By Sophia | Last Updated
USB is a small removable storage tool that uses for transferring files and folders. But somehow, files and folders are not showing from the external hard drive but still taking up space. Why does this come up? USB has no safety protection itself, so it's very susceptible to infection. As long as it gets infected with virus, the malware may hide the files and folders saved on USB. Some users may format the USB or use an anti-virus program to scan it in this situation. However, you will get the opposite result for files and virus would be deleted at the same time. Here are still several ways to solve the problem that you needn't delete those files and folders. Follow the tutorial to learn how to retrieve hidden files and folders from USB.
How to show hidden files in USB? Here is how to do it through Command Prompt:
Step 1: Go to your computer desktop and double click This PC or My Computer in order to open it .
Step 2: Find your USB in which you want to show hidden files and write down the drive letter.
Step 3: Press Windows + R key combi and type cmd in the Run dialog. Tap on OK button to continue.
Step 4: Type G: or cd G: to open your USB drive in the window which you just opened.
Step 5: If you want to retrieve just one hidden file or folder, type attrib G:"filename" -s -h -r and hit Enter. Replace your file name with the filename on the command line. For example, I want to unhide KMSPICO file and need to input attrib G:"KMSPICO" -s -h -r. Return to the USB drive you can see the hidden file retrieved.
Step 6: If you want to retrieve all hidden files in USB, just type "attrib *.* -h -s /s /d" (without quotes) and hit Enter. All the hidden files and folders will show after several seconds.
You can also see hidden files in USB via Notepad. Now you can follow the below steps to learn how to retrieve hidden files in USB via Notepad.
Step 1: Right-click an empty space on the desktop, and then select NewText Document to go on.
Step 2: Copy the following code line and paste it to the document:
for /f "delims=?" %%a in ('dir /a /b') do attrib -a -s -h -r "%%a"
Step 3: Click on FileSave as from the top left corner, choose a destination to save the file, type retrieve.cmd in the box behind File name and select All files next to Save as type.
Step 4: Copy and paste the "retrieve.cmd" file to the USB root directory, and then double-click on it to run the attrib command automatically. Then you can retrieve all the hidden files in the USB.
Step 1: First of all, follow the below instructions to learn how to open Folders Option window:
In Windows 7: Open My Computer, click Tools on the Menu bar and select Folders Options from the drop-down.
Note: If you cannot see the Menu bar, head to OrganizeLayout Menu bar at the top-right corner.
In Windows 10: Click File Explorer from the taskbar, and then tap on Options under the View tab. Now you should be able to see the Folder Options window.
Step 2: In the Folder Options window, go to the View tab. Under the part of Advanced settings, uncheck the box next to Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and make sure that the option of Show hidden files, folders, or drivers is selected.
Step 3: Tap on the button of Apply and OK to save changes.
Related Articles:
