How To Clear A Thumb Drive
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How To Clear A Thumb Drive: 3 Methods To Erase Your Data Permanently
A thumb drive, also known as a flash drive or a USB drive, is a small and portable device that can store various types of files. However, when you want to discard, resell, or give away your thumb drive, you may wonder how to clear a thumb drive completely and securely. This is because simply deleting or formatting the files on the thumb drive does not erase them permanently. They can still be recovered by data recovery tools or malicious hackers.
In this article, we will show you how to wipe a thumb drive using three different methods: format, DiskPart, and specialist software. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so you can choose the one that suits your needs best.
Method 1: Erase A Thumb Drive With Format
Formatting is the most common and easiest way to erase a thumb drive. It can delete all the files on the thumb drive and make it ready for new data. However, formatting does not overwrite the data on the thumb drive. It only marks the space as available for new data. Therefore, if you have any sensitive or confidential data on your thumb drive, formatting may not be enough to protect your privacy.
To format a thumb drive on Windows 10/8/7, follow these steps:
Connect the thumb drive to your computer and make sure it is detected by File Explorer.
Right-click the thumb drive and choose Format.
Select a file system you want, such as FAT32 or NTFS. If you want to use the thumb drive on both Windows and Mac computers, you can choose exFAT.
Uncheck Quick Format, because it only deletes the files on the thumb drive but not fully erase them.
Click Start to execute formatting and wait for it to complete.
Method 2: Clean A Thumb Drive With DiskPart
DiskPart is a command-line tool that can perform various disk operations, such as create, delete, format, or clean partitions. The clean command can erase all the data on a disk or partition by writing zeros to every sector. This makes it harder to recover the data than formatting. However, DiskPart can also be risky if you are not familiar with it. You may accidentally erase the wrong disk or partition if you are not careful.
To clean a thumb drive with DiskPart on Windows 10/8/7, follow these steps:
Connect the thumb drive to your computer and make sure it is detected by File Explorer.
Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.
Type diskpart and click OK. This will open a command prompt window with administrator privileges.
Type list disk and press Enter. This will show you all the disks connected to your computer.
Type select disk n, where n is the number of your thumb drive. For example, if your thumb drive is disk 2, type select disk 2. Press Enter.
Type clean and press Enter. This will erase all the data on your thumb drive by writing zeros to every sector.
Type exit and press Enter. This will close the command prompt window.
Method 3: Wipe A Thumb Drive With Specialist Software Safely
If you want to wipe a thumb drive more securely and easily, you can use specialist software that can overwrite the data on your thumb drive multiple times with different patterns. This makes it impossible to recover the data even with advanced tools or techniques. One such software is EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition, which can help you wipe a thumb drive with three levels of security: low-level (one pass), medium-level (two passes), and high-level (three passes).
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