Flash Drive missing files after adding new ones ?

goodlad · 23 Jan 2014

I will cut it out short, I have around 3 flash drives. On, one of them, I have stored around 20 mp3's. Today, when I went out to a cyber cafe, I asked them to add 3 scanned images (jpeg's) on my flash drive into a new folder, which they did. (JFYI, They had XP while I have W7).

When I reached home, all I could find on the drive are the 3 images, all the other 20 mp3's were missing. I thought may be they accidentally deleted files, so just wanted to be sure about that & when I scanned my drive, it showed me 23 files in total, along with 1 directory. Space shows up used too, around 250MB space is shown used up (its a 4GB Flash Drive) but I can't find these files.

I tested this drive on my Audio Box Amplifier (external not connected to laptop in anyway), it started playing songs with out any issue.

So songs are inside the drive but I can't find them ? Is there a way I can view the files again as I need to remove few mp3's & add few new ones in there.

Some help would be really appreciated, I don't want to keep scratching my brain about this. If this is not possible is there a way, through which at least I could delete all the files in the flash drive & start fresh ?

archer · 23 Jan 2014

Hi goodlad,

The problem could be because all the data that was present inside the pen drive now have become system files by the virus. This is the reason why they are not visible even with the option “Show Hidden files and folders”.
To remove the problem this is what you need to do.
1. Go to Folder Options -> View tab
2. Make sure that your Show Hidden files and folders option is enabled.
3. Uncheck the option that reads “Hide protected operating system files (recommended)”

Now when you see your pen drive, you will find that your data is present there but in hidden form. There are 2 ways to unhide the data, either right click and uncheck the Hidden box or type in the following command in the command prompt
attrib filename –h –r –s
where filename is the complete location of the file.

jumanji · 23 Jan 2014

Run WinRAR (your bit version)

Screenshot:

Flash Drive missing files after adding new ones ?-23-01-2014-22-46-27.jpg

Did this help or did I pull a fast one?:)