How to remove shortcut virus from your pen drive

How to remove shortcut virus from your pen drive

Pen drives are the most common tools of storage due to small size and convenient to carry. Most of our files and folders which are needed for daily use and on multiple computers on different places are stored and run through pen drives. Pen drives is the most used tool to share data, images, files, games etc. with friends and colleagues. But this device is prone to virus and worms and spywares. There are times when our files and folders stored on the pen drive are shown as shortcuts and we are unable to open or edit the files. This happens not only with pen drive but also with hard disks, memory sticks and phone memory (SD Card). Whenever we try to access these files the windows shows an error commonly saying “shortcut missing”. This may instill a fear of losing data and sometimes we are in a hurry to format our pen drive. What it is actually is that the files and folder become hidden to us and instead a shortcut icon appears which actually doesn’t exist. Formatting the pen drive is not needed in this case since it is a type of virus which may harm your computer and your files and also folders. There are a few simple methods to delete these shortcuts and recover your data. These steps do not require the use of any anti-virus.

One of the methods which you can follow is:

1. First plug in your virus infected pen drive to the USB port of the computer /laptop.

2. Now press ‘WINDOWS + R’ key to open Run option (Alternatively go to start menu then select Run option). This will open the run box.

3.  In the Run box type ‘cmd’ and press ‘Enter’.  This will open command prompt. Now in command prompt type this command to remove the virus from your pen drive. Now, for example, if your drive letter is ‘g:’ (you can check the drive letter of your pen drive in My Computer) then you need to type ‘attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.*’.

4. After this wait a few seconds and then open and check your drive, your folders. Your folders will have recovered by now and you can easily access them.

Note: make sure there is space between each element of this code. After typing in your drive letter press ‘Enter’.

Use of an antivirus to solve your problem:

Another method to remove virus from pen drive is to use a good anti-virus. The anti-virus in the computer can be used to scan the pen drive for viruses when connected to computer through USB port. The anti-virus software will automatically scan your pen drive for viruses and spyware and repairs or remove them from the pen drive and may also offer solutions in the form of extra tools that can be downloaded to remove any special kinds of virus that is irreparable or irremovable from your laptop or computer.

Overall it is very good and easy method to get rid of virus that threaten to harm your computer and precious data stored in your pen drive and computer by simply removing this virus with these easy steps.

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