How to Wipe the Flash Drive

A flash drive

Flash drives, also known as thumb or pen drives, are small storage devices used primarily to transfer files between computers. Flash drives use the USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface to communicate with the operating system. You should format a flash drive to quickly erase all data as well as fix possible errors on the drive. The format command is readily accessible in Windows.

Instructions

1. 

   Computer's USB port

   Find an available USB port on your desktop computer or laptop.

2. Remove the flash drive cap (if provided).

3. Insert the flash drive connector in the USB port of your computer.

4. Click "Start" in Windows to open the start menu.

5. Double-click on "Computer" (in Windows Vista/7) or "My Computer" (in Windows XP) located on the right side of the the Start menu.

6. Right click on the flash drive icon, then choose "Format" in the pop-up menu.

7. Check the "Quick Format" option and click "Start."

8. Choose "OK" to confirm that you want to format the flash drive.

References

• "PCs For Dummies"; Dan Gookin; 2007