Flash drive (kind of) can't be accessed due to virus... help?

Tech Support Forum Windows OS's
1

My flash drive got a virus on it. The thumbnail shows the avast! message I got. Apparently on my flash drive there’s a hidden folder called “Recycler”. I have no idea why it’s there, I didn’t see it before, when I plugged it in for the first time (I only bought it last weekend). So this virus file was in that folder, and I did the “move to chest” option. Now, my flash drive can’t be accessed properly! When I go to My Computer, and double click it, here’s the error that I get. Look at the other thumbnail. However, it still works if i autoplay it. I can right click on the drive and select AutoPlay and then select the “Open folder to view files in windows explorer” option. Weird, isn’t it??

Soo.. what should I do to fix it again? Can I just format it? This may sound like a dumb question (probably is), but for some reason I’m not certain if it’s okay to format a flash drive…

Also, anyone have any explanation why this condition occurred? I deleted a virus file and now I can’t access the drive?? That just seems to defy logic.

Thanks for any help.

[ot]Well, this thread might belong to at least 2 other categories (storage devices, or networking and security), so I just put it here in General Hardware since I’m not sure where it fits best. [/ot]

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2

Change to AVG; at least temporary - so that you can format the flash drive. Later, reinstall Avast! if you want to.

Note: Avast! recognised Doom3.exe to be a virus and didn’t let me play the game… :dry:

3

Take any data off the memory stick you need and back it up to some other safe location. Format the memory stick and copy the data back on (hopefully the virus will be in a hidden folder that isn’t copied when you backup the data). It’s likely that all the PCs you have been on and plugged the memory stick in have the virus on, so you will have to run virus scans on all of them! AVG should do the job as edijs said. If not, try AntiVir, which is also free.

4

I got a cheap MP3 player that I sometimes use for storage which has some inbuilt folders needed for accessibility. It seems a real possibility (to me at least) that the folder has something in it which contains a virus signature but may not actually be a virus. If I were you I’d do a little research and maybe phone the manufacturer to check on this possibility before doing anything else (although backing up data is always a good idea :slight_smile: ).