Virus and RAW issues will likely cause the pen drive data not showing. When your USB pen drive not showing files and folders but space used, try to unhide files by following the five methods within the article. If you prefer an intelligent and highly effective way of showing hidden files in pen drive, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the optimal choice.
To fix USB pen drive not showing files and recover hidden files in pen drive:
Step 1. Run EaseUS USB file recovery software.
Step 2. Scan the USB pen drive.
Step 3. Choose the hidden files and recover.
Step 4. Format the USB pen drive to NTFS or FAT32.
Why Is USB Not Showing Files?
Drive.bat shortcut virus. Now, back to the point – the drive.bat virus transforms all the contents of an infested memory medium into shortcuts, usually 1 KB in size, which open up blank or cannot be opened at all. At the first blush, this predicament looks like a complete loss of data stored on the drive.
- There is 3 type of shortcut virus mainly the driver, file, and folder. Use CMD command method.to remove it. The steps as follow. Open CMD (command prompt). Go to Run - type CMD -Hit enter Type the name of your drive or removal drive and a colon after it and hit enter.
- Click My Computers; Click View Tab; Checkmark Show Hidden Items option; The above is a hit & trial approach and chances to regain inaccessible data from it is very less. Solution 2: Anti-virus Scan Program. As the root cause of Shortcut creation is malware, thus removing them can help in resolving the issue.
- Connect the USB pen drive or flash drive to PC. Open Windows Explorer Go to Tools Folder.
Pen drive not showing data but using space is one of the main reasons for data loss disaster. It usually prevents you from seeing your data while the used space and unused space is showing correctly when you check. The most possible for this issue is a virus attack. Some unknown virus can not only infect your files but also makes them hidden. It creates an empty shortcut of your files and folders which lead to nowhere, like shortcut virus. In addition to virus infection, there are other causes that may lead to USB not showing files:
- Files and folders on your pen drive are hidden
- Data is accidentally deleted
- The file system is not recognized by the OS of your computer
![Missing Missing](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119748192/831112309.jpg)
If you are annoyed by pen drive not showing data problem and trying to find a USB data recovery solution, congratulations, you are at the right place! Here, we will show you how to recover files from pen drives to fix USB drive files or folders not showing but space used in simple ways. By the way, the tutorial also works with flash drives, external hard drives, SD cards or other external USB devices.
When you meet the same problem on a Mac computer, follow this page and solve the issue flash drive not showing up on Mac and restore all lost files.
How to Fix USB Pen Drive Not Showing Data
Depending on the causes, the solution to the issue 'USB not showing files' varies. If you haven't identified the specific cause yet, you can follow the methods below in order to solve the problem with ease. Altogether, we offered five viable solutions to restore disappeared files and fix the USB not showing data issues.
- 1. Unhide files in pen drive in Windows Explorer
- 2. Unhide files in pen drive in Windows Command Prompt
- 3. Show hidden files with EaseUS Tools M
- 4. Recover hidden files with EaseUS USB recovery software
- 5. Format pen drive that is not showing data files
- 6. Check and fix USB drive errors
Fix 1. Unhide files in pen drive in Windows Explorer
If the data on your USB is accidentally hidden or made invisible by a virus, you can try to unhide your files using CMD. Besides, there are other ways available to show hidden files on a USB drive. Check it if you need to.
Step 1. Connect the USB pen drive or flash drive to PC.
Step 2. Open Windows 'File Explorer' > Go to 'Tools' > 'Folder' Options > Go to the 'View' Tab > Check 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives'. Finally, click 'Apply'. This will make sure that the files and folders are not in hidden mode.
Fix 2. Show hidden files in Windows Command Prompt
Windows Command Prompt is a reliable tool for basically the professionals to solve most computer storage issues. It's kind of higher-leveled that requires administrator permission.
Step 1. Next, click on the 'Start' Menu > 'Run' > Type cmd and press 'Enter'.
Step 2. To make the USB pen drive data show up, type the commands: attrib -h -r -s /s /d k:*.* and press 'Enter'. (Replace 'K' with the drive letter of your pen drive.)
Fix 3. Download EaseUS Tools M to show hidden files in USB drive
Manual input of the command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause more severe problems. Therefore, for security and usability, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative. EaseUS Tools M is a practical tool that enables you to check and fix files system error, enable/disable write protection and system update with one-click instead of typing intricate command lines.
Follow the simple steps below to show hidden files with this 1-click-fix software.
Step 1. DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tools M for Free.
Step 2. Start EaseUS Tools M, choose 'File Showing' on the left pane. Next, choose the target drive for scanning.
Step 3. After the operation completes, click the View button to check the hidden files.
Now all your files will start showing up in your USB flash drive or pen drive. If you see a folder without a name, rename it to recover its data.
- Notice:
- You can also run antivirus software on your computer to try to remove the virus. But it always does not help. Even it helps, it may delete the virus-infected files on your USB. If so, you will need to use Method 2 to recover the lost data.
Fix 4. Download EaseUS USB recovery software to recover hidden files in pen drive
If the steps above failed to help, then try to retrieve your data with EaseUS disk data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, a popular third-party data recovery software. This is a method that can recover your files and folders in all the situations mentioned above.
Whether your pen drive is not showing data due to virus attack, hiding files, accidental deletion, or file system errors, you can directly recover your data using this reliable tool. It performs well to recover shortcut files, hidden files, deleted files, and RAW files from USB pen drive or flash drive. When your USB is not showing files, it's the most certain way to retrieve your data.
My Drive Shortcut For Desktop
Step 1. Connect the Pen Drive to Scan
Connect your pen drive to your computer and run EaseUS pen drive recovery software. Choose your pen drive and click the Scan button.
Step 2. Scan the pen drive and preview files
After the software scanning all over the pen drive, all your lost files will show up in the scan results. You can use the Filter function to quickly filter a file type and preview the files before recovery.
Step 3. Recover pen drive files and save
After the file preview, click the Recover button to save the selected files to a secure location on your PC or another external storage device.
Fix 5. Format the USB pen drive which is not showing files
When your USB pen drive data not showing, at the same time, some error messages appear, something goes wrong with your USB file system, which might be corrupted, damaged, inaccessible or showing RAW, asking you to format it. The common errors are usually as follows.
- You need to format the disk before you can use it (in Windows 10/8/7)
- The disk is not formatted (in Windows XP)
To overcome this kind of USB problems that cause the data not showing, you need to format the drive to a recognized file system by Windows. Since formatting will erase data completely, do not start to format the disk before data recovery.
Step 1. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and perform data recovery.
Step 2. Open Windows Explorer and right-click on your USB drive, choose 'Format'.
Step 3. Choose a Windows-compatible file system among FAT32, NTFS and exFAT to your USB and click 'Start'.
Fix 6. Check and fix USB pen drive errors
Other than the five methods above, you can also try to fix the USB that is not showing files using CHKDSK. The CHKDSK command can be used to check and repair the disk error on your pen drive that is not showing data correctly. Compared to running the CHKDSK command in CMD, it's more convenient to run the CHKDSK utility.
Step 1. Open 'This PC', right-click your pen drive and choose 'Properties'.
Step 2. Go to the 'Tools' tab.
Step 3. Click 'Check' to check and repair the errors on your USB.
Actually, if unhiding files fails to bring your data back again, it's highly likely there is something wrong with your USB. In that case, you are recommended to perform data recovery directly and then format your pen drive to remove the error. Data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will help you retrieve all your data as long as the data is not overwritten. Try it and you will get back your files and folders immediately.
FAQs about USB Pen Drive Not Showing Files
Apart from offering solutions for fixing USB pen drive not showing files issue, some users may also want to know the cause of USB pen drive not showing files and how to view files. To efficiently resolve your issue, we have collected 4 top questions are may interest you here.
You may check and find answers here now:
1. How do I recover my pen drive data?
You may get your pen drive data lost due to deletion, formatting, or other misoperations. You may first check and restore the files from Recycle Bin.
To avoid complete data loss, you can recover deleted/formatted files from the pen drive using the reliable data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Besides, you can also use CMD to recover data from a pen drive if the files are hidden. For more details, you may refer to How to Recover Deleted Files from Pen Drive for help.
Add To My Drive Shortcut
2. How do I view files on my USB?
Files can become hidden on a USB drive for a variety of reasons. You can use Control Panel, CMD and EaseUS data recovery software to show or recover hidden files on virus-infected USB flash drives, hard drives, memory cards, pen drives.
By doing so, you can may all your files viewable again on your USB drive. For a detailed guide, please refer to Show Hidden Files on USB Drive.
3. Why do files disappear from USB?
Many users stated that their files disappeared from USB drive that they have copied files to the drive.
How can files on USB pen drive mysteriously missing? Here are the normal reasons:
- 1). Virus infection on USB drive
- 2). File Explorer settings hide files on USB
- 3). Unfinished file transferring or failed file copying on USB
Today everyone is using computers to work online, entertainment, shopping and for other purposes. These tasks require the internet to connect with the outer world and using the internet sometimes can infect our computers with Trojans and other dangerous viruses. And then, when users plug their pen drive to virus-infected PC, the virus infects the pen drive also. Once the USB Key gets infected by the virus, it automatically starts creating shortcuts that make its data inaccessible and unreadable.
If you are one among those users who are facing shortcut virus issues with your pen drive or USB flash drive then, this article is just meant to you. Here, we are going to introduce you some simply amazing techniques to remove shortcut virus from pen drive without losing data. So, let’s begin with a brief introduction to the shortcut virus.
We Will Know About Shortcut Virus: What’s That?
A shortcut virus is something like worm and Trojans’ combination that makes your files/ folders inaccessible and replace them with shortcuts that seems exactly like the original file. When users attempt to open these shortcuts, the malware launches in their system and starts infecting the computer. Moreover, sometimes it may end up users with theft of personal information and worse system performance. These shortcut files affect the physical data transfer devices such as Pen Drives, USB flash drive, Memory card or SD Cards, External Hard Drives etc. Also, through these physical devices virus gets transferred to other computers and starts infecting them.
How To Remove Virus From USB Without Deleting Files
Here we will tell you a few simple methods to remove shortcut virus from USB flash drive without deleting files. Just follow these methods.
Method 1: Prevent Shortcut Virus in Pendrive by Using CMD
In order to remove shortcut virus from USB, Command Prompt is the best option. Below is how to remove the virus from pen drive using cmd:
- First of all, plug your Pen Drive into your Windows PC
- Click on Start and open Run. Here, type ‘cmd’ and hit the Enter button
- After this, execute the below command in Command Prompt and press Enter
ATTRIB H:*.* /D /S -H -R -S
Note: Here, replace letter H with your drive letter
ATTRIB stands for the attributes of the selected drive
-H: displays all the hidden files of pen drive
-R: helps to recreate the files on the storage device
-S: broke all the link of files from the system
Method 2: Generate BAT File to Prevent Shortcut Virus from Pen Drive Without Losing Data
BAT file is another eminent way to remove shortcut virus from my USB flash drive. To use this you do not need to install any extra software as a bat file can be generated in notepad. Below are instructions to create and use the bat file:
- Launch Notepad in your system
- Now, copy and paste the following code in notepad
@echo off
attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d H:*.*
attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d H:*.*
attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d H:*.*
@echo complete
Note: Replace H with your drive letter.
- Next, save this file with an appropriate name and end the file text with ‘.bat’ (removeshortcut.bat) and save it
- Close notepad and hit a double click on BAT file that you have created and save it on desktop
- Doing this will remove all the shortcut viruses from your USB Drive and bring your original files back
Method 3. Tweak Registry Files to Remove Shortcut Files from Pendrive Without Losing Data
Note: This is a handy way to prevent shortcut virus from your system however, this method can bring your computer in big trouble so, use this method at your own risk.
- Launch Task Manager in your system and click the Processes tab
- Now, scroll down until you get wscript.exe. Click on End Processes
- Press Windows + R keys simultaneously to open Run and type regedit. Press Enter
- Doing this will open Registry Editor
- Click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER and choose Software
- Highlight Microsoft >> Windows >> CurrentVersion >> Run
- Search for odwcamszas key and hit a right click on it
- Eventually, delete it
Method 4. Remove Shortcut Virus from Pen Drive without Losing Data using Anti-Virus Program
If you are not so tech savvy or do not want to waste your time on manual commands then, you can take help from a reliable Anti-Virus program. Using this, the shortcut virus will be eliminated automatically from your USB drive or any other drive. It is one of the quickest ways to delete shortcut viruses that are infecting the files stored in the USB drive.
How Users Can Safe Their USB Flash Drive
Now we will the how users can safe their pen drive. If users follow these things they can keep their data safely from pen drive. We mention these things below:
- Set write permissions
- Control virus running
- Be Careful while using Public Cafes
- Keep a Routine Scanning of Devices
- Go offline while Transferring Data
- Using Encrypted Drives
Above All
How to remove shortcut virus from pen drive without losing data has become a common internet search now. Considering this issue in mind we have come up with this article. Here, we have demonstrated some actual working ways to make pen drive shortcut virus-free. However, if you already have lost your crucial files from pen drive due to these shortcut viruses then, use SysTools Pen Drive Recovery Tool It is one of the safest and powerful utility to recover lost data items from any brands’ pen drive regardless of their size.