Virus on Hard Drive : \$Recycle.Bin

I have a Westend Passport 1TB Hard drive which i gave it to a friend to share some stuff. When I tried to open it i could only see 1 single folder in the hard drive and it with this name $Recycle.Bin. When i try to scan it all the folders and data's are seen in the scanning scree, but there are no data that u can use.

I use a paid version of Kaspersky Internet security and so was a bit careless assuming that it could prevent all the malwares abd viruses.

Please help as i have few important stuff in that hard drive.

Look forward for your help.

Ragesh Nair

Hi ragesh19,

Welcome to sevenforums.

Download and install Malwarebytes Anti-malware from https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/
Update if and when prompted.
With your infected drive connected, run Quick Scan.Select all malicious files detected and Remove selected.
Reboot your PC.

Method 2. here How to Fully Remove Recycle.Bin Virus ? Learn the Recycle.Bin Malware Removal Guides | Remove Virus, Spyware and Malware

I also use Western Digital External USB HDDs including one Passport and they have that $Recycle.Bin Folder, the Folder is created by Windows as part of its deletion process. I see the same Folder on my second Internal HDD. If the suggested diagnostic shows the drive clean then I'd consider the data lost. During the sharing it's possible the data was Moved rather than Copied.

@Berton, you are absolutely right when you say that $Recycle.Bin is a Windows System file. Yes, it is. The virus hides inside the recycle bin and hence it is called $Recycle.Bin virus.( Recycle bin by itself is not a virus.:))

The OP says when scanning - by which I presume he means a anti-virus scan - he can see all the folders being scanned. So I would believe his folders may all be there.

Once there is a doubt, it is better to do a malwarebyte scan and get that cleared, as you have mentioned.

Hello Jumanji,

I have seen your earlier replies and did the same procedure to get the files. Well, i got all my files and i am able to preview it. What i dont understand is, how can it be a virus if i am using a paid version of Antivirus? I will also try to do the malwarebyte scan, which is the best antivirus you would like to suggest in the future?

First of all thank you so much Jumanji and Berton for your prompt responses. I really appreciate!!!

ragesh19 said:

Hello Jumanji,

I have seen your earlier replies and did the same procedure to get the files. Well, i got all my files and i am able to preview it. What i dont understand is, how can it be a virus if i am using a paid version of Antivirus? I will also try to do the malwarebyte scan, which is the best antivirus you would like to suggest in the future?

Do you mean that you used WinRAR to see the hidden files and copy those? Yep that is one way to recover the files when some virus hides them.

I did not mention this in my first post here for the need of the hour is to eliminate the virus first.

Once eliminated the folders and files most probably would have been unhidden automatically or we can unhide them with unhide commands.

These type of virus hide themselves in System Folders to avoid detection by anti-virus programs which normally don't touch system folders. They may also disable anti-virus programs to avoid detection.

I am glad you got your problem resolved.(?)

If so you can mark the thread as solved.