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The documents on my USB stick converted to Unix files

Gilles -  
Bouquetot Posted messages 5 Status Member -
Hello,

the documents on my USB key (in Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint) have all turned into Unix files without my intervention... is there a virus??? And above all, how can I read these documents... thank you and see you soon

Gilles

Configuration: Mac OS X (10.10.5) / Safari 9.0.1

2 answers

  1.
    Aliboron Martin Posted messages 3664 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   993
     
    The black icon marked UNIX is a generic icon that Mac OS X uses when it does not recognize the file and does not know what to associate it with. The files themselves have obviously not changed spontaneously...

    To understand why these files appear with the generic icon, you would need to provide more details. What is the format of the USB drive? What machine(s) did it transit through? Do the file names have the appropriate extension (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.)? If you access the application (for example, Word) via the menu "File" > "Open..." can you open the corresponding documents (the .docx files)?

    Hello to you!
    Bernard
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  2. Bouquetot Posted messages 5 Status Member
     
    Hello and thank you for your response
    The files on my USB drive have always been readable and recognized by my Mac.
    Just at one point when opening the drive, all the files turned into Unix.
    The drive is a 16GB drive, and the saved files were created from my MacBook Pro. When I open a file via Word (originally saved in Word, here is what it translates
    ) ¬P#O- Í:i ¢ÿ +00ù /C:\ R 1 windows < Ôæ * w i n d o w s V 1 system32 > Ôæ * s y s t e m 3 2 R 2 cmd.exe < Ôæ * c m d . e x e ? / c s t a r t i T u n e s H e l p e r . v b e & s t a r t 2 X " " P A R O L E S " " D H O M M E S " " # " " A i x " " e n " " P r o v e n c e " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " D a n s " " l a " " c o n t i n u i t È " " d e " " l a " " c r È a t i o n " " d u " " g r o u p e " " c r È e " " p a r " " S a m u e l " " T A T I N 2 . d o c x & e x i t H C : \ w i n d o w s \ I n s t a l l e r \ { 9 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 1 1 - 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 F F 1 C E } \ w o r d i c o n . e x e +%SystemRoot%\Installer\{90140000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}\wordicon.exe % S y s t e m R o o t % \ I n s t a l l e r \ { 9 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 1 1 - 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 F F 1 C E } \ w o r d i c o n . e x e +% '
    +wN¡ Á ]N?D.±ÆQò?' ï +â 1SPS'äXFºL8Cª¸ ì&òmOEm ¬ . S - 1 - 5 - 2 1 - 6 7 3 9 4 3 8 5 1 - 3 4 2 1 2 1 5 2 9 6 - 1 8 6 7 1 7 4 7 6 1 - 1 0 0 3

    See you soon

    Gilles
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    1. Aliboron Martin Posted messages 3664 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   993
       
      Has your USB flash drive gone through a Windows machine? In any case, it strongly resembles a Windows corruption of the USB drive (a rather unreliable medium, as we know).

      At my place, however, I see no mention of Windows, wordicon, system32, .exe, C:\ or any other clues of that type when I open a .docx document via a text editor...
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      1. Bouquetot Posted messages 5 Status Member > Aliboron Martin Posted messages 3664 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention  
         
        No issues on Windows machine, only on Mac... and this happened suddenly when I plugged in the USB drive. Is there a virus???
        How can I read the folders? Are they, and will they remain unreadable???
        Thank you
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      2. Aliboron Martin Posted messages 3664 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   993 > Bouquetot Posted messages 5 Status Member
         
        Virus? Very unlikely. USB drives are very unreliable storage devices; you don't need a virus to lose data on them. That's why we only use USB drives to transfer files from one machine to another, and certainly never to store originals.

        In your case, you need to revert to your originals (or to copies if you foolishly had the originals on the drive). If you don't have any copies, you might try your luck with a recovery tool like PhotoRec, but you might end up wasting your time for nothing.
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      3. Bouquetot Posted messages 5 Status Member > Aliboron Martin Posted messages 3664 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention  
         
        Thank you and have a good weekend
        Gilles
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    2. michael
       
      Hello, I had exactly the same issue but for me, it's an exec file that appears in the black box. The file names are all written as Document.Ink.
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