How To Show Hidden Files On A USB

Posted by Superheatsink  |  at  3:01 AM No comments

Yesterday, one of my student came to me and she is asking for help about her USB drive. When I examine the device there is no files inside on it but when I look in the properties of the device there is an amount of used space in the USB, it means that her files is hidden by a virus. Thinking that this problem is easy to solve like a normal hidden files, I go to the windows folders options of my computer under the advance setting of files and folders I activate the "show hidden files and folders" but it doesn't work.

In order to help my student, I've done research on how to recover files hidden by a virus. I discover that the kind of virus that infect the USB drive is Autorun.ini. Autorun.ini are used by virri to get windows to run the actual virus without any input from the user like double clicking on the file. If you open the file in a text editor you will most probably find it calling an .exe file and hide your original files.

Here's the solution for the problem:

1. Insert the USB Drive in the computer.

2. Go to "my computer" and take note the drive letter of the USB Drive. Ex: Removable Disk (F:), it means that your drive letter is "F:".

3. Go to "Command Prompt". Click "Start" go to run type "cmd" then press enter.

4. In your Command Prompt. Type the drive letter of your USB drive, don't forget the colon(:). Example: F: then press enter.

5. Type "attrib -s -h /s /d *.*" then press enter. Wait for a while until the drive letter of your USB came out. After that its already finish, close your command prompt.

6. Open the USB Drive in "my computer". You will see an untitled folder or drive icon, inside it is your files.

attrib -s -h /s /d *.* means clear an attribute in read only file, archive file, system file and hidden file.

To Avoid viruses like Autorun.ini use USB Disk Security 6.3.0.0. It helps to protect your PC from any threats coming from USB Storage.