How to Show Hidden Files in USB Windows 10, 8, and Windows 7

Data files that exist on a USB Flash Drive but do not appear while listing or exploring are called hidden files. Normally, users hide some of their important files from a pen drive to prevent crucial data from being accidentally deleted or modified.

However, there come some circumstances when users do not get those files after attempting to unhide hidden files in USB windows 10 to modify or delete. This usually happens due to several apparent reasons.

Well, whatever the reason, this can be troublesome and especially when you have no idea how to show hidden files in USB Windows 10, 8, and 7. So, let’s explore some simplest ways to show hidden files in USB Windows 10.

Method One: Show Hidden Files in USB Windows 8 Using CMD

Command Prompt is one of the best ways to unhide hidden files in USB windows 10, 8 and 7, memory cards or other external storage drives. In order to show hidden files in USB windows 8 follow the instructions given below:

• Open the Windows Start menu and search for “cmd”. Select and open CMD
• Hit a click on cmd.exe and enter the command line where you can utilize the attrib command to unhide the hidden files
• After this, type attrib -h -rs /s /d H:\*.* command and hit the Enter button
  Note: Here, replace H: with your USB drive letter.
• After returning the command prompt back, you can see all the files and folders that were hidden previously and you can simply access them from your USB.

Method Two: Show Hidden Files in USB Windows 8 Using Control Panel

Control Panel is another good idea to unhide the hidden files in USB Windows 10, 8, and 7. Below is how to use it to show hidden files on a USB drive windows 10:

• Click on the Start menu and launch Control Panel
• From the Control Panel, select Appearance, and Personalization
• In the Appearance and Personalization window, click on Show hidden files and folders
• In the File Explorer Options wizard, click on the View tab
• Select the radio button next to Show hidden files and drivers. Click Apply

If you are not getting your hidden files back even after applying all the above methods then, it might be possible that you have lost your files.

One Last Option to Show Hidden Files in USB Windows 10, 8, 7

For use of this method, you have to format your pen drive first after that you can download Pen Drive Recovery Tool to restore lost data files from Pen Drive/ USB Flash Drive. The software is safe and recovers complete data even without resulting in any data loss. Using this, you can recover all types of data like videos, images, documents, and all other multimedia items from a pen drive.

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It supports recovery files from FAT, exFAT, and NTFS formatted external storage USB drives. The best thing about this tool is that it supports recovering data from all brands’ pen drives regardless of their size. Follow the steps below to recover and show hidden files in USB Windows 10 and all below versions:

1:- Download and Launch Pen Drive Recovery Tool on your computer

Step 2:- After this, the tool will display the newly attached drive. Select it and click on Scan

3:- Now the tool will display all the recovered data items in its preview pane. All the bold folders contain data and it will highlight recovered permanently deleted data items in red color

4:- Select all the desired items or just directly click on the Save button

Also read: Know How to Perform USB Flash Drive & Pen Drive Forensics Easily

In Conclusion 

Files can be hidden on a USB Flash Drive or memory storage device due to multiple reasons. Users who encounter such issues, search for a common question on how to show hidden files in USB Windows 10, 8, and 7. Here, we have discussed all the possible manual and automatic techniques to unhide hidden files in USB windows 10, 8, and 7.

Show Hidden Files in USB Windows – FAQ