it was on a cool day,and I was trying to transfer some files from my flash drive to my a friend laptop,but all of a sudden,I discoverd that all the files have turn to shortcut files,but the file still exist in the usb flash drive,but I was unable to recover the files,well these are the steps we took before the files are recovered
Using software
Step 1: use "recover my files" to recover all the files
Step 2:after recovering all the files with the above software,then copy and save all the files
Without using software
Step 1:enable the "show hidden folders option"
For window xp follow this step
Open "my computer",>>> "tools">>>"folder options">>>"view",then click the show hidden files and folder,then ok
For window vista,7
Open "control panel">>>"folder options">>>"view",then click the show hidden files and folder,then ok
Step 2:after all that,you will now be able to view the original fle in your external usb flash
Hope it works for you