How to Remove Shortcut Virus from Pendrive

A lot of people use pen drives or hard drives to transfer data such as Media files, Documents etc from one computer to another. While doing so, you might have noticed some shortcut folders and files that show up in your pen drive’s storage. Well, it has become a common issue these days which a lot of people face on a regular basis. In order to get rid of these shortcuts folders, one would usually try to delete the shortcut folders and files using your computer. However, in most cases, deleting them will not be of any use. Moreover, the shortcut virus files will start to show up again and again even after deleting them permanently.

We’ve seen a lot of people seeking for help on the web for this particular issue. So, we’ve decided to come up with a solution in order to help out our readers who might be facing this issue. Today, in this article, we’ll be showing you how to remove shortcut virus from pen drive in a few simple steps.

What’s the effect of Shortcut Virus?

First of all, shortcut virus is not limited to Pendrives. It’s a common virus that can infect any Memory Card, SD card, Hard drive without your knowledge. Once the drive or storage device is effected with this virus, what happens usually is that all your data will be converted into shortcut folders. What’s more frightening is that you cannot access your data via any means once the drive is effected with this virus.

It doesn’t matter what’s in the pen drive, you won’t be able to get back your data as long as the drive is effected. A lot of people think formatting the drive is an easy solution for this, but that’s not true at all and not recommended. It’s because. you will lose all the data when you format the drive, and the shortcut files will show up again when you connect it to any computer or laptop.

You will find tons of guides and tutorials on the web that will show you how to remove such viruses from your pen drive. But, most of them are suitable only for tech-savvy people. But, don’t worry, we’ve got everyone’s back!

How To Remove Pendrive Shortcut Virus

Removing shortcut virus from pen drive takes only a couple of minutes these days. Often, people tend to think that their pen drive is safe and clean when the shortcuts are deleted. Well, don’t wanna disappoint you, but that’s not true at all. Your pen drive is safe only when you remove the virus permanently and doing so would require some efforts.

So, we’ve managed to find a couple of solutions that can help you to get rid of this issue and make your pen drive virus-free. You can go with any method as per wish.

Method 1: Remove Shortcut Virus Using Command Prompt

This is an ideal method for those who do not wish to download any third party software to resolve the issue. However, do keep in mind that improper use of Command prompt may damage to your pen drive. So, choose this method only if you’re familiar with CMD.

1. First of all, Open Command Prompt on your computer by right-clicking on the “Start” menu and select CMD.
2. You can also open Command Prompt simply by pressing “Win+R”, type “CMD” in the search box and hit Enter.
3. Now go to “My Computer or This PC” and note down the Drive letter of your pen drive. (In most cases, it would be “D”)
4. In Command Prompt, type “D” and hit “Enter”. Now type “attrib” and again hit “Enter”. (Choose the path of virus)
5. Now type “attrib -r -a -s -h and press “Enter”. After that, again type “Del autorun.inf” and press enter.
6. That’s it, the virus files will be removed permanently from your computer when you follow the above mentioned steps.

Note: You will have to replace the file extension from .inf to any other such .exe or .ink depending on the virus file available in your pen drive. Once you’re done with all the steps, the virus would be deleted from your pen drive and there would be no data loss. All the files and data of your drive will be restored back to their original formats.

Method 2: Remove Shortcut Virus Using Virus Remover Tool

The above mentioned method might not look easy for those who’ve never touched CMD. So, here’s an easy and alternate way to deal with this virus. In this method, we’ll be sharing a third party tool known as Hidden Folder Virus Remover that will remove the virus files in just one tap.

1. At first, go ahead and download the installation file of the HFV remover tool on your computer using the download link (Insert : https://sourceforge.net/projects/hfv/?source=recommended)
2. Once the downloading is over, open the zip file of the software and extract the “Exe” file on your desktop or anywhere you wish.
3. Run the .exe file using Admin and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process of HFV tool on your system.
4. Now open the tool and choose the drive where the shortcut virus exists. In this case, its your Pen drive or Hard drive.
5. Once the path is selected in the tool, the software will scan your drive and will show you if there’s any virus available.
6. On the bottom, you will find an option “Remove Virus” which you need to select. After that, the tool will begin its process and remove all the virus affected files.
7. The process might take a couple of minutes to be completed, but make sure you don’t turn off your computer or the tool.

Once the process is finished, your pen drive will return to normalcy and all the inaccessible data will be restored back. The good thing about this tool is that it can scan a lot of other viruses as well that might damage your Pen drive. There’s no charge or fess to use this tool, it’s all free for everyone.