TIPS: are you sure your file is missing?

So your flash drive which contains your important file is infected with viruses. You scan using antivirus tool. Many viruses detected and automatically deleted by the AV itself. You relieve seeing that the viruses had been deleted and you expect that your flash drive is now safe & clean.

Then, you open your flash drive. Suddenly, you realize that the very important file is no longer there. Then you go to the search option and type the file's name but the search option says this "no items match your search".

You feel like the whole world turns black because that's the only single file you have with no back up yet it's no longer there.

Guess, some people might experience this. Not me, but there are people who might have even slightest the same experience as above. I know because I've seen one. Cheh~ since, that time I'm still kinda knew-a-little-about-computer, i can't help him. With just a little knowledge i have, i told him, "the file might be hidden inside the flash drive, because the virus did that" ~sounded like a lame excuse~

That is why, backing up your important files is necessary.

 

~~ end of story ~~

But how can you sure that the file/s are still stored in the flash drive? There are many methods you can use to check if your flash drive still stores the file/s without using any advance software such as Altap Salamander, Easy recovery or whatever.


I took my infected thumb drive (after scanned with AV) as a sample. There are several files inside the thumb drive ~not that important~  but when i opened the drive, all i can see is *exe files except for the Smadlock  and compress folders. 
* Smad-lock folder keeps your document/s safe as viruses cannot intrude that folder. why? i still don't know why.
* compressing your documents also is another way to protect your file/s from viruses. 

So, i used either these three methods to ensure that the drive still keeps the file/s.

1) First check the properties of the drive. I'm sure almost all people know how to do this. Just go to MYCOMPUTER, select YOUR DRIVE, right click and go to PROPERTIES. It shows free space and used space. So, say if there's still some space used, assume that, the file/s is still existed in the drive.

2) To convince yourself more, go to TOOLS --> FOLDER OPTIONS --> VIEW tab --> untick the "hide protected operating system (recommended)" --> APPLY --> OK.

Untick this option to view all hidden folders/ files

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The contents of the flash drive - after disabling protected operating system

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of course you can open the file but you cannot change it's attribute. See the "hidden" option is turned grey??

3) Using WINRAR or 7zip to view the files.

~ since i have Winrar, i use it instead of 7zip~

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Viewing folders using Winrar (before disabling protected operating system)

 

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Viewing folders using Winrar (after disabling protected operating system)

If you can see the files, you are lucky enough because, you still can recover the files.

 As far as i understood, AV doesn't delete the files, it deletes the virus attached into the files. Well, maybe, i'm not a computer expert.

P/s: Sooner or later i'll post how to retrieve the hidden files.