Just right-click it and choose Format to proceed. You can format a drive in Disk Management with similar steps. Then click Start to execute formatting and wait for it to complete. Select a File system you want, and remember to uncheck Quick Format, because it only deletes the files on the USB drive but not fully erase them, which makes the data easy to recover.ģ. Then right-click the drive to choose Format.Ģ. Connect the USB drive to your computer, make sure it can be detected in File Explorer.

How to erase a thumb drive or hard drive via format:ġ. But if you don't have any sensitive data on the USB Drive, this method might be sufficient. There are chances to recover it until the specific sectors are actually overwritten. When you format a USB drive, the data is still here, just can’t be accessed by the operating system. Wipe a USB drive with specialist software safelyīefore starting, it should be clear that formatting or deleting is not the same as wiping. Among them, Method 3 is the most secure one. Since the ordinary means of deletion cannot erase all the files on USB permanently, what’s the best way to wipe a USB drive on Windows 10/8/7? Here are several ways that you can use to clean a flash drive or an external hard drive. How to wipe a USB drive completely (3 methods)

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