Firstly perform a virus scan on your flash memory. Performing a virus scan can determine whether there is a virus in memory or not. If you find one, remove it. This may prevent you from having to perform the following steps but remember removing it using these techniques will save you from many problems.
A computer virus is a malicious program that can cause many negative effects on your computer. They can spread from computer to computer in many different ways, including through the USB ( Universal Serial Bus), such as external hard drives or flash memories. In some cases removing a virus from your computer or device can be difficult, but not impossible. Here’s a guide to teach you exactly how to remove a virus from a flash memory.
Steps To Remove Virus From Your Flash Memory Sticks (Pen Drives):
Save The Required Files :
Do not copy the entire folders! As there are hidden files that could be viruses. Copy the files manually one by one. Do not store executable or compressed files. If you need the information in an archive, then “carefully” save the extracted information. This could be a tad time taking for the first time but you’ll only understand its advantage once you get through.
Format The Flash Memory :
Press ” Winkey + R ” to open the Run dialog box and type cmd, then hit ENTER. Now the command prompt will be displayed, now type ” format X:/ “. Make sure that you replace the letter X with the letter corresponding to the flash memory .
To determine the drive letter of the flash memory, open My Computer and look for the flash memory. It should say something along the lines as ” flash drive ( E : ) “. In this case, the letter ” E ” may be different on your computer, depending on how many storage units you have.
Backup The Files :
Copy the files back to the flash memory that you had backed up on your computer. After the memory has been formatted, everything will have been removed, including viruses. It is now safe to copy the files back to your flash drive.
Advice :
Examine your computer after doing this, because the virus may have migrated from the USB stick to your hard drive. Try to scan all the files that you copied to your computer and check if they are safe and they are not infected.
Warning :
All your files may also be infected in some case, so if you can’t afford to lose an infected document or a picture, it is better to print and then scan back to your computer.