Completely formatting a USB flash drive

Question

I have a Verbatim Store 'n' Go drive which by default comes with software in a partition which password protects the drive. I want to erase this partition, as it only works on Windows (I'm having to look at it now through a virtual machine on my Mac).

I've tried using KillDisk to totally wipe the whole thing, but it doesn't seem to work, and this password-protecting partition always remains intact.

Is there any program which will completely wipe a flash drive, no questions asked? Or is there a way to do it through the Verbatim software? I have the password and everything, I just can't find a way to fully format it.

Cheers.

Answer 1

Windows can also do this with the diskpart utility. You'll want to delete all the partitions on the drive, then zero out the drive, and finally create a new partition and format it.

Answer 2

A quick search shows that the drive you mentioned might have U3 on it. You can use the Mac version of the U3 removal software to get rid of it.

Answer 3

I would recommend gparted. It has a really easy to use GUI and has never had any trouble with anything, even if I couldn't get it to work with anything else: http://www.brunolinux.com/01-First_Things_To_Know/Windows_Tools_-_Gparted.html

Answer 4

Pop the drive in your Mac and run dd with the input as /dev/zero to fill it with zeros:

you'll probably need to mount it first:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

then wipe it:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt

change the drive location accordingly.