Ext Hard Drive Virus

uk2806

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Mar 22, 2013
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10,510
My external hard drive started appearing as a shortcut when I clicked to open it from Computer. However instead of the files on the drive, two files, a shortcut and a Thumbs.db file were in it. Clicking the shortcut used to open the contents of my hard drive. However by mistake I have deleted both the shortcut and the Thumbs file.
Now I cannot access my hard drive's contents. How can I resolve the issue. Saving a copy of the data before formatting the drive is imperative as it has some data that I cannot afford to lose.

The shortcut had a path which ran something like this : "C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe "
Should have mentioned earlier
 
Solution
in folder option...uncheck Hide protected operating system files (recommended)...you will see the hidden drive and access your file...this is somewhat a new undetected virus and me too had problems with it...i think the best thing to do is transfer your files and reformat your drive...good thing is it only affects external drives...
Thumbs.db is a thumbnail database for your pictures. Deleting that doesn't do anything bad, but system performance will be slower, as it has to read each file individually verses having a cached thumbnail of each photo. The shortcut was only a "link" that pointed to your hard drive.

If no other files are on this drive - it may be totally empty. One thing to try - Recuva ( http://www.piriform.com/recuva ) this is a free utility that allows you to recover deleted files, and sometimes formatted drives. Restore any data that you recover to your internal hard drive - do not write anything to the external, as you will probably copy over any files that are there.
 

uk2806

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Mar 22, 2013
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Explorer still shows that the files are there on the hard drive, as in it does not show it as empty. Recuva shall be able to get me access to them?



 
If explorer still shows you have the data on the hard drive, the only thing you deleted was a short cut. It sounds like nothing was on the external hard drive....it was all stored on your internal drives.

Recuva is a program designed to find deleted programs, and recover formatted discs. If you want your shortcut back, all you need to do is create one....
 

uk2806

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Mar 22, 2013
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The earlier shortcut had a link "C :\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe"

So it wasnt exactly a link to the files. I am sorry I did not mention it before. Should have done so in the question itself



 

Jayson Esco

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
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10,520
in folder option...uncheck Hide protected operating system files (recommended)...you will see the hidden drive and access your file...this is somewhat a new undetected virus and me too had problems with it...i think the best thing to do is transfer your files and reformat your drive...good thing is it only affects external drives...
 
Solution