Virus on flash drive, unknown characters

BryanJames16 · 30 Mar 2015

Hello!
My friend plugged in her USB Flash Drive on a computer shop this week. After plugging in, she got a couple of viruses. She let me take a look at it. I scanned the Flash Drive with my AV and I found couple of viruses. But when I opened the USB, I found something strange. The file names (as well as the folder names) are different. Is this some sort of ASCII encryption or what? It's just a bunch of characters. I cannot open the file successfully. Sometimes, it will open but will display an error message. What are these? And What can I do to fix these? Thanks in advance!

Layback Bear · 30 Mar 2015

Things that come to mind.

I would recommend not allowing friends or anybody else plugging in anything into your computers. You have no way of knowing what your are going to get into your computer.

It looks encrypted to me and unless you have the proper code to open the encrypted file your not going to open it.

What did this friend say was on the flash drive?
Their is a possibility you have already infected the computer the flash drive was plugged into.

BryanJames16 · 30 Mar 2015

Is there anyway to decrypt these kinds of file? Or how can I fix these? This also happened to me and I reformatted my flash disk because of this.

So far, the computer the flash drive was plugged in was working fine. I tried plugging clean flash drives and nothing changes. I also ran a full time scan and no threats appeared.

Layback Bear · 30 Mar 2015

Sure their is a way of decrypting the information. Use the encryption/decryption key (code).
If you don't have that their is no way. If their was a way without the key their would be no reason to encrypt.

A little reminder from our forum rules.

I believe that rule #6 applies.

6) No discussions of hacking someones system, network, password, etc.

https://www.sevenforums.com/misc.php?do=showrules

cottonball · 30 Mar 2015

BryanJames16,

It looks like file system corruption, and that is an area where GetDataBack (GDB) excels.

Could only find the direct links for the free downloads:
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.zip (FAT)
http://www.runtime.org/gdbnt.zip (NTFS)

You will need to know whether the drive has a FAT or NTFS file system to select the download that applies.
Also, do you know the file extensions (.jpg, .txt, .pdf, etc...)

There is also a new free product, GetDataBack Simple Data Recovery
Download > Data Recovery Software Products - Runtime Software Products

I have not used GDB in any version, however you should be able to find guidance on its use in the Internet.
There may also be someone here that may be able to help you with its use.

There is also Recuva, which may work well if the files are something like photos:
Download > Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

BryanJames16 · 31 Mar 2015

@Layback Bear: Oh, I'm really sorry about this one. I'm so sorry.
@cottonball: I'll try this method. Thank you very much!

Layback Bear · 31 Mar 2015

I don't understand.
You have nothing to be sorry for as far as I'm concerned.

LMiller7 · 08 Apr 2015

Best practice usage of a flash drive is as a transport media. In that case you should always have a good copy of the files stored in their original location with no need for data recovery. In that case you would simply format (taking appropriate precautions) or replace the drive and move on.

Flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media. Add to that the possibility that they may be lost, stolen, physically damaged, or infected by viruses when inserted in an infected computer. Such devices cannot be trusted as primary storage of important files. Trying to use them for this purpose is asking for trouble. Unfortunately so may people do not learn this until it is too late.