format flash drive software

[cuti7399]

is there a free program to securely format flash drive? got some wants to give away but not before i can securely format them, thanks

 

[SleepWalkerX]

The first thing that comes to mind is dban.

 

[Nothinman]

Any disk wiping utility should work, but I don't know how that would affect the lifespan of the device.

 

[cuti7399]

but I don't know how that would affect the lifespan of the device

I didn't know that

 

[BlueAcolyte]

flash drives have limited numbers of read/writes. For this reason, they die faster under heavy use (such as installing an operating system on them 😛)

 

[DarkThinker]

Gparted should be available by default on many GNOME distros. If not install it through your package manager. Delete the partitions then format the drives to FAT again (I format mine to ext2 🙂 ) and that should do it.

 

[agibby5]

Originally posted by: DarkThinker
Gparted should be available by default on many GNOME distros. If not install it through your package manager. Delete the partitions then format the drives to FAT again (I format mine to ext2 🙂 ) and that should do it.

Sounds like he wants to format and use a DoD-like erase... so that the previous data is not recoverable.

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
The first thing that comes to mind is dban.

I've used dban on a NTFS drive with good results. I use this whenever I sell a hard drive or a laptop...