Ubuntu

Folder visible in ubuntu but not in windows: No virus!

Asked by Chethan S.

I have a Transcend 4 GB USB stick. The issue I am facing is after plugging it into a windows pc the folders became hidden. Changing the view settings to "Show hidden folders" in windows was not useful. Though the "Show hidden folders" remained checked the folder was not visible. This continued even after scanning with windows antivirus like kaspersky, nod32 and even clamav, bitdefender in linux.

I am able to use the folders in my ubuntu system normally. Suspecting permission issues I tried using the GUI controls under properties in ubuntu to change them for group and others. However it was remaining at none. As a novice in commands I have no idea about the commands to use.

Using ls -l command I get the following details about folders:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 amd-hp40 amd-hp40 407073 2010-08-25 22:58 chethan.doc
-rwxr-xr-x 1 amd-hp40 amd-hp40 928607 2010-09-06 05:17 Introduction to GRASS.pdf
drwx------ 7 amd-hp40 amd-hp40 4096 2010-08-27 13:13 Personal Data

Thanks in advance!

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Jonathan Yip (helkaluin) said : 		#1

Just want to confirm: you are using a filesystem that is readable by Windows on your USB stick, right?

I see the read permission is there. But if the filesystem isn't one of the FAT family or NTFS, then I doubt you can read them at all on Windows without installing 3rd-party drivers.

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Chethan S. (chethan) said : 		#2

I am using fat32 for windows. In fact long back I formatted the drive using windows xp. Now due to some virus the folders became hidden and now not visible in windows. The thing is I actually want to find out if there is any way to set the issue right without formatting the drive.

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Jonathan Yip (helkaluin) said : 		#3

I that case I really have no idea. File permissions are simply non-existent on FAT32 AFAIK. You can only impose access control in mount options.

The stick contains 4GiB max of data... Would it be easier to just copy the files to your HDD, reformat, and then write back the files? I suppose you can do this all in Linux within 20 minutes on modern hardware.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

When you physically removed it from the last system, what procedure did you use?

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Chethan S. (chethan) said : 		#5

Initially when it was infected I just removed it as the safely remove hardware was not working. Thereafter in ubuntu I either use eject or safely remove drive option and in windows its safely remove hardware. Now even the windows system does not show any error like error ejecting generic usb device. Only issue is I am not able to see the folders in windows after this issue.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

I suggest you shove it in a windows system and use scandisk to check the data is ok. FAT32 is not very robust at all.

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Jonathan Yip (helkaluin) said : 		#7

Alternatively there's dosfsck in Linux.

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