Diego Escalante Urrelo: Removing the hidden/system bit of vfat/fat32 files on GNU/Linux

I just fixed an USB drive that apparently had been hit by a virus. All the top-level directories were invisible on Windows, but visible on GNU/Linux.

First I thought that it was just the “hidden” bit. But turns out it was the “system” bit. I had completely forgotten that one even existed!

After some googling I got this solved by using mtools:

1. Create a ~/.mtoolsrc file with this:

   1 2	drive s: file="/dev/&lt;your-usb-drive"<br /> mtools_skip_check=1 (otherwise it refuses to operate on the drive)

2. Check for file attributes with mattrib:

   1	$ mattrib -/ s:

3. Fix any broken stuff (this removes the hidden and system bits):

   1	$ mattrib -/ -h -s s:

Hope it saves your neck or the neck of someone that has to use Windows.

Oh, and please, please, don’t make your entire digital life depend on a tiny piece of plastic. Make backups on your real computer, or other drives.

Article source: Go to Source
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License: The original licenses are retained – MIT (Expat) License

Tags: Attributes, bit, file attributes, Files, go, MIT, system, Tiny, USB