How to remove Virus from USB Drives
One of the ways by which a virus can infect your PC is through USB/Pen drives. Common viruses such as ’Ravmon’ , ‘New Folder.exe’, ‘Orkut is banned’ etc are spreading through USB drives. Most anti virus programs are unable to detect them and even if they do, in most cases they are unable to delete the file, only quarantine it. Here are the things which you can do if you want to remove such viruses from your USB drives
Whenever you plug a USB drive in your system, a window will appear similar to the one shown below
Don’t click on Ok , just choose ‘Cancel’. Open the Command Prompt by typing ‘cmd‘ in the run box. In the command prompt type the drive letter: and press enter . Now type dir /w/a and press enter.
This will display a list of the files in the pen drive. Check whether the following files are there or not
- Autorun.inf
- Ravmon.exe
- New Folder.exe
- svchost.exe
- Heap41a
- or any other exe file which may be suspicious.
If any of the above files are there, then probably the USB drive is infected. In command prompt type attrib -r -a -s -h *.* and press enter. This will remove the Read Only, Archive, System and hidden file attribute from all the files. Now just delete the files using the command del filename. example del Ravmon.exe. Delete all the files that are suspicious. To be on a safer side, just scan the USB drive with an anti virus program to check whether it is free of virus or not. Now remove the drive and plug it again. In most of the cases, the real culprit turns out to be the “Autorun.inf” file which mostly gets executed when someone clicks Ok in the dialog window which appears above. Thus the infections can spread
Security Tip
Disable the Autoplay feature of USB drives. If you disable the Autoplay feature of USB drives, then there are lesser chances of the virus spreading. A tool which can perform such a function is Tweak UI. Download it from here install it.
Run the program. Now you can disable the Autoplay feature of the removable drives as shown above. By following the above steps, you can keep your USB drives clean. If there are any other methods which you use, then share it with me through comments.
Very effective! I’ve removed the New Folder.exe virus on my USB in an instant!
really great job
awesome! works perfectly. thanks
I got a virus on a thumbdrive yesterday but was not aware. I believe that the data is gone but is backed-up. How would one go about in reformating the drive because it wont let me? Thanks in advance.
Veran
Thank you for the very detailed method of removing a virus from a USB thumb drive. We recommend AVG to all of our computer repair clients because it is definitely the best value Antivirus program out there.
when i insert the USB drive then there is some .exe files executed i follow the above method to remove it but still not worked. what can i do ??
Mijn externe schijf bevat mappen muziek foto”s enz enz
die nu snelkoppelingen zijn geworden
Als ik ze wil benaderen zegt ie dat het item fievohx.exe waarna deze snelkoppeling verwijst is gewijzigd of verplaatst waardoor deze snelkoppeling niet goed meer werkt
Wilt u deze verwijderen
Deze mappen staan allemaal foto”s op dei ik graag weer veilig terug wil hebben
Zou iemand mij kunnen helpen
Grtjes Bé
by following the instruction the New Folder.exe virus on my pendrive was removed. however the 2nd pendrive that i tried to fix ddnt allow me. says unable to find attribute. error says write protected and its not. theres not even an option to do it on my usb. Please help
Hey!! first of all, thanks for this article who helped many people as possible,but I want to ask something, What should I do if it is still not removed? Cuz I try this article so many times,but it wont work, please,help me,I need your advices.one of my USB is virused, and i try another USB and I saw it was virused too. somebody help me! by the way,I am using laptop and it’s “WINDOWS 7 STARTER” If you are willing to help me,just don’t hesitate to e-mail me via yahoo at xtreme.evanescence@rocketmail.com I am willing and waiting for your further replies!
Cheers! x
I am hoping someone can help me. After experiencing a savage attack on my 8GB flash drive,I used AVG. The program gave the flash drive a clean bill of health. I then deleted all the files from the drive (5GB worth)to be sure and start fresh. Although the drive didn’t show any files when I opened it with explorer or ‘my computer’ – a quick check of properties showed that the drive was still 5GB full. I confirmed this by trying to load more than 3GB of material onto it and being denied as there was insufficient room. Any ideas how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks