If during the operation of a USB flash drive you notice a significant decrease in its volume, most likely this is a consequence of the harmful effects of viruses on the flash drive. You can return its original volume as follows.
Necessary
- - utility h2testw;
- - file manager Total Commander;
- - antivirus program.
Instructions
Step 1
Turn on the display of system and hidden files on your flash drive. Scan the USB flash drive with an antivirus program and remove all detected viruses. Format the USB flash drive, if the volume has not changed after the check, having previously saved all the data you need on your computer hard drive or other storage medium.
Step 2
Do not rush to format your USB flash drive if the virus has replaced all folders on it with shortcuts, and the ratio of occupied and free space has not changed. In this case, it creates a directory and writes its name with invalid characters. Using the command line, make sure that the information has not disappeared from the flash drive. Enter the command s: / / x, in which s is the USB flash drive itself, and x is the key to show all files. A hidden folder with a name such as e2e2 ~ 1 will be displayed.
Step 3
You can access a folder directly from the file manager after you know its name. Rename this folder, which contains an invalid ~ character, using the command line, to any other - for example, 123. You can also fight this virus in another way - create a bat file containing the attrib -s -h -r -a / s / d line, and execute it from your USB stick. Or pack it with an archiver and when opening the archive, extract only the folders you need.
Step 4
Use the h2testw utility to estimate the actual size of the flash drive. To do this, connect it to your computer and make sure there are no files on it. Run the h2testw utility, then press the Select button, select the write to all free data sectors as the preferred method for checking the volume. Press Write + Verify to start testing.
