Formatting free USB flash drives

Published On: January 21st, 2013/Categories: Data Security, Reviews/1.4 min read/

Working in the IT industry and attending lots of trade shows I come across a lot of free vendor branded merchandise. USB flash drives, pens and stress balls; that kid of thing. The most useful of these are the USB drives.

Often the vendors that give out these drives will format them to contain a CD-ROM partition. This allows the drive to autorun and play the usual vendor presentation and accompanying sales pitch. Once you’ve decided you want to wipe the drive you’ll need a way of removing the CD-ROM partition, thereby converting the flash drive back to a “normal” empty storage device.

Unfortunately this process is VERY difficult, unless you have the right tool. Below is brilliant an article on where to get the tool and how to use it: http://agnipulse.com/2011/08/remove-secure-drive-cdfs-partition-transcend-jetflash-usb-drive/

[Credit to Bharat Balegere who has written the article. “Bharat Balegere is a 22 year old blogger from Bengaluru. He is a technology enthusiast and loves tinkering with computers and usb drives”]

About the Author: Carl Gottlieb

I'm the trusted privacy advisor to leading tech companies, helping them gain maximum advantage through the right privacy strategy. My consultancy company Cognition provides a range of privacy and security services including Data Protection Officers, in-depth assessments and virtual security engineers. Get in touch if you'd like to learn more.