HOW TO RECOVER FILES FROM A FLASH DRIVE AFFECTED WITH THE SHORTCUT VIRUS

Everyone has been in this situation once or twice. Typically you insert your drive into a compromized PC and in less than a second all your files are just shortcuts and you cant find the main files anymore or you connect your phone to a computer to send files from it and when you take out your phone all your media files that were on your phone are not there anymore. NO WORRIES!

To recover your files, you will need:

1.  A computer without a virus
2.  An antivirus installed on the computer (To prevent the computer from getting infected too)

Now follow these steps:


Step 1 - Connect the flash drive or memory card in such a way that you can access it from the computer.

Step 2 - Open the drive

Step 3 - Click on view at the top right corner

Step 4 - Click on options

Step 5 - Click on the view at the top of the dialog box that appears and then under "Hidden files and folders" select "show hidden file, folders and drives"

Step 6 - Uncheck the box beside "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"

Step 7 - Click OK

Step 8 - Go back to the drive that has the files your want to recover, you will notice that there are more folders or filess there. The new folders or files would be a bit transparent or greyed out. Copy the ones that you would like to recover.


NOTE - Be sure to redo all the steps to return the computer back to normal.