1. How To Recover Shortcut File From Pen Driver
2. How To Open A Shortcut File
3. How To Recover Shortcut Files From Pen Drive Online
4. How To Recover Shortcut File From Pen Drive Windows 10

Position: How Tos - Data Recovery - How to Recover Deleted Files from Pen Drive Free?

Summary

How to open shortcut file pen drive. Recover your shortcut file in pen drive. Duration: 4:23. View All 15,884 views. How to remove shortcut virus from your mmc or pendrive - Duration: 2:32. Unhide Files hidden by the virus, to see the real files which are hidden by shortcut virus and to avoid executing it. Download these two tools, namely: Trojorm Removal Tool and Shortcut virus fixfolder (download this file and extract, put the extracted folder in infected pen drive). Method #1: Remove Virus From Pen Drive Without Losing Data Using CMD. You can try removing shortcut virus from Pen drive, Memory cards, PC, Hard disk, etc. Using Command line or cmd. Here we have explained how to remove shortcut virus from Pendrive using CMD in two different ways. But be careful because inappropriate use of command prompts may.

DiskGenius - An excellent tool to recover permanently deleted files from USB, Recycle Bin, pen drive, etc.

Table of Contents

• Solution 2: How to recover deleted files from pen drive using free software? (Recommended)

Question raised: files gets deleted from pen drive

Pen drive might be your favorite storage device to backup, store, or transfer data, as it is portable, flexible, durable, and speedy. It can be used to store all forms of files, such as photos, files, documents, videos, emails and more. Although these files are of great importance to you, they can get lost due to various causes, such as accidental deletion. It is painful to lose essential files which you have not managed to create backups.

Where do deleted pen drive files go?

Accidental deletion of files can be the most common reason behind pen drive file loss issue, which seems to be hard to avoid. Are they erased from pen drive completely? It is a common wisdom that files deleted files hard drive (not using Shift + Delete) will be put into the Recycle Bin. However, when you delete a file from pen drive, USB flash drive, memory card, etc. the deleted file is not ended up with the Recycle Bin. However, that does not mean files are gone for good after being deleted from pen drive. Let's have a quick look at what happens to the deletion process. When storing a file to pen drive, operating system saves data on certain sectors of the pen drive and also saves file recorder (file name, size, type, location, etc.) to file system. When you delete a file, operating system just removes file recorder from file system and tag sectored occupied by the file as 'FREE'. The effect is that the deleted file is not visible, and there is more free space on the pen drive. Actually, the deleted file is not completely wiped off pen drive, for these sectors still hold the deleted file, being available for storing new data at the same time. As long as they are not taken by other file, you have chance to recover the deleted file.

How can I recover deleted files from pen drive?

Since files that are deleted from pen drive remains recoverable most of time, how can I recover my permanently deleted files from pen drive free? When it comes to methods of pen drive recovery, there can be a couple of options available for you, some are free of change, and some are not. Methods that cost none would be the best, and yet they do not work on all data loss cases. Because some requires a backup, a previous version, etc. Moreover, it is not necessary to keep distance from those paid solutions, for some of them is reasonable e.g. some paid data recovery software works much better than freeware, and it allows users to test the recovery quality before purchase.

Things you should know before recovering deleted pen drive data

Before starting the procedure of recovering deleted pen drive data, you need to check following things in order to get the best chance of recovery. First of all, you should stop using the pen drive as soon as you realize the data loss issue. That does makes difference. Failure to follow this this, deleted files will face further damages and even get totally overwritten. Once they are overwritten, the possibility of recovering deleted pen drive data will be zero.

• Do not store files to the pen drive where you are going to recover lost data.
• Do not view or edit exiting files on the pen drive, which will generate cache and temporary files, damaging lost data.
• Do not format the pen drive or re-create partitions on the disk, as it affects the recovery result.
• Do not try repairing bad sectors even though you are sure it contains bad sectors. Bad sector repairing will permanently destroy files.

Solution 1: How to recover deleted files from pen drive without using software?

In some situations, it is possible to recover deleted files from pen drive, USB flash drive or SD card without using software, for example, you can recover deleted files using CMD, backup, previous versions, etc. In this section, we are going to discuss several methods of recovering deleted pen drive data without using any software.

Disclaimer: there is not guarantee that methods explained here works on all data loss issues. If they are of no help to your issue, then move to Solution 2 which can handle most data loss issues free of charge as well.

Method 1: How to recover deleted pen drive files using CMD?

How to recover deleted files from flash drive, pen drive or SD card without software? CMD, also called Command Prompt, is the Windows built-in tool, and you can launch it without downloading any third-party software. When files are invisible from the device instead of being deleted, you can try recovering them using CMD. In other words, these commands work well when files are hidden on the device.

Step 1 Connect the pen drive to your Windows computer and make sure it can be detected properly.

Step 2 Type CMD in the searching box to find out Command Prompt and run it as administrator.

Step 3 Type command ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D X:*.* and press Enter key. (Replace X with the drive letter of your pen drive)

Step 4 Wait for the process to complete and then check if your files are recovered.

Method 2: Retrieve deleted files from pen drive backup

Backup is your best bet when you want to recover deleted files without using any software. You might have backed up pen drive files to computer hard drive, cloud drives (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, etc.), or somewhere else, then you can easily retrieve lost files from previous backups. This method will not work if you have not backed up anything. Backing up files regularly benefits a lot and it does not take much time, so it is necessary to take it into account if your files have not been backed up.

Method 3: Restore deleted or lost pen drive data from a previous version

Another way to recovering lost files without using software is Windows Previous Versions. Previous versions come from File History or from restore points. This method requires that you have set up the File History before data loss, otherwise it won't work.

Step 1 Find out the folder where lost files were stored, right-click it and choose Properties.

Step 2 Select Previous Versions tab on the pop-up dialog box.

Step 3 When you see a list of previous versions, choose the one you are looking for. The click Restore button.

Solution 2: How to recover deleted files from pen drive using free software?

What to do when recovery methods in Solution 1 fail to recover deleted files? Pen drive data recovery software is the better option! There are quite a few data recovery tools on the Internet, some of are free of charge and others are shareware or paid software. Pen drive recovery software can run a complete scanning on the disk using specific algorithms and recover deleted files and folders for you.

With regard to free data recovery software, we strongly recommend Eassos Recovery Free which can recover deleted, formatted, or lost data from pen drive easily. This application also supports to recover data from corrupted, unformatted or RAW drive, restore lost partitions, etc. Here are a couple of features:

• It is designed with a smart user interface, making it easy for novice users to perform pen drive recovery.
• Supports to recover all forms of files, such as files, photos, Microsoft Office, PDF, videos, music, etc.
• Recover lost data from various storage devices, including hard drive, pen drive, USB flash drive, memory card, external hard drive and so on.
• Preview recoverable files during and after scanning and copy 1GB found data free of charge.

Steps to recover deleted files from pen drive using freeware – Eassos Recovery Free

Step 1 Connect your pen drive to computer and make sure it can be detected by computer.

The pen drive does not have to show up in Windows File Explorer, but it should be seen in Disk Management. Do not make any changes to the pen drive before recovery, for example, formatting, storing data, etc.

Step 2 Free download and install Eassos Recovery Free on your computer instead of the pen drive. Then launch it and select a proper recovery mode.

There are four options on the main interface, representing four different scanning algorithms. You just need to select one according to data loss situation, for instance, click 'Recover Deleted Files' to recover deleted data.

Step 3 Select pen drive to scan.

In this step, you can see all drives detected by the computer including internal and external drives. Just select the pen drive and click Next button to start searching for lost data.

Step 4 Preview recoverable files for precise recovery.

By double-clicking a listed file, you can preview file content on a pop-up window, see the picture below. This the very step to check if wanted files can be recovered correctly.

Step 5 Restore list files to another location.

Choose files and folders you want to recover and click Recover button. Then the software will prompt to set a location to export recovered files.

In addition to Eassos Recovery Free, DiskGenius is also a good choice to recover deleted or lost data. DiskGenius is developed with optimized data recovery algorithms, which is able to deal with more complicated issues with better recovery result. Hence, you can try DiskGenius when Eassos Recovery Free cannot find out what you want. DiskGenius is shareware, and yet it provides free trial edition with which you can search for lost files and preview recoverable data. Thus, you can accurately estimate the recovery result ahead of purchasing a license code. Here is how to recover lost files using DiskGenius:

Step 1 Right-click the partition that contains lost data and choose Recover Lost Files, as follows:

Alternatively, you can simply click File Recovery button after select the pen drive to open file recovery window.

Step 2 Click Start button to scan the pen drive.

DiskGenius will scan the selected drive thoroughly and display lost files during scanning. After scanning process finishes, you can preview files and filter files to locate wanted data.

Step 3 Double click found files to preview.

File preview is available for DiskGenius Free Trial edition, helping users to evaluate recovery quality before making the decision to purchase a license code.

Step 4 Restore lost or deleted files from pen drive.

Choose files you want to restore and copy them to a safe location on your computer.

Suggestions to help stop data loss from happening to your pen drive

Nobody wants to lose important files from pen drive or other storage devices, so it is worth taking some time to know following points which can help you minimize the chance of losing pen drive data.

• Create backups for pen drive data: this is the very practice that should be performed regularly. You should create two or more backup copies for important files and keep them on different disks, for example, another physical hard drive, cloud storage devices.
• Take good care of your pen drive: All storage devices are much more delicate than you imagine, and they can easy to get damaged. It is hard or even impossible to recover data from a broken pen drive. So, keep it safe.
• Use USB drive properly: always follow the recommended way to eject USB drives from computer. i.e. click Safely Remove. Never unplug USB disk before system finishes reading and writing actions.
• Take preventive measures to virus and malware: malware and virus accounts for many problems, and keep your computer and data protected by anti-virus software. Moreover, try not to use your pen drive on computers with public access.
• Use an appropriate file system type: format your USB drive to a proper file system type, for example FAT32, exFAT.
• Choose effective data recovery software: You should use a powerful pen drive recovery program for the recovery of deleted or lost files.

FAQs – recover deleted files from pen drive

1. How to recover deleted files from pen drive using cmd?

To recover deleted files from pen drive using cmd, you can try following steps:

Step 1: Connect the pen drive to a Windows computer. Then run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d X:*.* in Prompt Command and press Enter key. (Replace X with the pen drive's drive letter)

Step 3: Wait for the process to complete.

2. How to recover permanently deleted or lost files from USB flash drive?

Recover permanently deleted or lost files and photos from USB flash drive with this procedure:

Step 1: Connect the pen drive to a Windows computer.

Step 2: Launch DiskGenius data recovery software and use this software to run a complete scanning from the flash drive.

Step 3: Copy files to a different location.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial you can refer to: How to recover permanently deleted files in Windows 10/8/7?

3. How to recover deleted photos from pen drive free in Windows 10?

You can follow the step-by-step guide above to recover deleted photos from pen drive, USB flash drive, SD card, hard drive, camera and other devices: connect the pen drive to computer > use pen drive data recovery freeware to run a deep scanning > restore deleted photos to a different location.

4. How to recover deleted files from USB for free?

There are several solutions available here you can try in order to recover deleted files from USB drives free of charge, for example, restore from backups, use free recovery software, retrieve data via CMD, etc. Here is the complete guide on recovering files for free: How to recover deleted files from USB drive (free)? - 5 Solutions

Conclusion

Accidentally deleting important files from pen drive is never a pleasant experience, and yet there are solutions that can help you get back deleted pen drive files, such as CMD, Eassos Recovery Free and DiskGenius. Now, it is not very challenging for both average and expert users to carry out the pen drive recovery task after learning solutions discussed in this article. Apart from recovering pen drive data, this tutorial also applies to recovering deleted files from Recycle Bin, computer hard drive, SD card, etc.

Related articles

DiskGenius - The best choice to recover deleted/lost files, photos, videos, and other data from pen drive.

Summary :

Files and folders turned into shortcuts! What should we do? Now, we can show hidden files or remove shortcut virus. If they cannot help, we can try using MiniTool Photo Recovery to recover lost photo or video files infected by shortcut virus from SD card, USB drive, or other storage devices.

Problem: SD Card Files and Folders Become Shortcuts

OH, no…. Files and folders turned into shortcuts? You connect your SD card to computer, but you cannot access those photos and videos and only to find that all the pictures as well as videos turned into shortcuts (with a few KBs in size the real size could be MBs or GBs). Now, what should you do? Is it possible to convert shortcut file to original file?

Generally speaking, files and folders become shortcuts is a common issue, and many users have encountered this problem. For instance, let's see a true example from answers.microsoft.com.

I am freaking out because my folders became shortcuts in my external HD and to my flash drive. The original files are hidden and they become shortcuts. Furthermore, I often encounter an error message with 'maoyoad.exe' & 'maoyoadx.exe'. I already submitted these files to MMPC and still waiting for definition files.answers.microsoft.com

Theoretically, if files and folders in SD card, USB drive or other storage device become shortcuts and files have gone missing, your device has probably infected with some viruses or malware! In this case, you cannot access your previous pictures and videos.

As a matter of fact, however, the virus just makes them hidden instead of deleting them permanently. Therefore, if you suddenly find your folders turned into shortcuts, don’t worry and you still have a chance to fix folders that have become shortcuts in memory card or USB drive within a few steps.

However, how to recover files after virus attack with ease?

Top Recommendation: When it comes to talking about the SD card folders turned into shortcuts issue, we want to share another common problem – SD card not showing files in PC. Here, you can read our previous post How Do I Solve - Photos on SD Card Not Showing on Computer to find more information.

Now, in today's post, we're going to show you how to fix folders turned into shortcuts in Windows 7/8/10.

4 Ways to Fix Files and Folders Turned into Shortcuts

1. Show hidden files to convert shortcut file to original file
2. Recover files after virus attack by using CMD
3. Download and run the anti-virus scan program to kill virus
4. Recover data and format drive to convert shortcut file into the original file

Method 1. Show Hidden Files to Convert Shortcut File to Original File

If your pictures or videos in SD card or USB drive become hidden or shortcuts, you can try changing the settings in file explorer options to recover hidden files and folders by following the steps below.

Step 1. Select the Start button, and then select Control Panel.

Step 2. Click on Appearance and Personalisation.

Step 3. Select File Explorer Options, and then select Show hidden files and folders.

Step 4. Choose View tab.

Step 5. Under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then select OK button.

If you still cannot see your needed photos or videos after trying this method, keep reading to find other solutions on how to fix folders turned into shortcuts.

Method 2. Recover Files after Virus Attack by Using CMD

No doubt, the chkdsk command prompt is a good choice for you when it comes to fixing folders turned into shortcuts. Now, try the following steps to convert shortcut file to original file on your external hard disk, USB drive, memory card or other storage devices.

Step 1. Connect your SD card or USB drive to computer.

Step 2. Go to the start menu, type in 'cmd' in a search bar and press OK button to continue.

Step 3. Then, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator, and click Yes button in the pop-up window.

Step 4. Type this command 'attrib -h -r -s /s /d drive letter:*.*', for example, 'attrib -h -r -s /s /d f:*.*', and press Enter button.

Step 5. Type 'exit' command and press Enter button.

Finally, you can check your files on the memory card or USB drive. If the files and folders become shortcuts issue still exists, try method 3.

Method 3: Download and Run Anti-virus Scan Program to Kill Virus

As we know, the root cause of shortcut files is malware. Therefore, we can try removing malware to convert shortcut file to original file.

However, if you still cannot access your pictures and videos after trying this solution, you can try the last method: use a piece of professional third-party software to recover files infected by shortcut virus from memory card.

Method 4. Recover Data and Format Drive to Convert Shortcut File into Original File

If the above solutions cannot help you, you can recover files and then format this drive to fix the folders become shortcuts issue.

Step 1. Recover Files after Virus Attack with Ease

When it comes to SD card data recovery, some users might be wondering:

'How to effectively and safely recover files infected by shortcut virus?'

To recover lost photos as well as videos from SD card or USB drive after virus attack, you can try using MiniTool Photo Recovery.

Excellent performance:

It not only can recover photos and videos from memory card, but also can recover files from USB drive, computer hard drive and other storage devices.

More importantly, it is able to directly recover photos from digital camera.

And, it can help to recover data from all data loss situations, such as mistaken deletion, formatting, virus attack, system crash, raw error and more.

High security:

It is a read-only tool. Thus, it can help to recover lost files from memory card without damaging the original data.

Simple operations:

This simple tool offers wizard-like interfaces as well as simple operations. Thus, even a new user can easily recover lost pictures from memory card without any difficulty.

Next, let's see the detailed steps on how to fix folders turned into shortcuts.

Step 1. Connect your memory card or USB drive to PC.

Step 2. Launch MiniTool Photo Recovery, and then click Start button to recover files after virus attack.

Step 3. Select the memory card or USB drive, and then click Scan button at the lower right corner.

Step 4. Preview files, check needed files, click Save button, and click Browse button to select a suitable place to store them. It is recommended to store selected files on another drive. Otherwise, the lost/deleted data could be overwritten.

This is because that the free edition of MiniTool Photo Recovery can only recover 200mb files for free. If you want to recover more files, you need to choose Personal or advanced editions. If you don't know which license to choose, you can find answers from this page.

If you decide to get the personal or more advanced edition, you don't need to close the scan result interface of free MiniTool Photo Recovery.

Then, you can click on Register Now button after receiving the license key MiniTool Solution Ltd. sends to you, then copy & paste the license to the text box in the pop-out window and click on Register button to enter the advanced edition immediately.

After that, you are able to directly save needed photos without scanning again.

After all operations are done, you have recovered SD card files infected by shortcut virus without damaging the original data.

In addition to MiniTool Photo Recovery, here I want to share another simple data recovery software with all of you to help you recover files infected by shortcut virus.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a professional and excellent data recovery software developed by MiniTool Solution Ltd., helps users effectively and quickly recover lost videos and photos.

Want to know more details about how to fix folders turned into shortcuts in Windows 7/8/10?

The steps are:

First, download MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then install it on computer.

How To Recover Shortcut File From Pen Driver

Second, connect your SD card or USB drive to PC.

Third, launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then click on Removable Disk Drive. This module could help you recover image, music and video files from various digital media storage devices, such as SD card, USB drive and more.

Now, select the SD card from which you want to recover data, and then click on Scan button at the lower right corner to begin full scanning on the device.

Finally, select all needed files, and then click Save button to store them on a safe place.

You can use the Trial Edition of this software to scan your files. If you want to recover your files, you need to choose the personal edition or advance editions.

Step 2. Format SD Card or USB Drive Whose Files and Folders Become Shortcuts

As we know, formatting will delete all data on this drive, thus the virus and the issue are gone as well. Therefore, you can try formatting your device to fix the files and folders become shortcuts issue. But, how to format drive to remove all the virus?

MiniTool Partition Wizard, a piece of free and professional partition management software developed by MiniTool Software Ltd., is recommended here. The steps are:

Step 1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard, and then install it on computer according to prompts.

Step 2. Launch this professional partition management software, then select the partition which needs formatting and choose Format Partition feature from the left panel.

Step 3. Set partition label, file system and cluster size for the selected partition and click on OK button.

Step 4. Click on Apply button at the top to apply the change.

Bottom Line

Now, you can choose a suitable solution stated above to fix your folders turned into shortcuts issue in Windows 7/8/10, depending on your requirements.

If you have another solution to fix the files and folders become shortcuts issue, welcome to type your solution in the comment section, thanks!

How To Open A Shortcut File

If you have any question about using MiniTool software, you can directly contact us via [email protected]. We will solve it as soon as possible.

How to Open Shortcut Files FAQ

How To Recover Shortcut Files From Pen Drive Online

1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
2. Scant the drive contains shortcut files.
3. Select the needed shortcut files, and store them in a safe place.

1. Select the Start button, and then select Control Panel.
2. Click on Appearance and Personalisation.
3. Select File Explorer Options, and then select Show hidden files and folders.
4. Choose the View tab.
5. Select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then select OK.

In Windows, if a file or folder is not displayed by default when showing a directory listing, this file or folder is hidden. Sometimes, a directory might be hiding.

How To Recover Shortcut File From Pen Drive Windows 10

1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
2. Scan the drive containing shortcut files.
3. Select all needed files, and store them in a safe place.