3 Ways for How to Wipe a USB Flash Drive Clean in Windows 10
Quick Navigation:
- Method 1. How to Wipe a USB Drive in Windows by Formatting It
- Method 2. How to Wipe a USB Flash Drive Clean by Using Command Line
- Method 3. How to Wipe a USB Flash Drive Clean in Windows 10
- Guide to Wipe a USB Drive Clean with Qiling File Shredder
Qiling file eraser tool is the best software to wipe a USB drive clean with data not recoverable. And also if you do not mind whether the wiped files can be recovered or not, try formatting it or wiping it with Command Line.
USB drives are really helpful for us to transfer files or even store important files for future use. Sometimes a USB drive can get corrupted for various reasons like virus attack, hardware or software issue. When this kind of error happens and the drive becomes inaccessible, you must know how to wipe a USB drive in Windows 10. Knowing this information can help you save the USB drive and make it usable again.
If you don't know how to wipe a flash drive clean in Windows 10, then you have come to the right place. In this article, we have described multiple methods to wipe a USB flash drive clean in a Windows 10 computer with easy step by step process. So without wasting time on useless methods, let's jump into the details of this article to get proper help.
Method 1. How to Wipe a USB Drive in Windows by Formatting It
If you want to get some more space to store new data in your USB drive or maybe you just want to erase the drive to use it again, simply formatting the drive can solve the problem easily. In this part, we have described a step by step process of how to wipe a USB flash drive clean by formatting it easily. To format a USB Drive, you need to go through the following steps:
- Step 1: First you need to connect the USB drive to your computer.
- Step 2: Then double click or open "This PC" or "My Computer" from your desktop and find the USB drive from file manager window.
- Step 3: Next you need to right-click on the USB drive and from the options available on the list, just click on "Format".
- Step 4: Now you need to set the file system of the USB drive as "NTFS" or "FAT32" and click on the "OK" button.
- Step 5: Finally, you can click on the "Start" button to begin the wipe a USB hard drive process.
Method 2. How to Wipe a USB Flash Drive Clean by Using Command Line
If normal formatting doesn't work for you, then you can wipe a USB flash drive clean in Windows 10 by using command line. This part is complicated and you must follow the steps and type the right commands to perform the clean-up process. If you make a mistake then it may cause other problems. So proceed with full caution. Rest assured, if you follow the below guideline in a step by step process, you may find the process easy. Perform the following steps if you don't know how to wipe a USB flash drive clean in Windows 10 by using command line:
- Step 1: First you need to right click on the "Start" button or press Windows Key + X" and then select "Command Prompt (Admin)".
- Step 2: Now you'll get the cmd windows in your display. Type "diskpart" then press "Enter" in your keyboard.
- Step 3: Then type in "list disk" and press "Enter" to wipe a USB drive in Windows 10, 7.
- Step 4: Now type in "select disk #" and press "Enter". Remember, you need to replace the "#" here with the USB drive number.
- Step 5: Finally type in "clean all" and press "Enter" to wipe all the data in the USB drive and make it clean again.
Method 3. How to Wipe a USB Flash Drive Clean in Windows 10
The web is packed with apps, both free and charged, that promise one-click wiping solutions. Sadly, these are old, obsolete, dangerous, or just too costly to deliver. That's why we suggest the data eraser tool is the best when you want to wipe a USB Flash. To be honest, method 1 and method 2 cannot wipe files in a USB drive permanently. Files can be recovered with data recovery software, like Deep Data Recovery.
Only with a professional data eraser software tool, USB drive can be wiped clean. QILING File Shredder is one of the erasers that can help you to wipe up all the data from your USB drive that can never be recovered. The powerful program Qiling file wipe toll helps you to wipe unwanted and sensitive data from specific files, folders, desktop, partitions, or disks to protect your full privacy.
Your Safe & Effective Wipe USB Drive Application
- It's a secure and fully unrecoverable deleting tool that can shred files and wipe hard drives.
- It can permanently delete or shred files from your computer that can never be recovered.
- It can wipe any selected partition and volume to improve performance of your computer.
- It can safely wipe unwanted data from memory card, USB drives, thumb drive, digital camera etc.
- It supports Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2000 and Windows Server.
You can click this download link to get Wipe USB Drive Application now!!!
Guide to Wipe a USB Drive Clean with Qiling File Shredder
Step 1: Download and install the program on your computer. Connect the USB drive to your computer as well.
Step 2: Once the program is installed and launched, you click "Tools and utilities" tab on the main window, and then click "File shredder" on it.
Step 3: Next, you need to select the USB drive from the next window of your computer. And this program will also allow you to set up how many times the software will delete the file/folder.
Step 4: Finally, you need to click on the "Proceed" button to start shredding the files inside the USB drive. After the whole USB drive is wiped clean, you will get a pop up window that will say "File(s) shred has been completed".
To conclude, you now know various methods of how to wipe a USB flash drive clean in Windows 10 easily. These methods can help you clean the USB drive and make it usable again. All of the 3 methods are useful but if you want to go for the easiest and most secure method, then you should use Qiling File Shredder. This is one of the most powerful and effective tool that can wipe clean any drive or storage easily in a few clicks. So without wasting your time on any other ways, start using the best file shredder on the market.
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- How to Permanently Delete Files from Hard Drive
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- Top 10 File Deleter to Permanently Deleted Files in Windows 10
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