Remove Shortcut Virus From Flash Drives Without Formatting

Here in this tutorial, I will explain to you how to remove the shortcut link viruses from your flash drives like pen drives/memory cards, etc, without formatting the whole disk drive or by using any antiviruses that remove or quarantine the file folders along with the virus.

If you find your USB disk files and folders were cloned into shortcuts and reappear even after deleting several numbers of times, Yes your device is infected with Virus, but don't get panic and Format the entire pen drive/flash drive to remove such viruses, your files/folders were not Gone or Corrupted it's just hidden into drive.

Read Also: Free data recovery tools for flash drives and hard disk

To view the hidden files and folders in the disk:

1. Press "Windows + E"  keys on the keyboard to open the "File Explorer" window (or) directly type File Explorer in Windows Search and Tap on "Enter Key" to open "File Explorer". 
2. In "File Explorer" window under View Menu -> Tap on Options->Change Folder and Search Option -> "Folder Option". 
3. In "Folder option" window Tap on the View tab -> Advanced Settings -> .Select Show hidden files, folders and drives.

   

   Windows Folder Option to Hide/Hide

4. Tap on Apply and click on the OK button to close the window and confirm the changes.
5. Now open the drive containing the USB you will find the files and folders that were hidden in transparent mode.

Now its time to remove the shortcut link that has been created by the virus attack without formatting or deleting one by one.


How to Remove ShortCut Virus From USB Drives?
Everything you think difficult is not as difficult as it appears, the Windows Operation System has a certain feature to clear this crap from the add-on devices to function properly without a need for third-party application.

• Step 1: Press "Windows + R" keys on the keyboard to open the Run Window and Type cmd and click ok, A command prompt window opens.

  

  Run Window to Open Command Prompt Window

• Additionally: You can also open the command prompt window by directly typing cmd command in the windows search and press enter.
• Step 2: In the command prompt window type the below command or Just copy the command and Right Click and paste the below command on command prompt window following the path then tap on "Enter Key" in the keyboard.

attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.*

Add caption

Note: Replace the letter "g" with the pen drive/disk letter that you want to remove the shortcuts(Refer to the below example image).



Replace respective Device drive letter

• Step 3: And when you press enter it's all done, now you can check your disk for shortcut virus-free drive.

Caution: You've removed the virus form the flash drive successfully however the machine is still infected and can again infect the USB drive. So I would recommend you to install a reputed Antivirus software and Run a full system scan for any trojan/viruses that affects your disk, to avoid repeating the same steps again and again to remove the virus from the Pendrive.