how to recover my files and folders from USB Drive which are not visible

[meiffu]

I have 32 GB Usb drive and it is almost full. But when I open it, it is showing only one virus file which is 'autorun.inf' and only one folder 'found001' , nothing else. I have tried USBSHOW software nothing happened and i have checked folder options and removed hidden option also, but all in vain. Please help to recover my files. It all happened when I installed my antivirus software Symantec Antivirus, till then all was well. Now because of this antivirus, my data has hidden, and i cannot unhide it.

[Hydaral]

It doesn't sound like the files are hidden, it sounds like checkdisk was run on the drive and it found corrupted files. The found001 file should have a chk extension, this is a pretty good indication that checkdisk was run on the drive.

I think your files are gone. How big is the found001 file?

[meiffu]

yes, the found001 folder has chk extension files, it has 5.15 gb size. But i never deleted my files, the antivirus deleted the virus only. I think

[meiffu]

And if my files are gone then why the USB properties show that it is 23 gb full? so i think the files are present but hidden

[Hydaral]

Making hidden files visible should show you them, but you said you have already done this and you don't see them, then they probably are not hidden.

I just found an article with links to software that can recover the checkdisk files:

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/07/how-to-recover-chk-files-created-by-chkdsk-and-scandisk/

There is also TrID:

http://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html

[Jyoti Ballabh]

If the USB properties display that it has 23 GB of data in it, then the files are obviously there and are either hidden or corrupted. Try to retrieve it by data swapping, I tried it once and it did work.