On a flash drive instead of folders shortcuts - what to do?

When trying to download information from flash memory, it is sometimes found that on the USB flash drive instead of folders shortcuts. At the same time, these shortcuts take up the same amount of space on a removable media as there are ordinary folders with information. It becomes clear that the information from the flash card was not lost anywhere, just the virus made it inaccessible to the user. And the user sees shortcuts instead of folders on his flash card. How to fix this situation, what causes such a problem, how do you need and do not need to enter the user in this situation?

Problem prevention

Naturally, to avoid infecting your own computer and a flash card, you should not write files and folders from suspicious sources to removable media. All new files should be scanned by an antivirus utility.

But if, despite all the precautions, there are shortcuts on the flash drive instead of folders - the user can congratulate himself. Removable media is infected with one of the viruses - trojan. The user frantically tries to open the missing folders, clicking on the shortcuts. That's to open suspicious labels on the flash drive just not worth it. The fact is that these icons hide in themselves not one program, but two. One of them starts the file that was originally written, and the second - a malicious program that launches the virus from an infected external device to the user's PC. This software offers users instead of folders shortcuts. What to do in this situation? The procedure is described below.

Disable autorun

To protect your computer from viruses and avoid problems associated with turning folders into shortcuts on a USB flash drive, in order of prevention it is required to scan all external media connected to the PC by the anti-virus program. By default, all external devices run on the computer or laptop in autostart mode, and the user simply does not have time to "enlighten" a suspicious USB flash drive. And when they appear on the USB drive instead of folders shortcuts, it's too late to scan the infected computer. Therefore, if you frequently connect external storage media to your computer or laptop, you should disable the autorun feature to prevent infection of the computer.

You can block the autorun feature in the Windows operating system in the manner described below.

Go to the "Start" menu, then "Control Panel", search for the option "Autostart". Remove the check mark from the function "Use autorun for all devices and media".

After that, when you connect an external drive, the operating system will ask permission to start it. In this case, the user can always scan external devices before running the anti-virus program and avoid infection of his own personal computer.

If the virus already works and the user watches shortcuts on the flash drive instead of folders, then it is required to perform a complex of work on removing malicious programs and restoring their own files and folders. This work is carried out in several stages.

Display hidden folders and files

If you have Windows XP on your computer, then to get to the desired option, you need to go this way:

Start - My Computer - Menu - Tools - Folder Options - Tab - View. The opened "View" tab offers two parameters, with which you need to perform the following actions:

• The option "Hide protected systems. Files (recommended) "- you need to uncheck the box.
• The option "Show hidden folders and files" - accept the display of hidden folders and files.

If the operating system is Windows 7, the necessary options are found in this way:

Start - Control Panel - Appearance - Personalization - Folder Options - Tab - View.

After that, all hidden and system files will be visible to the user.

Analysis of files and folders on the USB flash drive

Now you need to go to the menu of the flash card and make a full analysis of all the hidden files stored on removable media. To do this, go to the properties of each label in the "Object" option. Usually all available shortcuts, instead of folders that appeared on the flash drive, run the same program. In order to neutralize the virus, you need to find out which of the folders contains the malicious code. The line of executable code looks something like this:

As you can see, the folder RECYCLER contains extraneous files - viruses, which are responsible for the fact that the flash drive instead of folders - shortcuts. The RECYCLER folder on the removable media will need to be removed. After uninstalling, launching shortcuts will no longer pose a threat to the user's operating system. For the final check of the removal of the virus, which causes shortcuts on the flash drive, you need to do this.

For the Win7 operating system, the path is:

• C: \ user \ username \ appdata \ roaming \.

For Win XP OS, you should choose the following path:

• C: \ document & setting \ username \ local setting \ application data \.

Sometimes, in the specified path, a file with the extension .exe is found. This application is the virus you are looking for. Labels instead of folders appear because of it. Therefore, all applications with this extension, found on the specified path, should be deleted.

Treatment flash drive

After the malicious program that offers the user labels instead of folders is deleted, the flash drive should be treated in one of the following ways. After all, folders stored on removable media are still invisible, and it is not yet possible to use them. First you need to delete all the shortcuts saved in the folder. They do not carry any useful information, so they can be removed from the flash drive completely painlessly. The information stored in folders on the flash drive remains. You can extract it in the following ways.

A method that uses the command line

Open the command line. To do this, click Start. In the opened search line, type the combination of the letters cmd and press Enter. In the window that opens on the monitor, you should enter the following command:

• Cd / df: \

In this expression, f stands for a flash drive with files. If in your case flash memory is denoted by another Latin letter, you should enter it in the string.

Then press Enter and then enter the following command:

• Attrib-sh / d / s

And press Enter.

After executing this command, the attributes will be reset, and the folders will appear in the scope of the user.

A method that uses a text file

We go through "My Computer" into our removable storage medium, click on the empty space with the right mouse button. Through the "Create" option we are giving birth to a text document with the extension * .txt. Let's name a file, for example, 123. Open the created file and write in it such line:

• Attrib-S-H / D / S.

Then the text file should be closed, and the changes in it should be saved. The next step is to rename the file extension: instead of * .txt you need to make * .bat. For example, the file can be called 123.bat. After renaming, click on this file two times with the mouse. An empty black window appears, as when you call the command line. Now you need to wait for the file to complete its work. Time depends on how much information was on the flash drive. For a fully loaded 8GB flash drive, it took fifteen minutes for the information to fully recover. After the file has completed its work, the black window disappears itself.

After this procedure, all the necessary files appear on the flash-card, previously disappeared user folders. Carefully viewing the contents of the flash drive, you can see that the menu has another additional folder. Most often it's called RECYCLER. This new folder contains the same virus that turned data from flash drives into shortcuts. Naturally, the folder should be deleted immediately.

What to do after data recovery

After the data on the flash card is restored, you should transfer them to your computer or laptop. This is done in order to finish the treatment of the flash card and finally exclude the possibility of damage or infection of the files. For this, experienced users recommend to format the USB flash drive. You can do this in one of the following ways.

Methods for formatting flash cards

• Method one . We go to My Computer, move the cursor to the USB flash drive, click on the right mouse button and in the presented menu we find the option "Format". This method is the fastest and most convenient.
• Method two . Use special utilities to format external storage media. One of the most popular free utilities is the HP USB Disk Format Tool. The interface of the program is very simple, the procedure is clear even for the most inexperienced users.
• The third method involves formatting the flash drive using the command line. To do this, click "Start", then "Run".

In the opened line it is necessary to type a combination of letters CMD and press Enter. After that, the command line opens, in which you should type the following command:

• Convert f: / fs: ntfs / nosecurity / x.

The first f indicates the letter of the flash drive. If in your case the flash drive is indicated by another letter, you should place it before the colon. After executing the command, your drive will be formatted and converted to NTFS.

Formatting the flash drive, you can re-transfer the data to it. For the future, of course, you should write to the removable media only the checked data, after having checked the files with the anti-virus program, do not give the flash card to strangers and independently monitor the health of your personal computer or laptop.