Look for any unfamiliar or corrupted files in the flash drive. This will open a list of files that are inside the flash drive. Type “dir /w/a” in the Command Prompt and press “Enter”. Then go back to the Command Prompt window and type in the letter of the flash drive along with a colon. Find out which drive letter is designated to the flash drive. Step 3: Find the Drive in the Command PromptĬlick the “My Computer” button, then right click on the flash drive’s icon. * means all file names and folder names should be considered a match.This will open a window with a black background and a “C:” next to a blinking cursor. V) /d makes the command apply to folders as well (normally attrib only handles on files). Iv) /s makes the command recursively apply to all files and folders in the current directory and all subdirectories, basically the entire device in this case. Iii) -h removes the “hidden” status from all matching files and folders. Ii) -r removes the “read-only” status from all matching files and folder. I) -s removes the “system file” status from all matching files and folders.
Note: The attrib command is a native Windows function that alters the attributes of a particular file or folder. Now you want to restore all the files and folders on the affected device. Note: An LNK file is a shortcut or “link” used by Windows as a reference to an original file. It will delete all the shortcuts even if you have placed something meaningful. Now you can delete all shortcuts in the affected device with the below command: So you can navigate to the affected drive by merely entering the drive letter followed by “:” and press “enter key” as mentioned in the below Image. For example: In Step 1, my external device is shown as I: Drive. Inside the command prompt, navigate to the affected drive location. Sometimes it will show PowerShell and you can choose Windows PowerShell (Admin). Iii.) Windows key + X to open the Power User Menu & select Command Prompt (Admin). Ii.) (Windows 10 Users Only) Press Windows Key & type “ Command Prompt“, right-click and choose “Run as administrator”. I) Windows key + R -> Type “ cmd” & press enter. There are 2 different options and you can choose the one easy for you to execute it. Open the command prompt as an Administrator. For example, C Drive will be mentioned as (C:) Once confirmed, make a note of the drive letter. You can open the drive and check whether that’s the exact drive or not. Keyboard shortcut to open file explorer is Windows Key + E. Open the file explorer in your system after attaching the external drive which is affected. It may be a Pendrive, external hard drive or other storage devices that support the USB port. Switch on your computer and attach the Infected device. Steps involved in Removing the Shortcut Virus from an External Device / USB / Pendrive are,
How to Remove Shortcut Virus in an External Device / USB / Pendrive?
Either it should be a personal computer with the Windows operating system else it should be some external hard drives that support with additional storage option. The above mentioned are the two major classifications that we should know to recover the device affected with shortcut virus. It doesn’t need any coding knowledge or experienced computer operator.Ĭheck out the below steps to remove the shortcut virus from an external device like Pendrive, hard disk or other removable storage devices. Also, the steps involved in removing the shortcut virus is quite simple and painless. Also, it can get transferred to the computer by making some functions like autorun, moving the files, copying the files and so on.Īre you feeling safe with your Antivirus program? But sometimes the antivirus programs don’t detect the devices infected by shortcut viruses which allow the system to get infected. Most of the time, the shortcut virus affects the portable/transferable devices such as USD Flash drives/Pendrive, External Hard Drive, Memory Card and related items. It may lead someone to steal your personal data and may reduce system performance by executing multiple processes. If you are trying to open any of the shortcut files, it will start running the malware which duplicates and doubles the virus which infects your system/device. It is a kind of Trojan that hides all your files and folders by replacing it with the shortcuts which exactly looks like the original file. A Shortcut Virus is one of the viral spread that causes a lot of issues by making the files inaccessible.