Permanently show hidden directories

Question

I am trying to repair a friend's USB drive that got a virus. All directories became .lnk and the original ones were hidden. I don't know how to permanently show the folders. I've used sudo chflags nohidden /path but it doesn't work permanently.

Answer 1

Files & folders that start with a period will always be hidden in the Finder, and in Terminal listings (ls command, unless you use the -a flag i.e. "ls -a"), If renaming the folders is acceptable, then just remove the period from the folders you want to show.

Answer 2

chflags nohidden should be permanent, but it doesn't affect files that start with a period.

This makes Finder show all hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true; killall Finder