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.

Solution 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.

Solution 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.

Comments

[Admin]

Hi. It appears to be already mounted: "/dev/disk3s0 on /Volumes/V-Secure (cd9660, local, nodev, nosuid, read-only, noowners)". When I try: "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk3s0" I get "dd: /dev/disk3s0: Resource busy". If I "sudo -s" and "cd /Volumes/V-Secure", I can view the files in the V-Secure folder, which do the password protection. Not sure if I can delete them - if I can, will that work?

[John T]

It should wipe it. Make sure you aren't in the directory while formatting it and no devices are accessing it (eg. it's open in finder)

[Angela Ferrell]

+1 for helping me fix my flash drive with this exact process