Secure Erase data off spindle/flash drives?

[Maverick2002]

Is there a generally recommended piece of software (freeware preferred) that will secure-erase data off a spindle based hard drive and a flash drive? By secure-erase I mean wipe it so it can't be recovered by data recovery software.

From what I recall a format (even if it's a full format) is still recoverable.

 

[tcsenter]

CCleaner has a wipe free space feature, both simple and secure strategies. Only a single pass is required.

 

[razel]

If you're using Vista or Win7, doing the full format writes zeros to the disk and yes, like mentioned, you don't need more than one write pass with any kind of data.