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How to clear a USB stick

Contents

  • How to clear a USB stick
    • Remove all data
    • Format the stick
    • Add README

Once in a while I think it is time to reduce the damage being done by the loss of a USB stick.

USB sticks
USB sticks

Remove all data

Find the USB stick on your Linux system with fdisk -l. Make super sure that you really got the stick (e.g. by removing it and executing the command again). It should be something like /dev/sdb1.

The following command will overwrite the data on the stick 5 times:

$ shred -f -n 5 /dev/sdX

This may take several minutes even for very small USB sticks.

Format the stick

Start gparted and use the GUI.

See also: How to format a USB flash drive?

Add README

In case I lose the stick, adding a README.txt makes with a way to contact me makes it most likely that I get the stick back.

Dieser USB-Stick ging verloren.

Mein Name ist Martin Thoma. Sie können mich per E-Mail unter
[email protected] erreichen.

---

This USB-Stick was lost.

My name is Martin Thoma. You can contact me via e-mail: [email protected]

Published

Jan 2, 2016
by Martin Thoma

Category

Cyberculture

Tags

  • USB-Stick 1

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