

Thank you!







Daniel Gubalane

I am a tech enthusiast who likes to review gadgets and organize smartphone specs sheets to create a helpful website for smartphone buyers.

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