How to recover files using command prompt.

We use our flash drives for so many reports, presentations, projects and a lot more important reasons. Due to this, our flash drives contain a lot of valuable documents and files which we can’t afford to lose in any way. But no matter how hard we try to keep our flash drives safe from tons of easily acquired viruses, once in our lives, we all experience that moment when we wake up, open the computer, plug in the flash drive, and bang! – All files are turned to shortcuts or even worse, everything is gone. But the worst part is, we don’t know why the files are corrupted!

Well, actually, at the back of our minds, we all know why. Maybe we accidentally opened a malicious site while surfing the net, or we may have plugged in the flash drive in a virus-infected computer before, but we can no longer remember these instances.

If this happens to you, don’t frown and smash your computer while asking why the files are gone. Do not be quick about reformatting your drive too. Instead, relax, breathe, and do these five simple steps that will surely make you want to jump with joy upon recovering your files.

Step 1

Click the Start button in the lower left corner of the home screen and in the search box that appears, type “cmd” and hit enter. The command prompt will appear.

Step 2

Find out what the letter of your drive is. Usually it is (E:) or (F:).

Step 3
In the command prompt, type attrib –s –h –r /s /d f:*.* (The last letter may vary depending on the letter of your drive. In this case, we assumed it is F.)

Step 4

Double check if you typed everything correctly, especially the drive’s letter, then press enter.

Step 5

Go to your drive and find out if you can now see all your missing files. Sometimes, a blank folder appears. Open that folder and you will find all your files there.

See? It’s pretty simple. So the next time you lose your files, don’t be quick about reformatting your flash drive. Do these five steps first and if it doesn’t work, you may have done something wrong so try again. If you have tried multiple times but still can’t recover your missing files, then something different is going on with your flash drive. That’s the time when you reformat it. But until then, don’t decide to format yet. You may lose your only chance to recover all your documents if you have already formatted the drive even before using the command prompt to recover it.



From now on you can sit back, relax and plug in your flash drive to different computers without having to worry about the viruses, because now you know how to recover your files in as easy as five simple steps.