How to Protect Pendrive from virus

Hello Friends, Today's topic is as per query one of our reader asked for, Here it is..

Now-a-days, we can't imagine life without Pendrives, Memeory cards. They are must for everyone.
Also they are always prone to virus as we have to use them on different PC/Systems which in turn leads to risk of our own system getting infected.
So, the question arises:

How to protect Pendrive / usb drives from virus?

Follow these steps to minimize the risk:

1. Format the drive using NTFS

NTFS is more secure than the FAT-32 file format as it has a built in administrative feature.

FAT-32 is compatible with all hardware manufacturers and operating-systems. 

How to format?

Plug-in the drive in Computer -> Right click the drive icon -> Format -> Change file systems to NTFS and proceed to format.

2. Create a folder named 'Autorun.inf' in the pen drive

This will prohibit virus from getting run automatically once inserted in computer.

Open pendrive-> Right click -> New -> Folder -> type Autorun.inf
make it read only:
Open command prompt->Type attrib +r +s g:\Autorun.inf 
'g:' is drive letter of your usb drive, put the drive letter your usb drive belongs to.

3. Set Permissions to Read

It is better to keep the Usb Drive in 'Read Only' mode. This will let you read all your Data but at the same time prohibit anything from getting written in it (when put in infected computer).

Right Click drive icon -> Properties  -> Go to 'Security' tab -> edit > set permissions to Read. 

Now everyone will think, "How to write new data on my usb drive". Relax! Follow next step.

4.Create Write folder

Create a folder named 'Write' (can give any name)

Right Click Write folder -> Properties  -> Go to 'Security' tab -> edit > Set permissions to Read & Write .

Now Virus and Malware cannot be written in the root of the USB flash drive. Also, One can always save their data in the 'Write' folder.

Feel free to ask queries.

Have a nice day :) :)

how to Disable write protection from pendrive

We received problem from our Reader regarding "Removing write protection from Pendrive". Here we will try to solve it.

What is write protection?

SD Card with Lock

- Write Protection is a feature(yes you read it right) that is generally found in flash drives like pen drives and memory card. It prohibits users to write anything to the drive, thus protect the drive from any modification to its data and also stops virus(from computer) to Copy(write) itself to the drive.

Initially, it was done using a small physical (hard)switch located in the Pendrive and memory card. The small yellow switch in this snap is for write protection. Similar, switch is used in any side of some pendrives.

Now, this feature is also being achieved digitally without any Hardware.

Why is it a problem then?
-it is a Problem when:
  a) we don't know about it and it prohibits us from writing
  b) it is (digitally) implemented without user consent either by someone or by Virus

Solution

First of all, make sure if there is any physical Switch is present or not, if it is then adjust it to unlock side.
If there is no physical switch or still problem persists, Go ahead.

As many a times it is done by virus also, it is suggested to scan your system including pendrive with a good updated Antivirus, if you don't have any then Download and install MalwareBytes, update it and do the scan.
For detail information of Virus cleaning, check : clean virus  

UPDATE: 

I have found a simple trick which also solves this problem (when your USB Device has minor problem only). Try this :

1) Right click 'My computer' -> Manage or Management -> Disk management
2) select your USB drive -> Right click ->"change drive letter and paths"
3) Then Rename it to a different letter

Check whether it starts working or not !!

 Note: Quotes( ' ) are used for information only, whenever you are asked to type, do without the quotes. Ex:  if asked to type 'abc'. Then don't put quotations ( ' ) while typing, type only
abc
    
 Method I : Using Diskpart


First we will try to remove read only attribute from the specific drive.

Warning : Be sure to do this on the right disk since the diskpart command can do serious damage if you run it on the wrong disk.

1)  Start Menu -> Run(or in search box) -> Type 'cmd' -> press 'Enter' -> Command Promt will open
2) Type 'Diskpart' -> enter ->  'list disk' -> enter
3) Select the disk you are going to modify, if your required USB disk is in 'disk 4' then 
4) type 'select disk 4' -> enter , now disk 4 is selected,  'list disk' will show star(*) beside it
5) 'list disk' -> enter 
To Clear the Read-Only attribute on the selected disk (To Disable write protection):
6) Type 'attributes disk clear readonly' -> enter
The disk is no longer Write protected. The Read-Only attribute is removed.

If you wish to set the write protection again, just do the same procedure and
Type 'attributes disk set readonly' -> enter

When you are done modifying the disk attributes just issue the exit command
7) Type 'exit' -> enter

If files inside USB drive are still in read only mode
-open command prompt
-Type ' j: ' -> enter (put your drive label in place of 'j' )
- Type ' attrib -r /s /d *.* ' -> enter
- exit


Method II : Using RegEdit


This will Remove write protection from USB Drives. If it doesn't then lets disable writeprotect from your System Using Registry Editor:

1) Start Menu -> Run(or in search box) -> Type 'regedit' -> press 'Enter' -> Registry Editor will open
2) Expand by clicking ' + ' and Navigate to the following path :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

If you can't find  'StorageDevicePolicies', then you have to create the key:
-Right click on ' control '-> New -> Key -> a new key will get created -> rename it as 'StorageDevicePolicies'
-Right click on 'StorageDevicePolicies' 
-> New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value -> Name it as 'WriteProtect'

writeProtect to storage device policies

Now if you want to enable write protection, use ' 3) ' , to Disable write protection, use ' 4) '

3)To Enable Write protect, Double click on 'WriteProtect', and set its value data to '1'

Edit DWORD value

Once set, all users on the computer is now blocked and prevented from copying, transferring or writing any files, documents and data to the USB disk drives.
4)To Disable Write protect, Double click on 'WriteProtect', and set its value data to '0'
Once reset to '0', all users on the computer is now allowed to copy, transfer or write any file, document and data to the USB disk drives.

5)close your registry edit window.

For first time, you may get that same message again, close the notification window and try to write to the USB again and it should work. You’ll probably have to do this with all your USB drives to clear that “Disk is write protected” message. Hope this helped.

If still same problem then You have to go for Formatting it.

Method III : Using Formatting

Try Formatting by Disk Management
If it doesn't format.

Try these tools:
1) Download Neo 9
(Zipped with Password - techsoln )
2) Transcend's Online Recovery Tool
3)  Apacer Formatting Utility
(Zipped with Password - techsoln )  

Using 1st two is simple.

For using  Apacer Formatting Utility, 
Unzip this utility to preferably on a folder on desktop for easy access (Do Not Save it on pen drive).
Keep your pen drive plugged in
Double click on the 'Start.bat' file in the folder where you unzipped the above utility.
This will start formatting your pen drive, wait till the formatting completes and the LED on your pen drive stops blinking.
Remove your pen drive and plug it in again.


If you still face same problem, go to service center. If you have warranty left then replace your pendrive.

Happy Computing :)

(If you liked it, then click 'g +' below and don't forget to comment)

How to Recover hidden files from Pendrive after virus infection

Mostly pen drive doesn't consist any security measures. Since we use Pen drive in many PC/Laptops it very easily gets infected with viruses and malwares. 

We can easily get rid of these Malwares by scanning it with any good updated Antivirus (no need of Format as it leads to Data loss).

Problem arises when we try to access our data stored in the pen drive.
When we check property of the USB Drive, Disk usage shows there are files in the pen drive but inside pen drive we can't find any!!
Rather we are left with some Shortcuts sometimes.

Don't worry All the files are safe only they are made Hidden by the virus.

To show your hidden files you can follow this link : "Show"

To unhide your files and folders follow these simple steps:

1) Open command prompt:
     (Win 7 & vista) : 
  start->cmd (in search) -> open
It is better to open cmd as administrator:
right click the cmd icon (from search)->-> run as administrator(give admin password if required, else use normal run)

     (Win xp users) :
  start -> run -> type cmd -> Ok


command prompt will open now.

2) Check Drive Letter of you pen drive from 'My Computer'.
For example, If it is labelled as "e: drive"
     
-> type 'e:' hit enter

now pointer location will go to the drive.
 
3) type this command and hit enter :
     attrib -r -s -h *.* /s /d


 

Hurray, all your files and folders are visible to you now!!
:) :)