How to Unhide Files That is Hidden by Virus

No antivirus program is 100% effective so you may just have been unlucky in getting infected 

How to unhide file / folder For all types of external storage you will need to unhide folders and documents manually:

• Make sure the external storage device is plugged into the computer

• Open an elevated Command Prompt:

In XP – click Start \ All Programs \ Accessories \ Command Prompt

In Vista/Windows 7 – click Start \ All Programs \ Accessories then right click on ‘Command Prompt’ and click on ‘Run as administrator’

Both options open up a Command Prompt window

• Type in the following command (see Note after it) then press Enter:

attrib -h -r -s /s /d e:\*.*

NOTE – this assumes that your external storage drive is the e drive – if not, you must change the letter e to whatever your external drive letter is E.g. if a flash drive is the f drive you would change the last bit to f:\*.*

This attrib command goes through the external storage device and unhides any files and folders which are hidden. USB devices are a lot slower than internal hard drives so the process may take much longer – possibly hours if you have 100′s of GBs of data stored on them.

Once finished, the cursor returns to a flashing command prompt on a new line as shown below – now close the Command Prompt window :

After attrib has un-hidden files on an external drive.

Why Not Use This Command On Internal Drives Too?

The attrib command removes the ‘hidden’ attribute from ALL files on the selected drive. If you run it on the internal drive it would unhide everything – including important system files which are supposed to be hidden (to stop you deleting them by mistake and then finding that Windows no longer works…)

Whereas the unhide program does not unhide those important system files on the internal (Windows) drive – it avoids that risk and is perhaps a little quicker as a result.