Files Not Showing/Hidden in USB Drive [Virus Fix]

January 27, 2015

USB hidden files virus USB 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.

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

Dinuka August 13, 2015 At 1:45 pm

Thank you so much.This was really great.It worked .
manu mehta August 14, 2015 At 7:04 am

Files Not Showing/Hidden in USB Drive [Virus Fix] for mac?
ABC August 28, 2015 At 8:10 am

It is not complete solution. Trojan remains in PC/laptop. Next time when you use USB this trojan will again infect USB
Taj October 11, 2015 At 8:51 pm

A lot of thanks
Kamran October 19, 2015 At 12:56 am

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…
Verbal Slayer November 29, 2015 At 3:50 am

Thanks a lot, it worked for me
Gary Antier December 10, 2015 At 10:35 pm

Nice. 🙂
thanks for the help. 🙂
Z December 25, 2015 At 8:48 am

Thanks for the fix! It just solved a big problem for me.
Ralph January 1, 2016 At 9:12 am

It worked. The drive letter has to be UPPER CASE. Perfect!
alias February 18, 2016 At 11:35 pm

i’ve try but my pen drive cannot read..
but computer ask for format it..
cannot be..
so how?
pls..
vidyasagar February 20, 2016 At 11:58 pm

so nice
it helped me alot
lowel March 6, 2016 At 1:26 am

thank you so much for the help.. =)
Gobhinath April 1, 2016 At 8:44 pm

Wow. It works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RK April 13, 2016 At 7:47 am

Thanks so much for your help
iqbal April 18, 2016 At 9:51 am

thanks
AndreiK April 24, 2016 At 12:56 am

It works, thanks! But how do I delete “AUTORUN.INF”?
Monique April 27, 2016 At 7:13 am

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

But this solution helped! ! Thank you genius! 🙂
Geneva May 10, 2016 At 5:17 am

THANK YOU !! to Justin (the author) this may be a piece of cake for you , but you’re a life saver! 🙂
yas May 25, 2016 At 10:07 pm

Yea the said command is working.. thank you..
sharad khanna May 27, 2016 At 8:32 pm

thank you so much sir
Aisha June 6, 2016 At 9:49 pm

Thank you Justin, you rock!
Abhishek June 12, 2016 At 1:53 am

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.
Sapumal Moragoda June 13, 2016 At 7:14 pm

Thank you so much sir… Its Works…
Eirini August 26, 2016 At 11:37 am

thank you so much you saved me
LUIS September 13, 2016 At 8:18 pm

WOW!!!!! THANKS A LOT JUSTIN WEBER!
pragya November 19, 2016 At 12:46 pm

thanks a lot for the help. cheers.
ADIE BIN MOHD KHAFE December 6, 2016 At 10:27 pm

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.
Ovisan December 21, 2016 At 7:57 am

Absolutely useful !
Thank you Justin !
SAM December 31, 2016 At 4:51 am

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!
zeeshan anwar January 12, 2017 At 11:56 pm

it works
Siddu January 18, 2017 At 11:12 am

Wonderful thanks sir, it works great
Mohit Goel January 22, 2017 At 2:28 am

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
Harshal Khamankar January 22, 2017 At 3:44 am

Excellent…thank you
needo July 26, 2018 At 11:20 pm

Thanks alot . Its Work For me 🙂
Ahmad July 28, 2018 At 2:33 am

Thank you so much for your help.
best regards
Nasim August 13, 2018 At 3:03 am

Did not work and got the message: path not found. What to do?
Nasim August 13, 2018 At 3:04 am

Did not work and got the message: path not found. What to do?
Mbombis Augu Murundi September 10, 2018 At 1:16 am

Thanks a lot!!!!
SS April 8, 2019 At 10:44 am

thanku.. worked!!
jfbmbm June 17, 2020 At 8:05 am

Thank you!
Actually working!
Ibra June 20, 2020 At 6:15 pm

Thanks it worked..