These days people are facing this kind of weird problem. Mainly it happens those who have Windows OS because Windows has so many apps that are not verified by Microsoft. Some of these apps will harm your computer that types of apps are commonly known as a virus. This types of virus can remove attributes from the USB drive so your files will disappear and it will be in hidden. Some people think that the records are gone, so they started to format their USB drive. CAUTION DON’T FORMAT YOUR USB DRIVE if you do then this method will not work. You can easily fix this kind of issues. This article will help you to solve this problem on both Windows and Mac operating systems; it is very easy, even a small kid can do this so scroll down and recover your files.
If you format your drive this method will not work, so you have to do some other methods that can find it at the bottom of this article.
For Windows Users
For Windows users, it is very easy to recover your files, for that you only need a computer that running Windows and an affected USB drive. Here we use a command line that can create new attributes for your files.
Step 1
Connect your USB drive to the computer (make sure that all other USB drives such as external drive or card reader are disconnected from the computer). Wait for until it connected when it connected then got to the next step. DON’T FORMAT THE USB DRIVE.
Step 2
Open My computer ( Windows 7 and older) or This PC (Windows 8 and later), Verify your affected USB drive is connected and also make sure to remember it’s drive letter. The drive letter will look like this (F:), (D:), go to the next step.
Step 3
In windows open Command Prompt application. For that use search or RUN method, to do this press Windows Key + R on the keyboard then a new window will pop up that is RUN window, here you need to type ‘CMD’ then hit enter now the command prompt window will pop up. In Windows 8.1 and later you can open Command Prompt quickly from the Start Button for that right click on the start button there you can find Command Prompt(admin) option like in the picture, click on it.
Step 4
It is the main stage, so make sure you are doing it correctly. In command prompt window you need to type a command line code that is given below.
attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.*
The code you want to type in the command prompt, or you can just copy and paste it. Here you want to edit the code to get work properly. In this code g: indicates the drive letter you need to replace the letter with your drive letter, if your drive letter is F then replace G with F, now the code will look like this ‘ attrib -h -r -s /s /d f:\*.* ‘. In this code ‘*.* ‘indicates that it will create attributes for all files that found on the USB Drive. Don’t edit any other line if you are not a programmer only modify the drive letter. After typing the line hit enter on the keyboard.
Step 5
There you go now you have full access to your files. It is the last step. Make sure that all files are visible and accessible. You should backup the entire files to the hard drive then format your USB drive then paste it back to the removable drive if you need. Formatting the USB disk will clear any virus and makes the drive clean.
For Mac Users
The same USB drive that infected by the virus in Windows will not work on the Mac too, so here you have to fix this to get access to your files. In Mac, you are safer than Windows because Mac will not create any problems like this. All know that antivirus is not necessary for Mac because there is no virus kind of issues on Mac. But the infected USB drive that is coming from Windows also does not show any files, so we use an application called Daisy Disk. This app is also available on the Mac app store, or you can download it from their official site, Click here to download.
Step 1
Open the Daisy Disk app here you can find all the connected drives, select your USB drive then click scan. After the scan completed, you can see all the files here.
Step 2
Now Daisy disk will show all your files like in the picture. To access the data you have to right click on the file or folder you need, then click on Show in Finder, and it will display in a finder window.
From the Finder window, you can do whatever you want.
Step 3
In step 3 I will suggest you to backup your files and format the USB drive. When the format completed, you can copy and paste your files back to the USB drive if you need!. Formatting will help you to remove any virus like autorun.inf and makes the USB clean.
For Those Who Accidentally Formatted Their USB Drive
Sometimes you accidentally formatted your USB drive so here is a partial method to recover your files. For this, we use a recovery software called Disk Drill
Disk Drill can recover files from your Hard drive and also from USB drives. It is a free tool, Which offers so many features. Disk Drill can recover data from damaged USB drives such as write protected or USB drives that asking to format.
The good news is Disk Drill is available on both Mac and Windows operating systems to Click here to download it.
Last Word
Now your problems are solved. Attributes will be removed again if you connect it to a Windows PC that contains the virus. If it happens again, this article can help you to solve it. The main think you should not do, don’t format your drive because you know that it is easily recoverable. If you are formatted, then you have only less chance to get your files back so don’t format your USB drive.
That’s it guys; I hope you found your answer if it does don’t forget to share with your friends and for more tips like and subscribe my social media sites you can find it on the sidebar of my blog. Have a beautiful day.
