Open the Hidden Files in a USB Pen Drive

Need to access some files hidden on your USB drive? All operating systems allow you to toggle whether hidden files are displayed or not, and toggling this option is relatively straight-forward. If you're using Windows, a virus or other malware could be causing your hidden files to not display. Fixing it requires opening the Windows Registry, but should only take a couple of minutes.

Steps

Windows

  1. Open the Control Panel. Items that have been give the "Hidden" attribute are not shown in your folders by default. You will need to enable the showing of hidden files in order to access them. You can do this from the Control Panel.
  2. Select "Folder Options". If you are in Category view, select "Appearance and Personalization", and then select "Folder Options".
  3. Switch to the View settings. Click the View tab. This will open a list of advanced settings for your folders.
  4. Toggle "Show hidden files, folders, and drives". This can be found under the "Hidden files and folders" section of the advanced settings list. Click the Apply button after setting hidden files to be displayed.
  5. Open your USB drive. Any hidden files or folders should now be displayed. The icons will be slightly grayed out to indicate that they are hidden files.
  6. Fix a broken Folder Options. Some viruses and other malware will modify your Windows registry, causing the displaying of hidden files to not work properly. You may see both the "Show" and "Hide" options selected when you open the Folder Options window, or your settings may get reset every time you close the window. To fix this:[1]
    • Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, or select it from the Start menu.
    • Type regedit and press Enter
    • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL. Use the directory tree in the left frame to move between folders.
    • Find the "CheckedValue" key. It should be REG_DWORD format. If the format is something else, delete it.
    • Right-click and create a new "DWORD (32-bit) Value" called "CheckedValue". If you already have a "CheckedValue" key, ensure that it is REG_DWORD format and set to "1".
    • Set the Value Data field of the new "CheckValue" key to 1.
    • Run a virus scan. If this has happened to your system, there's a good chance that your computer is infected, which could cause the problem to appear again.

Mac OS X

  1. Open the Terminal. Hidden files in OS X have a "." at the beginning of the filename, which OS X automatically hides. To toggle the visibility of these files, you will need to use the Terminal.
    • You can access the Terminal from the Utilities folder, which you can open from the Go menu or from your Applications folder.
  2. Enter the Show Files command. Type defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES and press Return. You will be asked for the administrator password if you don't have administrator privileges.
  3. Relaunch Finder. In order for the changes to take effect, you will need to restart Finder. Hold the Alt key and right-click on the Finder icon in your Dock. Click "Relaunch".
    • You can also type killall Finder in the Terminal to end the Finder process. You will need to open a new Finder window to start it up again.
  4. Open your USB drive. Any hidden files or folders should now be displayed. The icons will be slightly grayed out to indicate that they are hidden files.
  5. Hide the files again. Once you are finished manipulating your hidden files, you can use the Terminal to re-hide the files. Type defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO, press Return and then relaunch the Finder again.[2]

Linux

  1. View hidden files using a GUI file manager. Like OS X, hidden files in Linux have a "." at the beginning of the filename. If you are using a graphical file manager such as Thunar, Nautilus, or Dolphin, you can display hidden files by clicking the View menu and selecting "Show Hidden Files".
    • In Thunar and Nautilus, you can press Ctrl + H to toggle this.
    • In Dolphin, you can press Alt + . to toggle this.
  2. View hidden files in a directory in the Terminal. If you are using the Terminal to navigate your files, you can display all of the hidden files in a directory (such as your USB drive) by modifying the ls command.
    • Type ls -a | less and press Enter when you are in the directory you want to browse. You can page through multiple results using the Up and Down keys.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.technize.info/show-hidden-files-and-folders-not-working/
  2. ↑ http://ianlunn.co.uk/articles/quickly-showhide-hidden-files-mac-os-x-mavericks/

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