Avast quarintined my family pictures in a portable drive i plugged in

Help so avast quarintined my family pictures and ive tried restoring it but it wouldint work i tried repairing avast and no luck so far what do i do?

This reminds me of my problem, which I posted here, but nobody seemed to be interested to respond…

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=306359.0

Try instead of restoring to use the “Extract” option and try to get those files recovered into some other folder (not their original directory).

If it works, at leaset you would be able to get your files back.

It’s strange though it would just quarantine simple photos… What format were they?

It’s possible those photos got really infected by a virus (usually it’s jpeg/jpg files though).

I did but the files that come out are broken and dont work to open at all and i would get an error if i open any extracted file out of the quarintine and give me “C:/users/(My name)/DesktopRECYCLER/6c257b9d.exe Make sure you typed the name correctly and try again” Did avast bassicly screw the up the files? Also what the heck is a DesktopRECYCLER.

I tried recovering the files too no luck is the files way beyond recovery?

Did avast give a message?
What did the message say?

That all looks like you did have some kind of virus that infected your pictures, and when avast quarantined those pictures they somehow got fully ruined in the process.

Either way those pictures were already too dangerous to have on your computer.

But if I’m being completely honest, I’m buffled by your story so far… I hope Avast’s staff can help you more.

Though, in case you had no virus, but Avast by mistake removed and ruined actual files, I can recommend for the future not having the Behavior Shield running at all (it’s known to cause such problems in general) and to make sure your File Shield is configured to scan the “recommended extensions” or “risky extensions”, instead of scanning for all files.

I discovered that Avast only quarintined and extracted the .ink files folders that the pictures after checking the file closely which means it only quarintined the .ink folders but for some reason the pictures itself are gone im genuinely confused and baffled as much as you are.

Bassicly it quarintined a folder shortcut without me even having one im assuming that since the folders was in a portable drive it might have something to do with the files becoming .ink files bassicly just shortcuts to the actual file itself even though the file itself is gone.

so most likely your USB stick was infected with a shortcut worm

you can do:

1: go here https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=194892.0
scroll down to SPECIFIC INFECTIONS LOGS and follow instructions for MCshield

2: Go to Malwarebytes forum and ask for help https://forums.malwarebytes.com/forum/7-windows-malware-removal-help-support/

see instructions here https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/9573-im-infected-what-do-i-do-now/

If it’s a really just a shortcut virus, it’s possible your real data is still there in hidden form:

Read this article:

https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery_news/how-to-remove-virus-creating-shortcuts-to-files-and-folders.htm

Tried the following command attrib E:. /d /s -h -r –s

I also made sure i gave cmd administrator but i get access denied errors when doing that command.

At this point you really need help from a computer security specialist in general. Avast support won’t be able to help you with this one I think.

Keep google searching about your issue and maybe you’ll find a solution.
That’s how I usually find solutions to my problems. Even if it takes a long time.

Is this the support info you are after? And then particularly “Restore files from Quarantine”?

Re: https://support.avast.com/en-gb/article/Use-Antivirus-Quarantine/#:~:text=Quarantine%20is%20a%20safe%20place%20in%20Avast%20Antivirus,are%20moved%20to%20Quarantine%20in%20the%20following%20ways%3A

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