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sscheema

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
6
0
I use a pendrive like everyone else perhaps and after I gave the pendrive to a friend of mine - I found out to my horror that there were only links to my folders and there were no folders. My heart sank bad because some of them included my corrected office work that I cannot afford to loose. I scanned with Norton - the links are gone but when I searched I found that my folders are just plain hidden.

In windows I would have right clicked the folder and got to unhide it by just clicking the unhide folder/file option. In mac I find no such option. There are a few options listed - that I came across on the internet but all discuss it being done so for library folder.

When I try the same trick for my pen drive - firstly the terminal does not recognise the path that I type (after pasting it from the Go to folder option) I have been basically going round in circles for past few hours.

The question is simple - How do I unhide the folder in my pen drive that got hidden due to virus or something.

Eagerly waiting for the reply.
 
Last edited:

mrapplegate

macrumors 68030
Feb 26, 2011
2,818
8
Cincinnati, OH
I use a pendrive like everyone else perhaps and after I gave the pendrive to a friend of mine - I found out to my horror that there were only links to my folders and there were no folders. My heart sank bad because some of them included my corrected office work that I cannot afford to loose. I scanned with Norton - the links are gone but when I searched I found that my folders are just plain hidden.

In windows I would have right clicked the folder and got to unhide it by just clicking the unhide folder/file option. In mac I find no such option. There are a few options listed - that I came across on the internet but all discuss it being done so for library folder.

When I try the same trick for my pen drive - firstly the terminal does not recognise the path that I type (after pasting it from the Go to folder option) I have been basically going round in circles for past few hours.

The question is simple - How do I unhide the folder in my pen drive that got hidden due to virus or something.

Eagerly waiting for the reply.

The terminal command to unhide a folder or file is:
Code:
chflags nohidden filenamehere

or
or for all the files, recursively, in the current directory:
Code:
chflags -R nohidden *


You can connect the USB drive and probably find it at /Volumes/drivename
 

sscheema

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
6
0
Thanks for the prompt reply but the reply in the terminal is as given below....



/Volumes/CHEEMA\ 8\ GB chflags -R nohidden *
-bash: /Volumes/CHEEMA 8 GB: is a directory
 

mrapplegate

macrumors 68030
Feb 26, 2011
2,818
8
Cincinnati, OH
Thanks for the prompt reply but the reply in the terminal is as given below....



/Volumes/CHEEMA\ 8\ GB chflags -R nohidden *
-bash: /Volumes/CHEEMA 8 GB: is a directory

you need to cd into the directory

Open terminal and type
cd /Volumes/CHE(Press TAB, it should expand the name) ( hit return )
chflags -R nohidden * ( hit return )
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
How do I unhide the folder in my pen drive that got hidden due to virus or something.
Your thread title is misleading, as your issue has nothing to do with a virus or malware. To edit your title to something more appropriate, such as "hidden files issue", click the "Edit" button on your original post, then click "Go Advanced" and you will see where to edit the thread title.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ
 

sscheema

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
6
0
Thanks
Problem solved
For someone who will be as clueless as me the way to change the folder dir is
type cd in terminal - give a space and drag the folder to the terminal window - hit enter and there you are ....

Cheers!!:D:)
 

sscheema

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
6
0
Problem starts again...

The files become hidden after a few hours again - don't know why - have adequately scanned the drive for Viruses...
:confused:
:mad:
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
The files become hidden after a few hours again - don't know why - have adequately scanned the drive for Viruses...
:confused:
:mad:
It has nothing to do with viruses, which don't exist in the wild for Mac OS X. Your issue is not related to malware of any kind.
 
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