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When working with USB drives, situations often arise when some of the files (or even all the information on the drive) become invisible.

There can be a number of reasons behind this problem.

Common reasons for file “invisibility”

• The files on the flash drive are not visible, what to do in this situation? Operating systems allow you to limit the visibility of files.
  In this case, such information does not disappear from the media, but the user cannot see it.
  The reason for this could be a malfunction of the application, the deliberate actions of another user using this media, or the result of a virus that hides files on the drive. We will describe below ways to recover hidden files on your flash drive.
• The files were written to the media with an error. This situation can occur when the flash drive is unsafely removed from the computer. In this case, some files may not be completely recorded. In this case, such a security threat will either be read incorrectly or not be displayed at all.
• The files were deleted by the user, an antivirus program, or as a result of a crash. We will describe methods for recovering information below.

What to do?

What to do if there are no files visible on the flash drive? Firstly, if the files on your flash drive have become hidden, you need to determine the reasons for the invisibility.

Only the correct definition will allow you to choose the right course of action and open these hidden files on the flash drive.

Secondly, It’s worth trying to open the flash drive on another computer or through another operating system. Some reading errors may be corrected by a newer version of Windows.

Ways to show hidden files

To solve this problem, you can use both standard tools of your operating system and various third-party programs.

Instructions for Windows XP

Instructions for the Total Commander program

Total Commander will also help you show hidden files on your flash drive. To do this you need:

1. Open the folder in the program.
2. On the toolbar, find an icon in the form of a leaf with an exclamation mark (in some versions of the program - an asterisk) with the inscription “Hidden elements”.

   When activated, all hidden files will appear semi-transparent.

Information from the media disappeared after being scanned by an antivirus program

This situation may occur if the files contain potentially dangerous information. In this case, most antivirus programs will place the file in a quarantine zone for further processing.

To restore them, you need to find “Quarantined files” in the antivirus menu and restore (or delete infected) files in the menu that appears. After this, the information will appear on the media.

It is worth saying that if information is recognized as malicious, then the antivirus can remove it from the media offline without the possibility of subsequent recovery.

In this case, the list of antivirus operations performed will contain information about the infected file and the reasons for deletion.

Problems accessing the flash drive

A more common problem than file visibility is that access to the flash drive is denied. This manifests itself as follows.

You insert the flash drive into the slot, try to open it and receive the message “Access denied”. There are two main reasons for this problem.

Firstly, the media fails. In this case, it is almost impossible to restore the functionality of your device on your own and you will need to contact service centers.

Secondly, a write error may occur on the media due to unsafe ejection and interruption of the writing process.

In this case, to restore full access, it is necessary to check the media for errors. For this:

• Open the “My Computer” window and find your removable media. If it is not in this window, then most likely the flash drive has failed.
• Right-click on the flash drive shortcut and select “Properties” - “Tools” - “Check volume for errors” from the menu. This check will most likely solve the problem. If this does not happen, then a breakdown is likely.

Owners of flash drives have situations when, after inserting their media into the computer again, its contents cease to be accessible. Everything looks as usual, but it feels like there is nothing on the drive at all, but you know for sure that there was some information there. In this case, you should not panic; there is no reason to lose information yet. We will look at several ways to solve this problem. You can be 100% sure that it will disappear.

The reasons for this problem can be very different:

• operating system failure;
• virus infection;
• misuse;
• files were written with an error.

Let's consider ways to eliminate such causes.

Reason 1: Virus infection

A fairly popular problem, due to which files on a flash drive are not visible, may be infection with viruses. Therefore, you only need to connect the USB drive to computers with an antivirus program installed. Otherwise, the virus will be transmitted from the flash drive to the computer or vice versa.

Having an antivirus is the key to success in treating your flash drive if information is not displayed on it. There are paid and free antivirus programs for home use. Therefore, it is important that this program is installed.

By default, most antivirus programs automatically scan flash media when it is connected. But if the antivirus program is not configured, you can do it manually. To do this, follow a series of simple steps:

Thus, you will not only check, but also, if possible, cure your flash drive of viruses.

Reason 2: There are errors

An issue that causes information to become invisible may indicate the presence of viruses on the drive.

If, after checking for the contents of hidden files, the contents from the flash drive are still not displayed, then you need to check for possible errors. There are special utilities for this, but you can use the usual method provided by the Windows OS.

When completed, a message will appear indicating that the device has been successfully verified. If errors were detected on the flash drive, then an additional folder with files like "file0000.chk"

Many users of computer equipment have such cases that after copying data to a USB flash drive, when reusing The flash drive does not see files. If we look at the volume occupied on it, we will see that the flash drive is full.

Folders are missing on the flash drive???

And so in this article we will talk about what to do when the flash drive does not see the files? And so, if you tear off a flash drive, and there are no your files there or instead there are shortcuts with the same names as the files, then this article is just for you. This means that there is a virus on the flash drive, after removing which you need to follow the steps below.

Note: Below we will describe a method on how to manually make files on flash drives visible, without losing information. If you don’t have time or can’t do this manually, write on the forum. And we will send a body file to solve this problem.

The first step to solve the problem “Flash drive does not see files” Open the flash drive, which should have files, but there are none. Go to the Tools tab - Folder Options.

Note: If you have the Windows 7 operating system installed, you need to press the ALT key on your keyboard, a panel will appear, where you can select Tools - Folder Options. In Windows XP it is displayed by default.

A window will open in which you need to select the “View” tab.

In this tab, scroll the slider down, uncheck the boxes next to the items shown below. And uncheck the “Show hidden files and folders” checkbox. Click apply.

We go to the flash drive, we see the disappeared files that we copied before. But they are shown as hidden. To display them in a standard form, you need to create new folders and transfer data from hidden folders to them, and delete hidden ones. If you have a lot of hidden folders, doing this manually will take a long time. Write on the forum and we will email you a batch file for automatic solution Problems.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you open a flash drive on your computer and it doesn’t show any files or files? If yes, then you have come to the right place. In this article we will tell you what to do in a situation where files and folders are not visible on the flash drive.

Hidden files

If there are no files or folders visible on the flash drive, then the first thing you need to do is enable the display of hidden files in Explorer. To do this you need to go to "Control Panel" Then go to the section " Design and personalization».

In chapter " Design and personalization"go to the subsection" Show hidden files and folders».

The dialog box “ Folders settings» with many additional parameters that can be disabled or enabled by checking the box next to them. To make hidden files visible on your flash drive, you need to uncheck the options that are shown in the image below.

Then click the “Apply” button. Close this dialog box and return to your flash drive. You should now see hidden files or folders.

Now let's make them visible on any computer into which you connect your flash drive. To do this, right-click on the file or folder and select “ Properties" In the dialog box that opens, at the very bottom, you will see the section “ Attributes " Uncheck the attribute " Hidden».

Checking for errors

If files and folders are still not visible on the flash drive, then you need to check for errors on it. This can be done using special utilities or programs, but today we will look at the simplest method, which is provided by the Windows system.

So, to check the flash drive for errors, you need to open “ My computer"and find the shortcut to your USB flash drive. Then right-click on it and select “ Properties».

In the removable drive properties dialog box that opens, go to the " Service».

In this tab you will see two sections:

• Checking for errors;
• Disk optimization and defragmentation.

Click on the button Check" in the first section.

After checking the flash drive, its file system will be restored. Among other folders on your removable storage device, the folder “ FOUND.000" It may contain files in which recovery after scanning is encrypted. To open them you need to use special utilities, for example “ CHKParser32».

Antivirus

Probably the best tool that can solve your problem when, when you open a flash drive, files and folders are not displayed on it.

Usually, by default, all devices that are connected to USB are automatically scanned for viruses. But if this does not happen, we recommend that you manually check your removable drive.

The most common virus on USB flash drives is “ RECYCLER" It specializes in automatically changing the attributes of files located on removable media. You can cure it using an antivirus program or by completely formatting the flash drive.

Now you know what to do when files or folders are not visible on the flash drive. There is nothing wrong with this and this problem can be solved in a matter of minutes using our instructions.

What to do if the files on the flash drive are not visible

Owners of flash drives have situations when, after inserting their media into the computer again, its contents cease to be accessible. Everything looks as usual, but it feels like there is nothing on the drive at all, but you know for sure that there was some information there. In this case, you should not panic; there is no reason to lose information yet.

We will look at several ways to solve this problem.

Reason #1: Virus infection

By default, most antivirus programs automatically scan flash media when it is connected. But if the antivirus program is not configured, you can do it manually. To do this, follow a series of simple steps:

1. Open This PC.
2. Right-click on the flash drive shortcut.
3. In the drop-down menu there is an item from the antivirus program that you need to run. For example, if Avast antivirus is installed , then select the item"Scan F:\". ,Click on it.

Thus, you will not only check, but also, if possible, cure your flash drive of viruses.

Reason #2: There are errors

An issue that causes information to become invisible may indicate the presence of viruses on the drive.

1. Go to “This PC” (or “My Computer” if you have an older version of Windows).
2. Click the mouse cursor on the flash drive label and right-click on it.
3. In the menu that appears, select “Properties”.

1. Next, go to the “Service” tab. In the top “Check Disk” section, click on the “Run check” item.
2. A dialog box appears in which you enable all disk check options:
   • “Automatically correct system errors”;
   • "Check and repair bad sectors."

   Click on "Launch".

When completed, a message will appear indicating that the device has been successfully verified. If errors were detected on the flash drive, then an additional folder with files like"file0000.chk"

Reason #3: Hidden files

Most often due to a virus that changes the file attribute to hidden.

If your USB drive does not show files and folders, then first of all turn on the display of hidden files in the Explorer properties. This is done as follows:

1. Go to Control Panel on your computer.
2. Select the theme “Design and Personalization”.
3. Next, go to the “Folder Options” section and select “Show hidden files and folders”.

1. The Folder Options window will open. Go to the “View” tab and check the box next to “Show hidden folders and files.”
2. Click on the "Apply" button. The process does not always happen quickly, you need to wait.
3. Go to your flash drive. If the files were hidden, they should appear.
4. Now you need to remove the “Hidden” attribute from them. Right-click on the file or folder.
5. In the drop-down menu window, select “Properties”.
6. In the newly appeared window of this item, in the “Attributes” section, uncheck the box next to the “Hidden” field.

Now all hidden files will become visible on any operating system.

But there are times when only formatting will help bring a flash drive back to life. Our instructions will help you perform this procedure at a low level.

Important! Formatting erases all data that was written to the flash drive! Therefore, before running it, be sure to transfer all important files to another location (for example, to your hard drive).

How to quickly format a flash drive

This can be done using standard system tools. They are available in any version of Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

1 . Insert the flash drive into your computer.

Most likely, an autorun window will open in a second or two. Let's close it.

2 . Open Start - Computer.

3 . Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Format...”.