(Solved)How to wipe a USB drive? (2024)

How does one wipe a USB drive ?

I am returning a USB drive that is too slow to the store. I erased files, but I also wish to wipe the drive for security reasons. How in Linux Mint 19.1 do I accomplish that on my desktop?

the LinuxMint System does indeed have an USB Stick Formatter . .

that should be, in most cases, secure enough.

We don't seem to get past the difference between formatting and wiping a USB (or a HDD, for that matter). I have described what I mean by wiping above. That formatting "should be enough" is your judgment, which may be good for your purposes, fine! It is not what I want to do. I want to secure the data on my USB by writing on it, as I have described. That is what I believe most people call wiping.

If someone knows how to wipe a drive in Linux Mint 19.1, be it a USB or other storage device, please let me know.

When I receive an answer to the question I have raised in my subject, I shall be most happy to mark this subject "Solved".

Alvin wrote: ⤴Sat Dec 25, 2021 12:44 amIf someone knows how to wipe a drive in Linux Mint 19.1, be it a USB or other storage device, please let me know.

Maybe this will do for you
https://askubuntu.com/questions/142858/ ... ut-a-drive

this did the trick on a 16GB Stick just now

make sure you get the /dev/sdX right

sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb bs=1M
dd: error writing '/dev/sdb': No space left on device
14773+0 records in
14772+0 records out
15489564672 bytes (15 GB, 14 GiB) copied, 1973.25 s, 7.8 MB/s

You can do it in the graphical way with DIsks (Menu>Accessories>Disks). Choose USB device on the left and click on icon with three points up on the right>Format Disk...

Then choose Overwrite data with zeroes on Erase menu.

You can repeat this operation if you want.

Notice USB results with no partitions at all. You will need to create it after wiping. Click on add (+) icon downside.

You could try the second procedure here https://linuxhint.com/wipe_usb_drive_sd_card_ubuntu/ may take awhile depending on size of the USB stick. Happy Holidays!

Alvin wrote: ⤴Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:14 pmHow does one wipe a USB drive ?

I am returning a USB drive that is too slow to the store. I erased files, but I also wish to wipe the drive for security reasons. How in Linux Mint 19.1 do I accomplish that on my desktop?

TL; DR for advanced users, just run sudo shred -n1 -v /dev/sdX ; sudo sync
replacing /dev/sdX with the disk to wipe (be careful to select the right disk) and -n1 with the required number of wipes.
shred(1) is part of GNU coreutils and uses a properly seeded ISAAC Cryptographically Secure PseudoRandom Number Generator (CSPRNG) for the random wipe passes.

For non-advanced users, follow these:

1) List the disks' on your system with this command:

sudo lsblk --nodeps -o NAME,MODEL,SERIAL,VENDOR

Carefully note the NAME of the device you want to wipe.

2) Now, unmount all partitions on it and wipe the disk by running these commands, replacing DISK_TO_WIPE=sdX with the appropriate disk name.

DISK_TO_WIPE=sdXlsblk -o NAME,MOUNTPOINT /dev/${DISK_TO_WIPE} | grep "/$" && echo "Please select the right disk. Press Enter to exit....." && read && exit 1sudo umount /dev/${DISK_TO_WIPE}*sudo shred -n1 -v /dev/${DISK_TO_WIPE}sudo syncsudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/${DISK_TO_WIPE} bs=4M count=25

NOTE: Be VERY CAREFUL with the DEVICE NAME , so that you do not accidentally wipe important data.