Best software to securely erase USB flash drives these days?

Hello.

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.
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On 2/17/2016 2:55 PM, Ant wrote:
Hello.

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Google "freeware wipe disk"!

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What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Google "freeware wipe disk"!

But how good are those? Do they have malwares and stuff?
--
Quote of the Week: "Yeah, what's left of it. I was in the militia --
national guard... That's good! Wasn't any war any more than there's war
between men and ants." --stranger; "And we're eat-able ants. I found
that out... What will they do with us?" --Pierson from H.G. Wells' The
War of the Worlds
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On 17/02/16 07:55, Ant wrote:
Hello.

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.


Something like this (adjusted for the correct device, of course):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdh

USB flash drives are not particularly clever. On some SSD's, this zero
writes would be compressed and dedup'ed and end up with no overwriting
of the actual data (but leaving it extremely difficult to extract), but
on USB flash drives this should wipe everything pretty thoroughly. On
hard disks, it is also a solid solution.

It's free, safe from "malwares and stuff", and it's already installed on
your system.

On 2/17/2016 12:55 AM, Ant wrote:
Hello.

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.

A two pound hammer works nicely.

Lynn

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.

A two pound hammer works nicely.

What good will it to be other users I give to? :P
--
Quote of the Week: "Yeah, what's left of it. I was in the militia --
national guard... That's good! Wasn't any war any more than there's war
between men and ants." --stranger; "And we're eat-able ants. I found
that out... What will they do with us?" --Pierson from H.G. Wells' The
War of the Worlds
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David Brown wrote:
On 17/02/16 07:55, Ant wrote:
Hello.

What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.


Something like this (adjusted for the correct device, of course):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdh

USB flash drives are not particularly clever. On some SSD's, this zero
writes would be compressed and dedup'ed and end up with no overwriting
of the actual data (but leaving it extremely difficult to extract), but
on USB flash drives this should wipe everything pretty thoroughly. On
hard disks, it is also a solid solution.

It's free, safe from "malwares and stuff", and it's already installed on
your system.

Thanks.
--
Quote of the Week: "Yeah, what's left of it. I was in the militia --
national guard... That's good! Wasn't any war any more than there's war
between men and ants." --stranger; "And we're eat-able ants. I found
that out... What will they do with us?" --Pierson from H.G. Wells' The
War of the Worlds
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit-
( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.

On 17/02/16 21:57, Ant wrote:
What are you guys using to securely erase USB flash drives these days? I
don't want to physically destroy them, but give them to others to reuse.

Thank you in advance.

A two pound hammer works nicely.

What good will it to be other users I give to? :P


They can use the hammer to emphasis how displeased they are that you
destroyed perfectly good USB flash drives :-)

On 2/18/2016 3:18 AM, Ant wrote:

Google "freeware wipe disk"!

But how good are those? Do they have malwares and stuff?


I don't have disk forensic tools to check! Anyone?

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On 2/18/2016 4:43 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

A two pound hammer works nicely.


What if you wanna sell it in 2nd-hand market? Could you offer tools that
GUARANTEED a wipe?

--
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/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and farces be with you!
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