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Problem: USB flash drive files changed to shortcuts, how to troubleshoot?
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Fix 1. Convert files with CMD | Press Windows + R and type cmd. Right-click the Command Prompt and choose "Run as administrator"...Full steps |
Fix 2. Recover hidden files | Use EaseUS hard drive recovery software to help you recover shortcut files. It can recover deleted...Full steps |
Fix 3. Show hidden files | You can recover and open shortcut files by showing the hidden files. Open your USB Drive. Open Folder...Full steps |
How to Convert Shortcut Files into the Original File
"I use a USB flash drive as a backup device to store the crucial files and documents. This morning when I inserted the flash drive into my laptop and tried to open a file, to my huge surprise, all of my files in it turned into shortcuts with the same names as I saved earlier. I can't open any of the shortcut files. Does anyone know how to convert shortcut files into the original file? I need to recover the shortcut files."
Files turning into shortcuts is a common problem that happens to almost all of us. The error usually results from a virus, trojan, or worm that can infect your USB flash drive, Pen drive, micro SD card, external drive, etc. What the virus often does is hiding your files and folders and turning them into shortcuts in small size. And files getting deleted by the virus also exits.
If you are encountering the same issue and want to open and recover the shortcut files, use the three methods below to troubleshoot with ease.
How to Open and Convert Shortcut Files into Original
Here are three effective methods you can apply to solve the problem and try to recover shortcut files. Try them all until you can open shortcut files.
Method 1. Convert Shortcut Files into Original Files by CMD
Step 1. Press Windows + R and type: cmd. Right-click the Command Prompt and choose "Run as administrator".
Step 2. Type: attrib -h -r -s /s /d e:*.* and hit Enter. (Replace e: with the drive letter of your device where want to recover shortcuts files)
You can also use these attrib command lines to open shortcut files on the pen drive with the same steps. If you need a visual tutorial, watch the YouTube video tutorial below.
This video shows how to recover or get back your files that have been infected by the shortcuts files from hard drives, USB Flash Drives, memory cards, and your pen drives. When you have completed all these steps, refresh your pen drive and you can check for your files on the pen drive. Now you can easily find all your files.
Method 2. How to Recover Hidden/Deleted Files by the Shortcut Virus
If the above two ways can't show the hidden files or the original files have been deleted already, you can use EaseUS hard drive recovery software to help you recover shortcut files successfully. This comprehensive file recovery software can recover data within three steps. The supported files are graphics, videos, audios, documents, emails, ZIP, RAR, as well as other 200+ data types.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
- Recover lost or deleted files, documents, photos, audio, music, emails effectively
- Recover files from formatted hard drive, emptied recycle bin, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders
- Support data recovery for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations
Now, download this data recovery program for free. Then, follow the step-by-step guides below to open shortcut files effectively.
Step 1. Select the virus infected drive to scan
Run EaseUS virus file recovery software on your Windows PC. Select the disk attacked by the virus to scan for lost or hidden files. Note that:
- If it's an HDD where files were hidden or deleted by virus, it's better to install the software on a different volume or an external USB drive to avoid data overwriting.
- If the infected device is an external hard drive, flash drive or memory card, it doesn't matter to install the software on the local drive of the computer.

Step 2. Check all scanned results
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will immediately start a scan process to find your deleted or hidden files on the virus infected hard drive. To quickly locate the wanted files, you can use the Filter or type grouping feature to display only the pictures, videos, documents, emails, etc.

Step 3. Preview and recover deleted/hidden files
When the process finishes, you can preview the scanned files. Select the files you want and click the "Recover" button. You should save restored files to another secure location on your computer or storage device, not where they were lost.

Method 3. Show Hidden Files to Open Shortcut Files
As said before, the shortcut virus usually hides your files then changes them to shortcut icons. So, you can recover and open shortcut files by showing the hidden files in the following ways.
Step 1. Open your USB Drive.
Step 2. Open Folder Options.
Step 3. In "Hidden files and folders" click "Show hidden files and folders".
Step 4. Remove and click "Hide protected operating system files".
Manual execution of the command line is suitable for computer professionals, since incorrect commands can do more harm than good. Therefore, for security and usability, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative - EaseUS CleanGenius. It is a practical tool that enables you to check and fix file system errors, enable/disable write protection and update your system with one-click instead of typing intricate command lines.
Follow the simple steps below to show hidden files with this 1-click-fix software.
Step 1. DOWNLOAD EaseUS CleanGenius for Free.
Step 2. Start EaseUS CleanGenius, choose "Optimization" on the left panel. Next, click "File Showing" on the right panel.

Step 3. Select the hard drive and click "Execute".

Step 4. After the operation completes, click the here link to check the hidden files.

If these two solutions don't work, it's possible that the virus/malware has deleted your files. In this way, you need to use a reliable data recovery tool to help you recover the deleted files.
Was This Page Helpful?

Cedric Grantham is one of the senior editors of EaseUS who lives and works in Chengdu, China. He mainly writes articles about data recovery tutorials on PC and Mac and how-to tips for partition management. He always keeps an eye on new releases and likes various electronic products.

Author Jean has been writing tech articles since she was graduated from university. She has been part of the EaseUS team for over 5 years. Her special focuses are data recovery, disk partitioning, data space optimization, data backup and Mac OS. By the way, she's an aviation fan!
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful system recovery software, designed to enable you to recover files you’ve deleted accidentally, potentially lost to malware or an entire hard drive partition.
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best we have seen. It's far from perfect, partly because today's advanced disk technology makes data-recovery more difficult than it was with the simpler technology of the past.
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro has a reputation as one of the best data recovery software programs on the market. It comes with a selection of advanced features, including partition recovery, formatted drive restoration, and corrupted file repair.
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