Sometimes we just want to make sure that our data is wiped clean, not just deleted, but completely wiped out. There are many great ways to do this for hard-disk drives which we have covered earlier, but what about flash drives like USB sticks? Flash memory is not usually covered by software applications that securely erase hard-disk drives.
There is a great application out there that will get the job done and that’s Roadkil’s DiskWipe. The app is available for almost all Windows versions. Windows 9x/ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows XP, Vista,Windows 7, and Windows 8.
- Once you download and extract everything, go ahead and run the program as administrator.
- Next, select the drive you want to securely erase and choose then choose method you want to use. This application offers up two classic ways of wiping out data, the first is to fill the drive with zeros (zero-out), the second method is will just enter random data.
- Once you have chosen your wipeout method, input the number of passes. The higher you go in passes, the harder it is to retrieve the old data your trying to protect.
- Click Erase.
After the process is complete, your ready to go and the drive is ready for new data. Remember, that depending on the size of the drive it could take a while to perform a wipe. The number of passes will also determine erase time as well as the speed at which the drive operates. (usb 2.0,usb 3.0 )