The flash drive is full but there are no files. No files are visible on the flash drive, but the space is occupied

Today we will talk about an interesting virus, the name of which I certainly don’t know or don’t remember.

He lived in one wonderful budget organization, which was either forced to buy a paid antivirus that we all know, or they decided so themselves. Don't know.

Actually this is good and correct. But, either it (the antivirus) does not cope with its task, or the admin is lazy, but one way or another, the virus has been living on the computers of this organization for a long time.

And so I managed to connect a flash drive to one of the computers of the above-mentioned office of the organization.

The peculiarity of the virus is this: it does not copy itself onto your device (or rather, it copies, but very rarely, and apparently only some kind of it), but it manages to cause mischief.

The virus has hidden folders and files on the flash drive

All of the following symptoms may appear either all at the same time or some separately:

The flash drive is supposedly empty - you don’t see anything in the explorer.
There is not a single file visible on the flash disk, but if you look at the properties of the disk, it becomes clear that it is not empty.
There is something on the disk that looks like your folders, and even looks like them, but in fact, these are EXE files that open Windows Explorer. Sometimes in the “My Documents” folder.
Instead of your files, shortcuts that still open your files. Well, or they don’t open...

How to cure a flash drive from a file-hiding virus

What to do if such a nuisance happens to you and your flash drive.

Tip #1. Do not format the flash drive under any circumstances.

Your data is there, it is not corrupted, and we will return it now:

Run Command Prompt as Administrator. Enter the command

attrib -h -r -s /d /s h:\*.*— where “h:\” is the letter of your flash drive.

and press

This command will make your files and folders visible.

Let's look at what the command we entered does:

attrib— actually launches the attrib program

key -h— clears the “hidden file” attribute.

key -r- clears the file's read-only attribute.

key -s— clears the “system file” attribute.

key /s— applies only to files.

key /d— extends the effect to directories (folders) and files. Doesn't work without /s

After these steps, your files and folders will become visible. All you have to do is delete (using a search) all files with the extension *.lnk (shortcuts) and name.exe that look like your folders (where name is the names of your folders). If there are files that are not similar to yours, delete them too.

Neoshibka.Ru is not responsible for your actions and possible loss of information. You perform all actions at your own peril and risk. You must understand what you are doing and where it will lead.

Today, many do not know what to do when we look at the contents of a flash drive, but there are no files there. This situation usually occurs due to connecting a flash drive to public computers, or not safely removing the media. In the first case, the virus complicates our life; in the second, the device is not used correctly. The simplest option is that the virus has made folders and files invisible. To solve this problem you need:

Click Start - Control Panel - Folder Options
Afterwards, go to the tab View, and at the very bottom of the list find the line Hide protected system files
Need to pick up a tick

Now you will see the files on the flash drive, but they need to be made not hidden. To do this, select all the files on the flash drive, right-click (right mouse button) and click properties. And uncheck hidden.

Picture 1

A number of ways to identify files on a flash drive

1. you need to launch the Windows console (Start - Run - cmd). Do two things in the console:

dir A: /x, where the letter A is the letter of the flash device (flash drive). Then a file similar in name to 3497~1 .
ren A:/3497~1 newdirectory , where newdirecroty is the name of the new folder.

Figure - 2

2. If you see only shortcuts on the flash drive instead of the contents, then you need to do the following:

create a file with the extension .bat and add content there - attrib -s -h -r -a *.* /s /d
Then copy this file to the root of the flash drive (G:,F:...), and run.

It is also worth checking the flash drive for errors in the standard way. It is possible that errors have accumulated during incorrect use of the device.

In this manual I will describe all the ways I know to solve this problem. First, the simplest and, at the same time, the most effective methods will be used in most situations when the computer does not see the flash drive, reports that the disk is not formatted, or produces other errors. There are also separate instructions on how to.

There are many reasons why you may encounter the fact that your computer does not see the flash drive. The problem can appear in any version of the Microsoft operating system - Windows 10, 8, Windows 7 or XP. If the computer does not recognize the connected flash drive, this can manifest itself in several variations.

The computer says “insert disk” even when the flash drive has just been connected
The icon of the connected flash drive and the connection sound just appear, but the drive is not visible in Explorer.
It says that it needs to be formatted because the disk is not formatted
A message appears indicating that a data error has occurred
When you insert a flash drive, the computer freezes
The computer sees the flash drive in the system, but...
If your computer says that the device is not recognized, you should start with these instructions:
Separate instructions: .

If the methods described at the beginning do not help to “cure” the problem, move on to the next ones - until the problem with the flash drive is solved (unless it has serious physical damage - then there is a chance that nothing will help).

Perhaps, if the description below does not help, you will find another article useful (provided that your flash drive is not visible on any computer): (Kingston, Sandisk, Silicon Power and others).

Windows USB Troubleshooter

I recommend starting with this, the safest and easiest way: recently, the official Microsoft website has its own utility for fixing problems with connecting USB drives, compatible with Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7.

After running the utility, all you need to do is click Next and see if the problems have been fixed. During the troubleshooting process, the following items are checked (descriptions taken from the troubleshooter itself):

A USB device may not be recognized when connected via a USB port due to the use of upper and lower filters in the registry.
A USB device may not be recognized when connected via a USB port due to the use of corrupted high and low filters in the registry.
The USB printer does not print. This is probably caused by a failure when trying to print or other problems. In this case, you may not be able to turn off the USB printer.
The USB storage device cannot be removed using the Safely Remove Hardware function. You may receive the following error message: "Windows cannot stop the Generic Volume device because it is being used by programs. Quit any programs that may be using this device, and then try again."
Windows Update is configured to never update drivers. When driver updates are detected, Windows Update does not install them automatically. Because of this, the USB device drivers may be out of date.

If something has been fixed, you will see a message about it. It's also a good idea to try reconnecting your USB drive after using the USB troubleshooter. You can download the utility from the official Microsoft website.

Check if the computer sees the connected flash drive in Disk Management

Start Disk Management using one of the following methods:

Start - Run (Win + R), enter the command diskmgmt.msc, press Enter
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management

In the disk management window, pay attention to whether the flash drive appears and disappears when you connect and disconnect it from the computer.

The ideal option is if the computer sees the connected flash drive and all partitions on it (usually one) are in the “Good” state. In this case, just right-click on it, select “Make partition active” in the context menu, and perhaps assign a letter to the flash drive - this will be enough for the computer to “see” the USB drive. If the partition is faulty or deleted, then you will see “Not distributed” in the status. Try right-clicking on it and, if such an item appears in the menu, select “Create a simple volume” to create a partition and format the flash drive (the data will be deleted).

Further simple steps

Try going to Device Manager and see if your device is listed as unknown, or in the “Other devices” section (as in the screenshot) - the drive may be called there by its real name or as a USB mass storage device.

Right-click on the device, select Delete, and after deleting it, in the Device Manager menu, select Action - Update hardware configuration.

Perhaps this action will be enough for your flash drive to appear in Windows Explorer and be accessible.

Among other things, the following options are possible. If you connect the flash drive to the computer via an extension cable or USB hub, try connecting directly. Try connecting to all available USB ports. Try turning off the computer, disconnecting all extraneous devices from USB (Web cameras, external hard drives, card readers, printer), leaving only the keyboard, mouse and flash drive, then turning on the computer. If after this the flash drive works, then the problem is in the power supply to the USB ports of the computer - perhaps the power supply of the PC is not enough. A possible solution is to replace the power supply or purchase a USB hub with its own power supply.

Windows 10 does not see the flash drive after updating or installation (suitable for Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10)

Many users have encountered the problem of USB drives not being displayed after upgrading to Windows 10 from previous OSs, or after simply installing updates on an already installed Windows 10. It often happens that flash drives are not visible only via USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 - i.e. It can be assumed that USB drivers are required. However, in fact, this behavior is often caused not by drivers, but by incorrect registry entries about previously connected USB drives.

In this case, the free USBOblivion utility can help, removing from the Windows registry all information about previously connected flash drives and external hard drives. Before using the program, I recommend.

Disconnect all flash drives and other USB storage devices from the computer, run the program, check the Perform real cleanup and Save undo reg file checkboxes, then click the “Cleanup” button.

After cleaning is completed, restart your computer and connect the flash drive - most likely, it will be detected and become accessible. If not, then also try going to the device manager (by right-clicking on the Start button) and follow the steps to remove the USB drive from the Other devices section and then update the hardware configuration (described above). You can download the USBOblivion program from the official developer page: www.cherubicsoft.com/projects/usboblivion

But, in relation to Windows 10, another option is possible - actual incompatibility of USB 2.0 or 3.0 drivers (as a rule, then they are displayed with an exclamation mark in the device manager). In this case, the recommendation is to check the availability of the necessary USB and chipset drivers on the official website of the laptop or PC motherboard manufacturer. At the same time, I recommend using the official websites of the device manufacturers themselves, and not the Intel or AMD websites, to search for such drivers, especially when it comes to laptops. Also, sometimes updating the motherboard BIOS helps solve the problem.

If the flash drive is not seen by Windows XP

The most common situation I encountered when calling to set up and repair computers, when a computer with the Windows XP operating system installed on it did not see a flash drive (even if it sees other flash drives), was caused by the fact that the necessary updates for working with USB drives were not installed . The fact is that many organizations use Windows XP, often in the SP2 version. Updates were not installed due to restrictions on Internet access or poor performance of the system administrator.

So, if you have Windows XP and the computer does not see the flash drive:

If SP2 is installed, update to version SP3 (when performing the update, if you have Internet Explorer 8 installed, remove it).
Install all Windows XP updates, regardless of which Service Pack you are using.

Here are some of the fixes for working with USB flash drives that were released in Windows XP updates:

KB925196 - fixed errors that appear in the fact that the computer does not detect the connected flash drive or iPod.
KB968132 - fixed errors where when connecting multiple USB devices in Windows XP they stopped functioning normally
KB817900 - The USB port stopped working after removing and reinserting the flash drive
KB895962 - USB flash drive stops working when the printer is turned off
KB314634 - the computer sees only old flash drives that were connected before and does not see new ones
KB88740 - Rundll32.exe error when inserting or removing a USB flash drive
KB871233 - the computer does not see the flash drive if it has just been in sleep or hibernation mode
KB312370 (2007) - USB 2.0 support in Windows XP

By the way, despite the fact that Windows Vista is almost never used anywhere, it should be noted that installing all updates should also be the first step if a similar problem occurs.

Completely remove old USB drivers

This option is suitable if the computer says “Insert disk” when you insert a USB flash drive. Old USB drivers available in Windows can cause this problem, as well as errors associated with assigning a letter to the flash drive. In addition, this may also be the reason why the computer restarts or freezes when you insert a flash drive into a USB port.

The fact is that by default, Windows installs drivers for USB drives the moment you connect them to the corresponding port on your computer for the first time. At the same time, when the flash drive is disconnected from the port, the driver does not go anywhere and remains in the system. When connecting a new flash drive, conflicts may arise due to the fact that Windows will try to use previously installed drivers corresponding to this USB port, but to a different USB drive. I won’t go into detail, but will simply describe the steps required to remove these drivers (you won’t see them in Windows Device Manager).

How to remove drivers for all USB devices

Turn off the computer and disconnect all USB storage devices (and not only) (flash drives, external hard drives, card readers, web cameras, etc. You can leave the mouse and keyboard provided that they do not have a built-in card reader.
Turn on your computer again.
Download the DriveCleanup utility http://uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip (compatible with Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8)
Copy the 32-bit or 64-bit version of drivecleanup.exe (depending on your version of Windows) to the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
Launch Command Prompt as Administrator and enter drivecleanup.exe
You will see the process of removing all drivers and their entries in the Windows registry.

When the program finishes running, restart your computer. Now, when you insert the USB flash drive, Windows will install new drivers for it.

Update 2016: It is easier to perform the operation of deleting mount points of USB drives using the free USBOblivion program, as described above in the section about non-working flash drives in Windows 10 (the program will work for other versions of Windows).

Reinstalling USB devices in Windows Device Manager

If none of the above has helped so far, and the computer does not see any flash drives at all, and not just one specific one, you can try the following method:

Go to Device Manager by pressing Win+R and typing devmgmt.msc
In Device Manager, open USB Controllers
Delete (via right click) all devices called USB Root Hub, USB Host Controller or Generic USB Hub.
In Device Manager, select Actions - Update hardware configuration.

After reinstalling USB devices, check if the USB drives work on your computer or laptop.

Additional actions

Check your computer for viruses - they may cause inappropriate behavior of USB devices
Check the Windows registry, namely the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer. If you see an option named NoDrives in this section, remove it and restart your computer.
Go to the Windows registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control. If the StorageDevicePolicies parameter is there, remove it.
In some cases, completely de-energizing the computer helps. You can do this this way: unplug the flash drives, turn off the computer or laptop, unplug it (or remove the battery if it’s a laptop), and then, with the computer turned off, press and hold the power button for a few seconds. After that, release it, reconnect the power supply and turn it on. Oddly enough, this can sometimes help.

Recovering data from a flash drive that the computer cannot see

If in Windows Disk Management the computer displays the flash drive, but in the status “Not recognized”, “Not initialized”, and the partition on the flash drive is “Not distributed”, then most likely the data on the flash drive is damaged and you will need to use data recovery.

There are a few things to keep in mind that will increase the likelihood of successful data recovery:

Do not write anything to the flash drive you want to recover.
Do not try to save recovered files to the same media from which they are recovered

If nothing helps, and your computer still does not see the flash drive, and the files and data stored on it are very important, then the last recommendation would be to contact a company professionally engaged in file and data recovery.

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When working with USB drives, situations often arise when some of the files (or even all the information on the drive) become invisible.

There can be a number of reasons behind this problem.

Common reasons for file “invisibility”

The files on the flash drive are not visible, what to do in this situation? Operating systems allow you to limit the visibility of files.
In this case, such information does not disappear from the media, but the user cannot see it.
The reason for this could be a malfunction of the application, the deliberate actions of another user using this media, or the result of a virus that hides files on the drive. We will describe below ways to recover hidden files on your flash drive.
The files were written to the media with an error. This situation can occur when the flash drive is unsafely removed from the computer. In this case, some files may not be completely recorded. In this case, such a security threat will either be read incorrectly or not be displayed at all.
The files were deleted by the user, an antivirus program, or as a result of a crash. We will describe methods for recovering information below.

What to do?

What to do if there are no files visible on the flash drive? Firstly, if the files on your flash drive have become hidden, you need to determine the reasons for the invisibility.

Only the correct definition will allow you to choose the right course of action and open these hidden files on the flash drive.

Secondly, It’s worth trying to open the flash drive on another computer or through another operating system. Some reading errors may be corrected by a newer version of Windows.

Ways to show hidden files

To solve this problem, you can use both standard tools of your operating system and various third-party programs.

Instructions for Windows XP

Instructions for the Total Commander program

Total Commander will also help you show hidden files on your flash drive. To do this you need:

Open the folder in the program.
On the toolbar, find an icon in the form of a leaf with an exclamation mark (in some versions of the program - an asterisk) with the inscription “Hidden elements”.
When activated, all hidden files will appear semi-transparent.

Information from the media disappeared after being scanned by an antivirus program

This situation may occur if the files contain potentially dangerous information. In this case, most antivirus programs will place the file in a quarantine zone for further processing.

To restore them, you need to find “Quarantined files” in the antivirus menu and restore (or delete infected) files in the menu that appears. After this, the information will appear on the media.

It is worth saying that if information is recognized as malicious, then the antivirus can remove it from the media offline without the possibility of subsequent recovery.

In this case, the list of antivirus operations performed will contain information about the infected file and the reasons for deletion.

Problems accessing the flash drive

A more common problem than file visibility is that access to the flash drive is denied. This manifests itself as follows.

You insert the flash drive into the slot, try to open it and receive the message “Access denied.” There are two main reasons for this problem.

Firstly, this is the failure of the media. In this case, it is almost impossible to restore the functionality of your device on your own and you will need to contact service centers.

Secondly, a write error may occur on the media due to unsafe ejection and interruption of the writing process.

In this case, to restore full access, it is necessary to check the media for errors. For this:

Open the “My Computer” window and find your removable media. If it is not in this window, then most likely the flash drive has failed.
Right-click on the flash drive shortcut and select “Properties” - “Tools” - “Check volume for errors” from the menu. This check will most likely solve the problem. If this does not happen, then a breakdown is likely.

Description of the problem

When opening a flash drive, folders, files and other elements are not displayed.

Cause

The operation of a malicious application that has changed the attributes of elements to a hidden display mode.

Options for solving the problem

Select “Folder Options” (for Windows 7 and higher - “Folder Options”).

Go to the “View” tab. Here you need to uncheck “Hide protected system files” and check next to “Show hidden files, folders, drives”. Then click “OK”.

Open “My Computer”. Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Properties”.

A window will appear in which you need to uncheck the “Hide” command.

2. You can also access hidden files on a flash drive using the Total Commander program.

Let's launch the software. Select “Configuration” on the toolbar. Here click “Settings”.

Go to the “Panel Contents” tab, which is located on the left side of the working window and check the “Show hidden/system files” checkbox.

The contents of the disk drive will be displayed.

3. The third method can be called “Medicine for a flash drive.”

Open the removable disk. Right-click and select “New”, “Text Document” (Notepad type).

We give the document a name. For example, “Doctor for a flash drive.”

We write in the text the following command “attrib -s -h -r -a *.* /s /d”

Save the file.

Go to the “View” tab and uncheck “Hide extension for known file types”.

Let's return to the flash drive. Click “Rename” and place the format “txt”, enter “.bat”. The result is a program file.

We run the file and all the elements on the flash drive are displayed.