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- #How to erase a flash drive how to#
- #How to erase a flash drive windows 10#
- #How to erase a flash drive software#
- #How to erase a flash drive code#
#How to erase a flash drive code#
The Clean function will clean the drive of any possible code which is causing the USB not to work as expected when connected to the host computer. The goal would be to get the USB drive working again, and then try to salvage whatever data is on the drive. I would imagine the most common reason is that a user has a flash drive with data on it, but the device isn’t working properly.
#How to erase a flash drive how to#
The Clean function, or process, is very quick because it only deals with a small portion of the drive.īefore moving along to the instructions on how to Clean your USB flash drive, let me address the most common reason why you’d want to Clean your USB in the first place. The area in red is what the Clean function will address. Looking at the image below, you will see we framed the boot code in red, yet all the data is still there. The Clean function is only accessible through the Windows utility called DiskPart. The Clean function is not accessible through the GUI of Windows, for example you cannot right click on a drive letter and find the Clean function. The partition of a flash drive is the information which tells a host computer how big the drive is, and if the partition should be bootable in the event you are trying to start the computer from a flash drive. The Clean function will clear out boot code and will remove any partition on the flash drive. This function applies directly to the Master Boot Record (MBR) or boot code mentioned just above. The Clean function is a bit more in-depth than the format function.
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You might have questions if a USB flash drive should be formatted as FAT, FAT32, exFAT or NTFS and we did a great post about that a bit earlier as well. Also notice the boot code of the USB (if you want to load an operating system on your USB stick) isn’t touched either.
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#How to erase a flash drive software#
This data is what recovery software will look for, find, and list back on your drive. Meaning the data is still there, just not easily accessible. Looking at the image below you can see the “data” is light grey. Using the most basic file recovery software tools, like the one we wrote about several months back, you can recover all the files sitting on the drive.
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It’s important to note, the files are still on the drive, just not listed in an easy, organized manor which you can see through windows explorer (clicking on the drive letter to see the list of files). Said a simpler way… this function takes away the list of files sitting on the drive so it then appears blank with no data. What is this function really doing?įormat is the least complicated of the tasks, and this function is removing the File Allocation Table of the USB and creating a new one. This is the graphical interface inside Windows when you right click a drive letter and ask the operating system to format the drive. This function is what 98% of Windows computer operators will use. I will start with the least complicated definition and task, and move along from there.
#How to erase a flash drive windows 10#
I hope the following information will clear up some terms and definitions so we can all better understand what people are talking about when passing along information about flash drives and the Clean, Erase and Format function.Īll of these functions can be performed in your Windows 10 computer, or higher. I think most people glaze over the definitions of Clean, Erase and Format simply because they believe the terms are interchangeable, or they aren’t planning on doing the task mentioned in the post. We’ve seen these terms floating around in forums and How To’s for years when someone is explaining what to do with USB flash drives.