Missing File in Your External Disk After Scanning with Anti Virus

I want to share to you one experience which you may have also encountered or if not you can try this tips, here it goes...

During the holiday break, I borrowed one USB drive to one of my friend to copy some movies and when I open it to my computer, I notice that the folders became shortcuts with the fear that this may be a computer virus, I immediately removed it from my computer. Without minding the consequences, I then plug in my external hard drive and alas!!! my folders is also infected.Of course the common way to solve this problem is to scan my external file and my whole computer as well. Well the main thing is that i only do scan through online using Nod 32 (as my computer at camp is very old) After scanning, of course its very obvious that it will detect virus.  

The not so expected outcome when I open my external drive is that all files are gone. I tried to click the "Folder Option" and click the "show hidden files and folders" button, it still doesn't worked. I click on the properties of my external and the used space is there, so I'm pretty sure that all of my files is still in tack and just need to find a way to restore it back. So here comes the solution....

• To start with, do not format your external drive
• Click on the below link and download the file "AutorunExterminator" http://en.kioskea.net/download/download-11613-autorun-exterminator   or http://download.cnet.com/AutorunExterminator/3000-2239_4-10912924.html   
• Extract it --> Double-click on "AutorunExterminator" --> Plug your external drive or USB now. This will remove the autorun.inf files from your external drive
• Click on "Start"-->Run--> type cmd and enter (Here I assume your external drive or USB in F:)
• Enter this command attrib -h -r -s /s /d f:\*.*
• Now check for your files in External Drive will be shown.

If your files still won't show try to recover it using a date recovery tools like recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva (its free)

I hope this tips works for you. Please let me know.Its always great to hear your comment