Hide/Unhide Files using CMD

Sad to say, after every precaution you do, a trial will still hold you by the neck at some point. Let's use a common computer virus as an example. Let's say, you plugged it in another computer. Assuming that the computer where we plugged in has a virus that hides files and creates a shortcut for each file which is very common. The question I wanted to lighten up is, how would you reverse the situation like this?

Let me share to you a way. This is through the use of Command Prompt or what we commonly knew as CMD. You could do a lot of commands in CMD, you just have to know what you should do.

To view the list of commands you could use, simply type in "help" in Command Prompt and hit on enter. As you could see on the picture below, there are more than a dozen commands you could use. This includes copying, opening of files, changing attributes, etc.

Back to the topic, since what we're after is a Flash Drive that has become Shortcut-filled Drive,yet the capacity still remains the same. Then what we're going to do is to alter the attributes of the files inside the Flash Drive. This is where you will decide/find what command you'll be using to do this task.

If you look closely at the image above, there's an "ATTRIB" command present just second to the top. To view what could you do with "ATTRIB". Just type "ATTRIB" then add a slash and question mark like this /?.

This is what the command should look like�  ATTRIB /?

And the image below should be the one that should appear together with the explanation of the functionality of the command.

The positive(+) is to determine that you'll add the attribute to the file/drive while of course, the negative(-) will remove it. Since we could not view the existing files, the only way to do this is to use this command.

Type in ATTRIB -s -h /s /d

Or if you are not on the Drive you wanted to alter the attributes, just point the command directly to that specified drive by doing this.

Type in [drive][path][filename] ATTRIB -s -h /s /d

Say for example if you are trying to alter the attributes of the files at Drive G:, then all you  need to do is to specify it. Like this.

Type in G: ATTRIB -s -h /s /d or

                G:\FolderOne\GeekyDocs.docx ATTRIB -s -h /s /d (for a specific file)

If ever you want to identify other functionalities available, just type in that /? and it'll be served to you in a jiffy. That's it for today. I hope that could be of help.

'Til next time!