{"id":9350,"date":"2017-08-10T11:16:03","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T11:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/?p=9350"},"modified":"2025-04-25T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T09:09:51","slug":"fix-folders-become-shortcuts-external-hard-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/fix-folders-become-shortcuts-external-hard-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix Folders Turned into Shortcuts In The External Hard Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"
Picture a condition. You usually save your priceless memories such as videos or photos and business critical data like Spreadsheets, Presentation, or Word Document on the flash drive in separate folders. You follow this practice to access them from anywhere and at any instant of time. However, today, when you attempted to access them on another system, it shows all files as shortcuts. You tried to access the same from your laptop yet you still see your MBs or GBs files into KBs. These files are very important to you. Now, the only query you may have in your mind is how you can fix the folders that have turned into shortcuts.<\/p>
Before wondering how to fix folders that have become shortcuts, let us have a quick overview of its causes.<\/p>
How Does Folder Turn to a Shortcut?<\/strong><\/h2>
Autorun.inf worm and Virus or Trojan turns your healthy folders into a shortcut. It happens when you connect your properly working removable storage device with an infected system. Generally, it makes them hidden.<\/p>
How to Fix A Folder that has Become a Shortcut?<\/strong><\/h2>
Solution 1: Unhide<\/strong><\/p>
As already stated, sometimes an infection turns the files or folders into a hidden state. Thereby, switching them to a non-hidden mode will make them visible. Steps are as follows:<\/p>
\n
Click My Computers<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
Click View Tab<\/b><\/li>\n\n\n\n
Checkmark Show Hidden Items<\/strong> option<\/li>\n<\/ol>
The above is a hit & trial approach and chances to regain inaccessible data from it is very less.<\/p>
As the root cause of Shortcut creation is malware, thus removing them can help in resolving the issue. For this, you need to run anti-malware or antivirus into the Full Scan mode and remove the malware or virus to access the files or folders.<\/p>
Steps are as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Click and Open Anti-virus<\/strong> or Anti-malware<\/strong> Program<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Click Scan<\/strong> and practice Full Scan<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
Click Ok<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Next, attempt<\/strong> to access Folders<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>
Limitation:<\/strong> Since virus alters the names of files, therefore, attempts to access files after virus removal is a bit tedious.<\/p>
Solution 3: CMD Command<\/strong><\/p>
Another way to recover the shortcut files.<\/p>
\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Steps are as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Go to Start<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Click on Run<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Type cmd<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
Select your device (Memory Card, Pen Drive, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Type del *.lnk<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Type attrib -h -r -s \/s \/d Drive Letter:*.*<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
Hit Enter<\/li>\n<\/ol>
Limitation:<\/strong> Flash Drives should not be formatted unless you have basic technical knowledge<\/p>
Since all the above solutions are manual methods, chances of entire recovery are less and that of further aggravation is more. Therefore, resorting to software approach is ideal as it will not only help you in recovering the data entirely but also promises Data Integrity.<\/p>
Which software should you opt for?<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Stellar\"](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/CMD.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>![\"Select](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/public\/image\/catalog\/screenshot\/data-recovery-standard\/wdr-standard1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>![\"select](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/public\/image\/catalog\/screenshot\/data-recovery-standard\/wdr-standard2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>![\"Scanning](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/3-11.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>![\"Preview](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/public\/image\/catalog\/screenshot\/data-recovery-standard\/wdr-standard3.jpg\")
<\/figure>![\"Recover](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/public\/image\/catalog\/screenshot\/data-recovery-standard\/wdr-standard4.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>