Q – I was working on my laptop and suddenly my eye catches all my files and folders create a shortcut in my external hard drive due to which I was unable to access my data files and these shortcuts are taking extra spaces to my hard drive. Kindly suggest me appropriate solution for recovery of my data without causing any harm to any file?

Alice Santiago

I come to this conclusion from your problem that your hard drive may contain viruses. For this, you can use an effective anti-virus program and completely scan your system. I hope you will be able to access your shortcut folder data.

Marcus Jane

It may be probably possible that some of your hidden folders have taken that extra space. Make them unhide and then check for space. You may delete these extra folders which are created due to the hidden files.

Leonardo Mark

One of the solutions for which you can go is to check file system errors. In this case, you won’t be able to show your files in hard drive because the file system is corrupt. You may confirm this by right click on the external hard drive and choose properties. Under Tools tab, click on Check now and check ‘automatically fix file system errors’ and click on start and wait for the end.

Bradley Messi

You can also go for CMD command method to recover the file for which the shortcut has been created and still taking up space. For this, follow the given steps –

  • Press Win key and R alphabet together and the run dialog box will open
  • Enter CMD in it
  • Select your device (hard drive, SD card, flash drive)
  • Now type del*.Ink and press enter
  • Type driver letter and press enter
Daisy Kate

I have the same issue and for this, I used CMD Command option but it didn’t fix my issue and I am still unable to access my files. Is there any other simple solution either free or paid that will help me in this situation?

George Mateo

There is one solution with me for you that will definitely work for you to recover the data from your hard drive and that is EaseUs hard drive recovery software. It is a paid tool but offers you a simple and reliable solution. With this tool, you can simply recover any size files from your hard drive. You can try the software through its demo version.