How to Wipe A Flash Drive Clean in Windows 10, 8, 7?
Why need to wipe a flash drive clean?
"I have a 2.0 USB flash drive. I currently have all the stuff I need before saved into the storage site. But now I get a 3.0 USB drive and transfer all data to it. So I decide to sell the old 2.0 one, but I want to wipe it fully clean and remove all data completely. How can I do this correctly? Can I just click format and that's all?"
Due to its portable size and excellent performance, the USB flash drive has become a popular data storage device. However, sometimes it is necessary to wipe clean the flash drive, just like the scenario. When you plan to sell, donate, or throw away the old USB flash drive, formatting and deleting the drive does not wipe data completely, and both operations just removes the file systems and makes the data invisible. Anyone can retrieve your sensitive data from the flash drive with a proper data recovery program. Thus, you have to wipe clean the flash drive with a professional tool.
How to wipe a flash drive permanently in Windows 10/8/7?
To wipe clean a flash drive completely in Windows 10, 8, 7, the Qiling Disk Master Professional is a reliable disk wipe tool you can try. Its "Wipe Hard Drive" feature can wipe HDD, SD card, USB flash drive, memory card, and other types of hard drives in Windows PC. Besides, it provides 4 different wiping methods for your selection: Fill sectors with zeros, Fill sectors with random data, DoD 5220.22-M and Gutmann.
You can download the free demo version for a trial. Check out the below steps to learn how to wipe a flash drive clean.
Before you do: backup something important if necessary since the wiping process will make the data unable to be retrieved via any software.
Step 1. Install and run Qiling Disk Master. Select "Wipe Data".
Step 2. Click the hard drive you plan to erase. Select a wiping method in this window. Here we choose "Erase times one (Fill sectors with random data)" .
Step 3. Click "Proceed" to start wiping the hard drive.
Besides wiping clean flash drives, this software is also able to erase SSD securely without causing damage to the SSD drives with the "SSD Secure Erase" feature. But this function only works on Windows 7 at present, please connect your SSD to a Windows 7 based computer and make sure it is detected.
Summary
Now, you should know how to wipe a flash drive clean in Windows 10, 8, 7. In addition to the disk wipe function, Qiling Disk Master Professional also comes with many other great features. For example, its "Allocate Free Space" function can directly transfer a part of unused disk space from one partition to another, and the "Clone Disk" feature is able to clone USB drive, SD card and more. To completely wipe a flash drive in Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, please try Qiling Disk Master Server.
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