How to Fix File Folders Become Shortcuts in Removable Media

Have you ever met this kind of wired situation? Your file folders suddenly became shortcuts when you connect the removable media (USB pen drive, external hard drive and sd memory card etc.) to your computer and try access data in it. You have sizable files say a couple GB in the drive, but it just shows 1KB or 2KB and so on. You also tried the removable media in a different PC, still the same problem occurred. How to make the file folders accessible again or how to recover lost files first of all? 

What Caused to Your Folders? 

Yes, you may already guess it - probably the virus or Trojans (like BUOUFO, QWERT etc) or autorun.inf worm. Your pen drive or memory card may be suffered or infected. As a result, the files or folders become "hidden". Sometimes you can make them visible again by switching to non-hidden mode, while most of the times you have to kill those virus or Trojans. 

How to Fix Folder Shortcuts Problem? 

To start with, do not format the removable media immediately as formatting will make the data insides much harder to be recovered, and format won't be necessary to kill the virus. Sometimes it won't let you format the device. For example autorun.inf worm will stop a flash drive from being formatted. So follow the steps below and see if you can make things right. 

#1 Check whether the files are not in hidden mode.
Click on "Start" --> Run -->type cmd and click on OK.
Here I assume your removable drive as G:
Enter this command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.* (replace the letter g with your usb or memory card "removable drive" letter showed under "My Computer").
Then check if your real files will be showed. 
Note: if you have formatted the drive, simply bypass this step and go to #2 directly.

#2 If your files won't show. You have to use some strong anti-virus or anti-malware programs to eliminate the virus or trojans. Download freeware Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from CNET and install it on your computer. You may also find more free anti-virus programs from this post. Then connect your removable media. Run the software to perform a "Full Scan" of the drive which may contain those virus or Trojans.  Default selected option is "Quick Scan". This way should kill those problem makers. After that see if the file folders will be accessed normally.

#3 If you find your folder files missing, do not worry. Take a try of this data recovery tool (take the free trial) and see if you can recover the deleted files or folders. This way should be your final solution.