Disk wipe utility for flash memory?

[roncomatic]

Hi, I want to wipe all info from a smart media card, and I don't know what utility to use. I have Acronis disk cleanser, but it's for hard drives only. If you know of a freeware utility at sourceforge or elsewhere, please let me know. TIA

[Arch]

What is this thing used in? A digital camera? Most cameras have a format option. If you have a media reader just do a full format in Windows.

[roncomatic]

I have 2 smart media cards (64Mb & 128Mb) that I used in a small portable USB card reader that I used as data storage. I'm looking for a utility that will write 1's & 0's to every bit of memory on the card to destroy data, and to keep anyone from restoring any files. Formatting isn't anywhere near the equivalent of a disk wipe utility.

[Arch]

Several FULL formats will take care of the same thing. Full formatting hits the entire disk.

[roncomatic]

You may be thinking of a low level format utility that writes 1's & 0's to every portion of the disk. Using Windows full format doesn't write to every part of the disk. I say this based on how long it takes to full format the disk.

It takes about 15 seconds to "full format' 128Mb of flash memory using windows full format. To write to every section of a disk, by copying a 122Mb sized file to the disk takes about 30 minutes. So I can't see how a full format is the answer.

[ameoba]

If you're really concerned about the data being recovered, physically destroy the device (I think a microwave would be. Nothing else can be 100%.

[roncomatic]

If you're really concerned about the data being recovered, physically destroy the device (I think a microwave would be. Nothing else can be 100%.

http://www.thewebshite.co.uk/idiot.htm
:D

[M11]

Any re-writable media can be wiped with disk wipe utilities. Norton Professional includes one, and partitionmagic8 includes a very nice one. Alternatively, there are many freeware apps available on the internet. Choose apps that perform what is referred to as a "government wipe" or "military wipe". This is a NIST standard referring to how data is overwritten to assure complete erasure. Ultra Wipe (http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dlultrawipe.html) is a fairly customizable and secure solution.

[roncomatic]

Thanks, that got me on the right track.

[Ice Czar]

there is really not a great need for that, we arent talking magnetic media here (HDD)
a simple reformat and if your real paranoid a new overwrite should do fine

http://www.howstuffworks.com/flash-memory.htm

flaming by link is still flaming
since you didnt specify what exactly you wanted to wipe it for
destruction of the media is a common security proceedure

[M11]

there is really not a great need for that, we arent talking magnetic media here (HDD)
a simple reformat and if your real paranoid a new overwrite should do fine

*cue horror story about naked pics getting out*

But as was mentioned, provided there is nothing embarassing on there, there really is no reason to securely wipe it.