Format USB drives - best software?

[lucy]

Which is the best software to use to format usb drives and one that would make the files on the drive unrecoverable?

[SaiJin]

How about a hammer? =P

[SUVE]

Originally Posted by lucy

Which is the best software to use to format usb drives and one that would make the files on the drive unrecoverable?

Just plug in the drive, right click and format the disk.

That should suffice - I mean you don't specifiy any special situation that requires anything beyond this to be honest with you.

I hope you have been alright.

-

[ebaystealth1974]

Is it an SSD, or a regular HD? And how important is it that the info isn't recoverable?

For an SSD, you should use the drive manufacturer's own tool. Usually called Secure Erase.

For a regular HD, right click>format should do the trick for Vista and later OSs(do not check the quick format option). You can always use a hex editor and check that it did, in fact, write all zeros. If your drive has bad sectors, though, you won't be able to access/overwrite the data on those sectors.

[degsey69]

Use bleachbit as advertised And endorsed by Hilary Clinton

[PROJECT EURO]

CCleaner, dban, or disk wipe. Any program with a Military Grade Wipe or similar.
Another way is to fill the usb disk with a bunch of random files to overwrite what was on there before.
Also look into partition management software, some of them have tools to perform multiple passes to erase data.

[didi33]

Use Linux and commands from the terminal, this is the safest way. Or else just destroy it and buy a new drive.

[e2free]

Normal format it and then put any data on it and then format again the first data will not be recoverable