I got my Pen Drive infected with some virus which changed all the folders to shortcuts. I am just showing you one folder as example to fix....I tried to scan with avast and Malware Bytes anti-malware, it found couple of threats and even after deleting them, there was no change, so i am giving you steps to restore your data...
Please follow the screenshots one by one.....this worked for me, hope it works for you too...cheers
Before starting these steps please enable " Show hidden files, folders and drives " from the folder options in Control Panel.
Following is the infected folder which contains data but it shows as shortcut, please right click on the shortcut icon and click on properties you will see like the one below...
the part which says target is important, mine said %windir%\system32\cmd.exe /C start "" "L:\karthik\" && start "" "42a9517_l.exe" Also there is no such partition as L: in my system, the partition name of my pen drive is G: as you can see below.
All you have to do is to erase the target in the first screen shot and type is as G:\karthik....please see image below.
Click Apply and and then OK. After doing this, you will now be able to double click the shortcut and will be able to see the contents of the folder. And once you are inside this folder right click on the empty space and open properties and click customize tab on it and then click on change icon...
Select the folder that I have selected as down below. Click OK followed by Apply and then OK again.
Now you will be able to see a hidden folder along with the infected shortcut, this will be your original data... Last step is to right click on the hidden folder and make it visible and delete the shortcut icon from the pen drive.
Note:- Please Select Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files.
Please follow the screenshots one by one.....this worked for me, hope it works for you too...cheers
Before starting these steps please enable " Show hidden files, folders and drives " from the folder options in Control Panel.
Following is the infected folder which contains data but it shows as shortcut, please right click on the shortcut icon and click on properties you will see like the one below...
Click Apply and and then OK. After doing this, you will now be able to double click the shortcut and will be able to see the contents of the folder. And once you are inside this folder right click on the empty space and open properties and click customize tab on it and then click on change icon...
Select the folder that I have selected as down below. Click OK followed by Apply and then OK again.
Now you will be able to see a hidden folder along with the infected shortcut, this will be your original data... Last step is to right click on the hidden folder and make it visible and delete the shortcut icon from the pen drive.
Note:- Please Select Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files.
Please make sure you delete the shortcut icon and not your original data folder, it happens when you are trying to play smart and accidentally it goes wrong... happened to me once :-)
Hope this works...
Thanks
