How Can you Clear Sensitive Data From a Flash Drive?
- Thread starter 2048Megabytes
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The Chad
New Member
Seriously, your being a nuisance. Out of control. He wants to clear the data off it, not clear the flash off the earth..
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
hahahahahahahahahha!
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Sledgehammer?
LOOOOOOOL!!!Dont you think that hammer is a little bit too big?HDD arent that big xD LOOOOOOOL
By the way...you are crazy.
LoL I am just kidding.Here is what I would use:
This super-hammer will definetely destroy all the data so after you do that feel free to sell the HDD to someone.They wont find any of your data thats for sure xD xD xD
gamblingman
VIP Member
Sledgehammer?
Ya know I gotta say that i agree with this show of force. If the data is truly that sensitive, then WHY take the chance? Especially with as little as flash drives cost, its like when we used to buy floppy disks. When one had stuff you didnt want shared, you burned it or shredded it.
So I guess you have to ask yourself, how sensitive is the data. How far do you want to go. And if you do smash it, take a video! he he he
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Are you kidding???This small hammer cant do anything!Here is what I would use:
Now THATS THE REAL THING!
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Just format it 2 times in a row by using the DOS program called Kill Disk 4.1 from the DOS environment and problem solved.
2048Megabytes
Active Member
Formatting a hard drive disk or a flash drive does not erase the data (even doing it seven times). The data is still there until it is overwritten by other data. A format leaves the data on the storage device but simply tells the operating system that the space the data was written on can be used to store other data. Until data is overwritten on a storage device it can be recovered.
Edit: Might I also add data that is even overwritten can possibly be recovered though I don't understand how.
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S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Like I said...KILL DISK 4.1 or a HAMMER.Your choice
Well, things have to be kept in perspective - it's all a matter of how hard you want to make it to recover the data.
It is possible to recover data unless the drive has been totally physically destroyed, but the time, effort and expense would be prohibitive for all except the specialists.
I'd have thought you are looking for a solution to prevent the casual boffin from trying their luck at what they can recover. Their tools would, I expect, be software restoration facilities which would be defeated by secure shredder tools such as that in CCleaner, Spybot or other popular applications. However you should be aware that such tools to overwrite data several times can be quite detrimental to the life of flash drives - possibly killing them on the spot as the memory technology can be damaged by rapid, repeated writing.
So, IMO:
Destroy it if you are paranoid.
Fill it up and then use 'shredder' tools to erase the lot if you want to be careful.
Reformat it if that makes you feel better.
Use Truecrypt to encrypt future entries so you know they are safe.