How to remove virus from your pen drive?

| Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2016, 19:00 [IST]

There are antivirus programs that are meant to remove the computer virus infection on your PC or laptop. But, there is something called Shortcut Virus.

How to remove virus from your pen drive?

Well, the Shortcut Virus is a new modern virus that automatically comes in your computer/USB/SD card. It will convert all of your content into a shortcut. In some cases, this virus makes your content invisible and shows that the storage is full.

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The first thing to be noted is that the Shortcut Virus problem is not removable by anti-virus programs even while scanning the shortcut virus infected location with one. It will simply state "No threat detected".

It is common to see people who don't know how to get rid of this virus to just perform a format the pen drive. If you are thinking about formatting the storage device, you need not do it anymore. This virus is a result of an internet or third party software, USB storage, and more.

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Sometime when you connect a pen drive to your friend's computer for exchanging data without knowing that the computer is already infected with the shortcut virus, your pen drive also gets infected. As you connect the pen drive back to your computer, the virus becomes the part of your computer.

Check out how to remove the shortcut virus from your flash drive from these steps.

You need to get to know about the Shortcut Virus

It is of two types. The first one replaces the desktop folder and file icons with the shortcut icons and these will appear with an arrow in the lower left corner with the shortcut in the title or the extension "shortcut.exe." The second type of shortcut virus affects your USB or pen drive. It will move your files into a hidden folder and produce a shortcut.exe file of your pen drive. The virus will spread to your PC if you try to open the infected files.

Remove the virus with a software

You can remove the shortcut virus using an antivirus software. You need to go to Start → My Computer and right click on the removable drive and choose the option "Scan for viruses". Then, you need to follow the on-screen instructions.

Remove shortcut virus from the command prompt

You can remove the virus manually from the flash drive or pen drive from the command prompt. Open the same from Start and search for cmd. On cmd, you need to make a right click and select the option "Run as Administrator". Then, type the USB's letter and hit enter. You can get the USB's letter from My Computer. Type del".Ink and hit enter and then attrib -s -r -h *.* /s.d/l/ and hit enter.

Backup the files

After removing the virus from the pen drive, you can reformat it if you want. Before reformatting, you need to backup the content as it will remove all the data. Scan the items and delete the unfamiliar ones before you backup the drive to the desktop or any easy to remember location.

Reformat the pen drive

To reformat the pen drive, go to Start and type cmd to launch it. Type in the letter associated with the thumb drive and hit enter. Type /q /x [pen drive letter]: and hit enter. Then, move the files that were backed up earlier.