Erase Flash Memory:
Are you one of those people with a load of SD Cards, Compact Flash, USB Sticks etc. with confidential information on? Perhaps its just personal files or photos from that holiday that you just don't want to see some nerd who stumbles across it to look at even after you spending the time deleting them?
Flash Memory Devices, USB Sticks, Eraser Software & How-to Guide
You see like Hard Disk Drives, Flash Memory devices never really delete the file you tell it to delete until another file comes along to replace it. When you click "Delete" in the operating system, the Flash Device File System (FAT, FAT32, vFAT, NTFS) merely marks the file as "deleted". But it is still there written to the physical space! The only way you actually purge these files is by finding other files to fill up the memory device thus overwriting the old data still held in the memory.
Of course, overwriting the contents of the memory stick with yet more files is not only defeats the object of removing all traces of personal files, it is time consuming!
So, Guru Guy has not only tirelessly found what he believes to be the best Flash Memory Eraser software on the net, but he has also written a guide on how to use it!
How to Erase your USB Stick/SD Card/Flash Memory Device:
- Download and extract Eraser Portable (from Portable Apps) to you hard disk (e.g. C:\Eraser Portable)
- Plug in the Flash Memory/USB Device you wish to erase. When it appears as a drive in "My Computer", open it up and delete all of the files you wish to delete permanently (if you haven't already done so);
- Load Eraser Portable Executable, which presents you with an empty task list. Click File->New Task and a window pops up asking you to select the drive you wish to permanently erase as below:
- In this example, I have selected the "Unused Space on Drive:" and the drive is K for my USB Flash Stick; Note you can also use this just to permanently distroy a file or set of files, but in this guide we are erasing the whole drive's empty space.
- Optionally select the "When Finished" option to automatically shut down the PC (it can take a while). OK out of the task when finshed.
- You are presented back in the Task List. Right-click on the task you just created and select "Run" as below:
- The Task will ask you to confirm you definately want to permanently destroy any files left in memory of the device. Yes to confirm this:
- The Eraser software will now wipe the device clean by writing and re-writing dummy data and blank it out to be sure there are no recoverable files on the device. When this is finished you are then ready to give/sell to someone else, knowing there is nothing there left behind!
Related Articles
- Installing legacy Operating Systems (such as Windows 95) in Virtual PC 2007;
- Windows Environment Variables list and explainations (%Systemroot% etc.);
- Windows Recovery Console Commands;
- Windows Tips & Tricks for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, NT and more!
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