How do I clean my flash drive so there is absolutely nothing on it.

Discussion in 'macOS' started by giladdor, Jul 12, 2009.

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  1. giladdor

    giladdor MDL Novice

    Jul 12, 2009
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    #1 giladdor, Jul 12, 2009
    I have deleted everything on the drive, and it says that there is only 1.48GB left, on a 4GB flash drive.
     
  2. Liebo

    Liebo MDL Member

    Jul 9, 2009
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    #2 Liebo, Jul 12, 2009
  3. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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    #3 911medic, Jul 12, 2009
    View all files (hidden files) and delete .Trash folder..
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  4. shoarthing

    shoarthing MDL Novice

    Feb 20, 2008
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    #4 shoarthing, Jul 13, 2009
    . . . to completely blank a drive in OSX, go to Applications: Utilities: - then fire up Disk Utility

    Insert flash drive - Disk Utility will list it, both as a device & below that device list it as the device's partitioned/formatted volume

    Select the volume, then choose 'erase' - it will by default keep the name & filesystem you had before; but to be safe double-check to make sure it isn't formatting a FAT volume to HFS+ - it is probably all-in-all safest to keep flash drives as FAT unless you only work with Macs.


    . . post back if you have any hassles.
     
  5. duh

    duh MDL Member

    Jan 20, 2009
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    #5 duh, Aug 12, 2009
    how? like this?

    one liner commands (conditions apply: number 1, duh is not responsible if you screw your hard drive; number 2, duh will not buy you one if you screw up ANYHOW; number 3, you need a linux live cd, there are countless live cd, if you dont have one, download it the smallest i.e. DSL (damn small linux) and/or make your own custom live cd, period) scroll down for one liner.

    HOWTO:
    (insert the usb stick and then in command prompt as root where shell shows # and not $) and in command prompt type
    # dmesg
    then look for pen drive it will be like sda1, sdb1, sdc1, sdd1
    i will name it as sdXY, where X=a-z and Y=1-16, unices and linux is case sensitive.
    now type this command
    # shred -zuxv -n 2 /dev/sda1
    and wait, explaination, it will wipe the data to maximum of 2 pass no known recovery method, NSA may blink unless some magnetotherapy is used, hey this is silicon, so i doubt. :-D
    now for the ultra paranoid? :-D
    # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
    go finish your pizza and coke while it does it, on a 4 gb it will take 15-20 mins to blind 0 write format. data lost is GONE FOR A TOSS, so do a backup before.
    then?
    # fdisk -l /dev/sda
    to verify this is the disk and then?
    # fdisk /dev/sda
    then type
    p
    (p will print the partition value)
    then type
    n
    (n will create a new partition)
    type
    p
    (the second p is primary partition)
    type
    1
    (1 is the first partition)
    then hit enter twice
    then type
    a
    then type
    1
    (a and 1 will make partition 1 active)
    then type
    t
    (now if you want dos then type b else 6 else 7, where b is fat 32, 6 is fat 16 and 7 is ntfs)
    now finally type
    w
    and reboot to windows.


    BIGGGGGGGG FATTTTTTTTTTTT WARNINGGGGGGGGGGGG
    TYPE DMESG i.e. (dmesg) IN ROOT PROMPT AND FIND OUT WHICH IS THE DETECTED USB PEN DRIVE
    here is an example

    [ 4428.956041] usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
    [ 4429.090512] usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
    [ 4429.090946] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
    [ 4429.091099] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=6387
    [ 4429.091102] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
    [ 4429.091104] usb 1-2: Product: Mass Storage Device
    [ 4429.091106] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: JetFlash
    [ 4429.091107] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: LAWL NOT MY SERIAL ID NUMBERS
    [ 4429.091114] usb-storage: device found at 4
    [ 4429.091116] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
    [ 4434.088200] usb-storage: device scan complete
    [ 4434.088886] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access JetFlash TS4GJFV30 8.07 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
    [ 4434.098061] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 7987200 512-byte hardware sectors (4089 MB)
    [ 4434.098689] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
    [ 4434.098695] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
    [ 4434.098697] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [ 4434.114430] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 7987200 512-byte hardware sectors (4089 MB)
    [ 4434.115056] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
    [ 4434.115062] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
    [ 4434.115064] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [ 4434.115067] sdc: sdc1
    [ 4434.315006] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

    AS YOU SEE THE /dev/sdc1 IS THE PEN DRIVE WHICH IS ALSO 4 GB.


    to sum up all commands? THE ONE LINER I BEEN SPEAKING?
    tantanana!
    # shred -zuxv -n 2 /dev/sda; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda; parted /dev/sda "mklabel msdos mkpart primary 0.00 - set 1 boot on"; fdisk -l /dev/sda; reboot
    or
    echo "shred -zuxv -n 2 /dev/sda; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda; parted /dev/sda "mklabel msdos mkpart primary 0.00 - set 1 boot on"; fdisk -l /dev/sda; reboot" > delete-pen-usb.sh; chmod +x delete-pen-usb.sh; sh +x delete-usb-pen.sh

    -hth
    :D