How do I fix super-invisible files when "attrib -h -s" fails?

This is a weird one! I used robocopy to copy millions of files to the root of a new NTFS partition. But they're all not just invisible, but "super-invisible"! By which I mean that every attempt to unhide them with the "attrib -h -s *.*" command results in the message "*.* not found"! You can't unhide files that the OS doesn't see, I guess.

I just learned now that robocopy has a known bug when copying to the root folder. There are many threads about this bug, but this one seems to be the most useful: Robocopy hides files after copying them

The most useful bit of info from that page is that "attrib -h -s" isn't enough. It advises that you first use "attrib +A *.*", which sets them up for a subsequent "attrib -h -s" command.

But "attrib +A *.*" doesn't work in my case either! I get the same error message: "*.* not found.

What can I do now? I absolutely do NOT want to re-copy all those millions of files, which took a full day.

Brink said:

Hello Thenin, :)

See if the command below may work for you instead.

ATTRIB -H -S "Drive letter:\*" /S /D

File and Folder - Hide or Unhide

Thanks, Brink!

I started that command hours ago, and it still has not completed, so I don't know if it will work. But when I look at the drive to see what's going on, none of the files are visible yet.

Do you think that's normal?

Well, just now the computer in question had a BSOD. When I rebooted and looked at the disk, there are still no files in evidence, even though a huge portion of the disk shows up being used.

I guess I have to start over, dammit!