i have this USB device of abt 460 gb… i hav loads n loads of important files in it.. now the problem is a few days ago my husband took it to a friend of his to give a certain file from my USB, after that when i connected it to my laptop my anti-virus program detected malware n blocked my access to all the folders in the USB… i can still access to some sub-folders if i search from the start menu…other folders r still blocked n have been converted to .EXE file type…i tried rescanning the whole device many times to check if all my files r safe…all files, documents, folders r still there but i cant access coz they’ve been moved to quarantine by the anti-virus program…is there any method of making these folders access able again?
Re: Help with external memory device
Nancy I moved you thread to Computer & IT as you will get more responses here.
Re: Help with external memory device
No problem… as long as i get a solution for my problem 
Re: Help with external memory device
try renaming the file/folders which have been renamed to FOLDER.exe and remove the .exe part. Can you access the folder than?
Also in ‘my computer’ can you right click on your usb and then select open, does that work, if it does, look for a file called autorun.inf and delete it.
Re: Help with external memory device
i’ll try renaming…i have tried removing the .exe part & opening the USB directly from my computer
Re: Help with external memory device
There are probably files in the root of the USB drive which are infected. Try disabling the antivirus, open the USB drive in Windows Explorer and delete unknown files in the root of the drive. Make sure you don’t accidentally execute any file. Take screenshots if you’re not sure and post it here.
Re: Help with external memory device
u mean hidden files? i dont c any files except my documents…
Re: Help with external memory device
ok new problem… now my computer doesnt detect my usb device…!!! any idea what’s the problem?
Re: Help with external memory device
You are nancy drew and you don’t know? 
What system are you on now? if you are on 7, try connecting on xp or a OS X. I am pretty sure that you formatted your drive in NTFS, so a Mac might not detect your files (exFAT is common to both OS X and windows). OS X would detect your NTFS drive, but give you an option to reformat it to Mac OS journal, exFAT etc.
Re: Help with external memory device
Shouldn’t keep all your eggs in one basket . . .
Its not good to keep accessing the infected files . First update your antivirus software and scan your system and remove any infected file . Remove means delete . Second connect any other USB device to your system and see if your system is detecting that . Third attach your USB drive to some other system and scan it with antivirus software . Make sure its all clean before you attach it to your system .
Re: Help with external memory device
im on 7 but a few days ago the device was working fine… i installed a new anti-virus n it quarantined the auto- run option of the device so now the system is not detecting it
Re: Help with external memory device
plz some1 help… my external is not being detected even in device manager
Re: Help with external memory device
Is it not working with your system or any other system ???
Re: Help with external memory device
it has stopped working completely, its light turns on when i connect to any pc or laptop but the system doesnt detect it
Re: Help with external memory device
Connect it some other computer other than yours and report back
Re: Help with external memory device
Windows Explorer hides all the system and hidden files … well … hidden. You have to click on File / Options (or whatever its called now) and go to the View tab and enable showing of those type of files.
Re: Help with external memory device
it still doesnt work, can my data be recovered if the device is somehow damaged?
Re: Help with external memory device
Remove the Harddisk from the external case and Install it into your computer or another external case to find out if it still works or not…Is it a 2.5 or 3.5 inch HD?
Re: Help with external memory device
3.5 inch
Re: Help with external memory device
Well then it shouldn’t be a problem to install it into your computer.
And just in case you don’t know how to do that.
Is there someone who could do that for you?
And if the HD still does work, get yourself a new external case.