Remove Virus From External Hard Drive – All Possible Methods
If you are searching for a solution on how to remove viruses from external hard drives without formatting. Then, this will beneficial for you, here in this post we will show you two methods to clean external hard drives from viruses without losing any data.
External hard disk drives are a popularly used medium to carry large amounts of data from one system to the other. Every PC machine has an inbuilt hard drive for storing data. However, at times, there is a need of carrying some data with us. Then, at that point in time, we cannot do that, obviously, we cannot carry our system everywhere along with us. As it is not that portable and there could be physical challenges attached to it. This is where the external disks play a significant role. An external HDD always serves as a backup for all your crucial data. This is quite handy to use also owing to its “plug & play” feature with the use of a USB Port.
External drives come in 2 physical sizes chiefly, which are 2.5” & 3.5” having capacities varying from 160 gigabytes to even up to 2 Terabytes. These drives, being portable in nature, are thus more vulnerable to virus infections, Trojan horses, and malware-caused damages.
In such cases of any virus attack on an external HDD, it may even fail due to it. For preventing your external hard drive from virus attacks, always remember to perform regular virus checks. Get good anti-virus software and also conduct a virus scan before finally using it. This can curb data loss as much as possible in cases of any virus intrusions.
Table of Content
How to Remove Virus from External Hard Drive using CMD
To delete viruses from external hard drives without formatting, you can use CMD. Using CMD for removing the virus from infected external storage media can help in some cases. This being a free and simple method should surely be your first choice for recovery.
- Firstly, plug your external drive into your machine
- Then, go to the start menu There, in the search bar, type “cmd” And then, hit enter
- Now, you will be able to see “cmd. exe” under the programs’ list For that, right-click on this “cmd. exe”
- After that, type in “attrib -h -r -s /s /d drive letter:\*.*”, for example, “attrib -h -r -s /s /d G:\*.*”.
- Then, use CMD for recovering your files from the virus-infected external storage medium
- After the above procedure, your MS Windows OS starts repairing your virus-infected drive and removes the virus from the external hard drive
Also read:- Showing Error While Formatting External HDD
Limitation of Using CMD to Delete Virus from External Hard Drive
- It is time taking process
- Technical knowledge required to perform the free method
- If you did any mistake you will lose your data permanently
Remove Virus From External Hard Drive Without Formatting – Professional Service
In this segment we recommend you try SysTools Data Recovery Services in New Delhi, to get rid of this issue. Because it gets good reviews from most of the users who have tried this service. You can also turn to their employees for help. In fact, their team is known to be quite polite and very cordial with users seeking such help. They are also fast and quick in delivering fast results. His hard work speaks volumes for him.
You can search for this provider online and in fact see the reviews given by other users who have already tried their services, which would provide you with a better picture of this company and the quality of service they are offering. Once hiring a commercial provider and get a professional intervention to take place, your problem has a very high chance of getting solved, and that too with minimum drops offs, as they know their work pretty well!
Also Read:- Portable Hard Disk not Ejected Properly
Conclusion
In this post, we have mentioned two ways to remove viruses from external hard disks without formatting. There is a manual method available to delete viruses from external hard drives. The free solution you are searching for on the internet includes chances of data loss. Because removing viruses from external hard drives using cmd required hard-core technical knowledge. For a safe and secure way to restore your data, users can opt for a professional solution that provides safe and precise outcomes.
Questions Asked by Users
Q. How do I remove a virus from my external hard drive?
A. Users can remove a virus from an external hard drive using the CMD command and a professional solution.Q. Is it possible to remove the virus from the external hard drive using CMD?
A. Yes, it is possible to remove viruses from external hard drives using CMD. But remember one thing, technical knowledge is required to perform the manual method. If you are not a technical user, go for a reliable service.