In a situation in which your data is hidden, inaccessible, or lost due to a virus attack on a USB pen drive, you can use Command Prompt (cmd) to recover hidden files from virus infected USB. Since it is free and well-understood, cmd is an excellent choice. Now let’s see how this works. (I will be using Windows 10 for this demonstration, but the process is largely the same for other OS versions)

1. Plug your external hard drive, memory card, or USB drive into your computer

2. Go to the start menu, type in “cmd” in the search bar, hit enter. You’ll then see something named “cmd.exe” under a list of programs.

3. Click “cmd. exe” and then you will be directed to the Windows command line that allows you to recover virus-infected files.

• Type chkdsk E: /f and hit Enter. (Replace E: with the drive letter of the device or location where you have virus-infected files.)
• Type Y and hit Enter.
• Type E: and hit Enter. (Replace E: with the appropriate drive letter.)
• Type attrib -h –r -s /s /d *.* and hit Enter.  

Windows will then start to repair the virus-infected external hard drive, memory card, or USB drive. The repair usually takes one or two minutes. Please wait patiently. After the repair process, navigate to your disk or card and check if you can see all of the previously virus-infected files on your USB/pen drive, memory card, or external hard drive.

Solution A.  Show Hidden Files in USB in Windows File Option

Step 1. In Windows 10/8/7, press Windows + E to bring up the Windows Explorer.

Step 2. In the Folder Options or File Explorer Options window, click View tab, under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files, folders, and drives option.

Step 3. Then click Apply, then OK. You’ll see the files of the USB drive.

Solution 3. Recover Hidden Files in USB Using Software

In case neither of the Control Panel and CMD help show the hidden files, EaseUS data recovery software becomes a nice alternative solution. The program is professional recovery software that can help you recover hidden files from pen drive, hard drives and multiple storage devices such as USB flash drives, memory cards, external hard drives, etc.

By performing the 3-step hidden file recovery, you’ll see hidden files showing up again.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive and start scanning.

Connect the USB drive, like an external hard drive and USB flash drive, to the computer. Then launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, hover on the USB drive from which you want to recover the hidden files, then click “Scan”.

Step 2. Select the hidden files.

Wait until the scanning completes. Afterward, select the hidden files you want to recover from the USB drive. To check the file, double-click it to preview its content.

Step 3. Recover the hidden files from the USB drive.

After choosing the files, click “Recover” and choose a location on another drive to save the files.

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