Yesterday I attached my USB Flash drive containing important data to a friend’s computer and when took back, my computer’s antivirus, Avast Free Antivirus 6.0.1000 alerted me that USB Flash drive is packed with viruses. After cleaning USB from viruses I realized that all folders having important data are now hidden. I tried to change hidden attribute of folder my right clicking it but found out that folder hidden attribute is disabled by Virus.
So, to unhide all of the folders / files of my USB I used the DOS attrib command. Simply using attrib –h on any folder / file will clear its hidden attribute. But in cases like these where viruses changes folders / files attributes it’s better to clear Read Only, System and Hidden Attribute from your data. To illustrate in more detail what I did in my scenario, below are the steps.
-r will clear the Read Only Attribute
-s will clear the System file Attribute
-h will clear the Hidden file Attribute
/s will apply above command to all files in working directory (USB drive H: in our case)
/d will apply above command to all folders in working directory (USB drive H: in our case)
So, to unhide all of the folders / files of my USB I used the DOS attrib command. Simply using attrib –h on any folder / file will clear its hidden attribute. But in cases like these where viruses changes folders / files attributes it’s better to clear Read Only, System and Hidden Attribute from your data. To illustrate in more detail what I did in my scenario, below are the steps.
- Goto command prompt
- Change your working directory to driver letter of USB drive, for example type H:
- Now type the command attrib –r –s –h /s /d
-r will clear the Read Only Attribute
-s will clear the System file Attribute
-h will clear the Hidden file Attribute
/s will apply above command to all files in working directory (USB drive H: in our case)
/d will apply above command to all folders in working directory (USB drive H: in our case)
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