# How Can you Clear Sensitive Data From a Flash Drive?



## 2048Megabytes (Jan 10, 2010)

How can you clear sensitive data from a USB flash drive?  

If you were to erase the sensitive data from the flash drive, fill the flash drive up to 99% capacity with various non sensitive data and then format the drive is there anyway the sensitive data could be recovered?


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## linkin (Jan 10, 2010)

I think your best bet is to delete everything of the flashdrive, then format it to a different filesystem and then back to FAT32 or whatever it uses.


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## tlarkin (Jan 10, 2010)

If it is sensitive data why not encrypt it?


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## jamesd1981 (Jan 10, 2010)

i would use one of the many free file shredding tools.


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## 2048Megabytes (Jan 11, 2010)

tlarkin said:


> If it is sensitive data why not encrypt it?



I don't want to have to go thru the pain of having to put a password on the flash drive.  I would much rather just erase the old sensitive data on it.

Well, I filled the flash drive to 99% capacity with useless information then I formatted the drive in NTFS format and then put it back to its original format.  The old data was very likely all overwritten so likely it cannot possibly be recovered now.  I don't have much understanding of flash memory and how it works though.  Hopefully the overwriting principle is the same as a flash drive.


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## CrayonMuncher (Jan 11, 2010)

from what ive read for data to be fully deleted the drive sectors in use by the senesitive data they need to be overwritten 7 times, dont ask me why 7 really dont know, this effectively destroys the data and makes it unrecoverable, although probably still possible by forensic scientest to some extent
i used a program called zdelete its free for 30 days 

have a look here

http://www.zdelete.com/eraser.htm


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 11, 2010)

You can delete the data from the USB stick forever using the simple DOS tool called KILL DISK 4.1.Once you delete your data with it,there is no way you can get it back.
Here is the picture:






Cheers!


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## tlarkin (Jan 11, 2010)

If it is really that sensitive, encrypt it.  What will happen if you lose the thumb drive?  You won't be able to securely wipe it.  Encrypt it and then wipe it, then the old table of contents is now encrypted.


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## 2048Megabytes (Jan 11, 2010)

tlarkin said:


> If it is really that sensitive, encrypt it.  What will happen if you lose the thumb drive?  You won't be able to securely wipe it.  Encrypt it and then wipe it, then the old table of contents is now encrypted.



How would you recommend encrypting the flash drive?  I have Windows Vista Basic so I can't encrypt using the Windows Operating System.


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## tremmor (Jan 11, 2010)

Heres one ive had for a while and used. ones free and other is more complete you can buy if its a concern.  the paided ver has something to do with military wipe. 

KillDisk........
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm


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## tlarkin (Jan 11, 2010)

2048Megabytes said:


> How would you recommend encrypting the flash drive?  I have Windows Vista Basic so I can't encrypt using the Windows Operating System.



Third party utility, probably an open source one too.  

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Check it out


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## 2048Megabytes (Jan 11, 2010)

Thanks for the advice Tremmor.  "Active KillDisk" is a good program that fills a flash drive with zeros.  You have to buy the program to get it to do other features.  I used it and filled my flash drive with zeros.  I am certain no one could recover any of the old data that I erased off of it.


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## Twist86 (Jan 12, 2010)

No matter what you do they can get the information. Not to long back the News sat there and recovered all the information off a old HDD that had been "zeroed out" etc and other popular methods of removing data.
If you really want to be secure and make sure they can't read the data break it then burn the pieces is the only sure fire way to be safe. 90% of the normal people wont know how to access the data though once you delete it ^-^


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## ganzey (Jan 12, 2010)

what kind of "sensitive material" are we talking about?


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## 2048Megabytes (Jan 12, 2010)

The flash drive had about 400 names, phone numbers, addresses, and birth dates of people in my church congregation.


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## 2048Megabytes (Jan 12, 2010)

Twist86 said:


> No matter what you do they can get the information. Not to long back the News sat there and recovered all the information off a old HDD that had been "zeroed out" etc and other popular methods of removing data.
> If you really want to be secure and make sure they can't read the data break it then burn the pieces is the only sure fire way to be safe. 90% of the normal people wont know how to access the data though once you delete it ^-^



I highly doubt anyone could recover data from a hard drive data erased using the methods the program Darik's Boot and Nuke uses.  It uses various writing patterns to write over all hard drive data and then zeros out the hard drive.

But concerning a flash drive I need to study the technology to know how to cleanse data from a Solid State Disk or a flash drive.


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## tremmor (Jan 12, 2010)

i think the comment from innercx is more esthetically correct. I read many articles on this subject. they were all basically the same. the free killdisk was one type of wipe. the paid ver does it many different ways. the same thing. for me the single wipe works fine. 

something else and why i used it. ive wiped the hd and installing a new installation. same operating system and had the same problems after the installation. it was low level format. thats the way i did it. On the otherhand the manufactures like seagate offered software that would detect and good for all drives. one of the options was for low level format. 

come along ways in the past. maybe i was doing a quick format with the windows installation cd. it was my learning curve.


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## tlarkin (Jan 12, 2010)

Twist86 said:


> No matter what you do they can get the information. Not to long back the News sat there and recovered all the information off a old HDD that had been "zeroed out" etc and other popular methods of removing data.
> If you really want to be secure and make sure they can't read the data break it then burn the pieces is the only sure fire way to be safe. 90% of the normal people wont know how to access the data though once you delete it ^-^



AES encryption is still uncrack-able as the NSA has a 4 billion dollar ransom paying out whomever can crack it.  Skype uses AES encryption and they want to crack it to eavesdrop on so called terrorist cells that use skype for communications.

Encrypt the data, put a strong password on it and it will most likely be safe.


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## tlarkin (Jan 12, 2010)

2048Megabytes said:


> I highly doubt anyone could recover data from a hard drive data erased using the methods the program Darik's Boot and Nuke uses.  It uses various writing patterns to write over all hard drive data and then zeros out the hard drive.
> 
> But concerning a flash drive I need to study the technology to know how to cleanse data from a Solid State Disk or a flash drive.



There are methods of getting data, even from destroyed disks.  The machinery they use to do it is very expensive and not everyone has access to them.  Just look at Drive Saver's website and look at all their testimonial stories.  They have recovered some data from some crazy situations.


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 12, 2010)

tremmor said:


> Heres one ive had for a while and used. ones free and other is more complete you can buy if its a concern.  the paided ver has something to do with military wipe.
> 
> KillDisk........
> http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm



LoL I already told him that...


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## NCspecV81 (Jan 23, 2010)

> How Can you Clear Sensitive Data From a Flash Drive?



A hammer.


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## The Chad (Jan 23, 2010)

NCspecV81 said:


> A hammer.



Seriously, your being a nuisance. Out of control.  He wants to clear the data off it, not clear the flash off the earth..


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 31, 2010)

ncspecv81 said:


> a hammer.



hahahahahahahahahha!


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## Jamin43 (Jan 31, 2010)

jamesd1981 said:


> i would use one of the many free file shredding tools.








Sledgehammer?


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 31, 2010)

Jamin43 said:


> 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


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## gamblingman (Feb 1, 2010)

Jamin43 said:


> 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


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Feb 1, 2010)

gamblingman said:


> 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



Are you kidding???This small hammer cant do anything!Here is what I would use:





Now THATS THE REAL THING!


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## hjahmad (Feb 1, 2010)

format it atleast 7 times


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Feb 2, 2010)

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.


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## 2048Megabytes (Feb 2, 2010)

hjahmad said:


> Format it atleast 7 times



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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## TFT (Feb 2, 2010)

We've all got CCleaner haven't we 

Under "Options", "Settings" use the "Secure deletion" and choose the "Gutmann method (35 passes)"


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Feb 2, 2010)

Like I said...KILL DISK 4.1 or a HAMMER.Your choice


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## David_UK (Feb 2, 2010)

2048Megabytes said:


> How can you clear sensitive data from a USB flash drive?


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.


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