USB Files Turned into EXE Files? Recover Files & Remove Virus

USB flash drives are now commonly used data storage devices, but because they connect to different devices to transfer files, they are easily infected with various viruses. If the USB drive file is found to have become an EXE file, it means that the USB drive has been infected. This article will guide you on how to recover files from an infected USB drive and how to clean up EXE virus.

What is EXE virus?

An EXE virus is a ransomware that hides your original files and creates a pseudo-EXE file with the same name as yours. Therefore, you may find that the USB drive file becomes an EXE file. Once you click Run EXE file, the virus will be activated and more files will be infected.

Worse, this virus can affect your computer programs, such as Task Manager, Windows registry, and other tools, reduce computer performance and make it vulnerable to other threats.

How to display hidden files?

The following two methods can help you find hidden files in infected USB drives.

Method 1: Use File Explorer to display hidden files

Typically, to protect some important system files, File Explorer does not display hidden files. Therefore, you need to enable the option to show hidden files.

Step 1: Press Win E to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Switch to the View tab and select Options on the toolbar.

Step 3: In the Folder Options window, switch to the View tab, and then select Show hidden files, folders, and drives in the Advanced Settings section.

Step 4: Click Apply > OK to save changes.

Method 2: Use the command prompt to display hidden files

Another way is to use a command prompt. If you are familiar with command prompts, you should know that this tool can help modify settings, fix computer problems, compress files, and more. You can run a simple command line to find hidden files.

Step 1: Press Win R to open the run window.

Step 2: Type cmd in the text box and press Enter to open the command prompt window.

Step 3: Type cd\ and press Enter , then type the drive letter of the USB drive and press Enter to switch to the target partition.

Step 4: Type the following command lines and press Enter after each command to execute them.

dir /a:-h (This command can display hidden files on the target partition.)

attrib -h -s /s /d *.* (This command will delete the hidden properties of the file.)

After that, you can check whether your file appears on the USB drive.

Additional tip: How to recover files from EXE virus

If your file is still not found after performing the above operation, your file may have been deleted by the EXE virus. Fortunately, professional digital recovery software, such as MiniTool Power Data Recovery, can help you recover files from EXE viruses.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is designed by MiniTool Solutions and is designed for recovering files in a variety of situations. You can use it to retrieve files that are lost due to unexpected formatting, virus attacks, human errors, and more. The free version supports you to perform in-depth scans, find all deleted/lost/existing files on the target partition, and restore 1GB of files for free.

You can get this software and try to recover lost USB files.

How to delete EXE virus from USB drive?

Since viruses can spread between files and connected devices, it is best to delete the virus as soon as it is discovered. EXE virus will be activated once you click on the EXE file. It will then try to infect your computer and other normal files. Try the following to delete the EXE virus.

First, you can run antivirus software to scan the target partition and follow its instructions to delete suspicious files and applications.

You can then manually delete suspicious EXE files using the command prompt. Type the following command line and press Enter after each command to delete the EXE file.

• taskkill /f /t/im "New Folder.exe"
• taskkill /f /t /im "SCVHSOT.EXE"
• taskkill /f /t /im "scvhosts.exe"

Conclusion

In fact, the EXE virus does not change your file to an EXE file. When you find that the USB drive file becomes an EXE file, your actual file is hidden. Try the methods mentioned in this article to find your files, and if the files are deleted, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover them.

To protect your files and devices, please do not download suspicious files from untrusted websites and back up files regularly to prevent accidental data loss.

The above is the detailed content of USB Files Turned into EXE Files? Recover Files & Remove Virus. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!