With the development of technology, especially on computers and laptops, the viruses that can infect these devices are increasingly numerous and varied. Viruses do not only attack computers or laptops, but also flash drives.

One of the viruses that are often found on flash is a shortcut virus. You can recognize it from the characteristics and immediately do how to fix the flash hit by the shortcut virus.

Generally, a flash drive that is infected with a virus comes from a laptop or computer device that has a virus and then infects it.

If you get this virus on a flash drive, it is likely that you previously connected this flash to a laptop or computer affected by the virus and did not eject.

Of course this can be worrying, especially if there is a lot of important data on your flash drive that is affected by this shortcut virus.

The reason is, the virus will clone or reproduce files which can make it difficult for you to find the original file.

There are several characteristics that you can pay attention to when this flash is hit by a shortcut virus.
1. There is a master file
This virus will usually create a master file. The parent file of this virus is usually named database.mdb which will reside in the My Document folder.

2. A file with the extension appears
In addition to the master file, this virus will also create an autorun.inf file that is scattered on a computer or laptop. This file is usually found in folders and drives on a laptop or computer.

Not only autorun, this virus will also place a file with the name thumb.db. This thumbs.db file is different from the one already on your device.

In addition, this virus will usually create files with the extension .ink located in the folders and drives of your device.

3. File turned into a fake shortcut
As the name suggests, this virus will create fake shortcuts on your computer or laptop.

The screen will still display your file, it’s just that it turns into a shortcut so that the file can’t be opened.

Repairing Flash Drive with Shortcut Virus with CMD

Command Prompt or CMD is a solution that you can do when you find the flash is infected with a shortcut virus.

Command Prompt itself is a multifunctional tool that you can use to get rid of this virus. Here’s how to use the Command Prompt to repair a flash that is hit by a shortcut virus.

– The first step is to press the Windows key and R at the same time. This command opens the Run window on your device.
– After successfully opening, you type CMD and followed by Enter.
– Next you will be on the Command Prompt page.
– Type the command on the Command Prompt page CHKDSK /R /F E (the letter E is the location of your flash drive, so it must be adjusted)
– Then click Enter, wait until the process is complete
– After the process is complete type attrib -h -r -s /s/ d *.* which is placed on the new command line
– Then, press Enter to start the virus cleaning process on your flash and wait for it to finish
– After that, check again the data contained on your flash. If not severe, usually with this flash will return to normal.
– However, if the method above doesn’t work, try replacing the command mentioned above with attrib -s -r -h *.* /s /d /l and then pressing Enter.

In addition to how to fix the shortcut virus with the Command Prompt, you can also use the help of third-party applications to repair your flash drive that is affected by the shortcut virus.

If you have done the above method, it is important to know how to anticipate the virus so that it does not spread on your flash drive again in the future. Ways that can be done include:

– Save important files only on your computer/PC or laptop
– Do not carelessly plug the flash drive into public computer devices such as internet cafes, rentals, photocopiers, and so on. If the file is really needed, you should store it in digital storage such as Cloud or Google Drive so that the flash is safe from viruses that might attack.
– Routinely clean the flash using an antivirus tool after every use.

Those are the characteristics and how to fix the flash drive exposed to the shortcut virus that you can do. I hope this helps.