How to secure erase memory card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MarkW
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MarkW

I have a SD Card that I'm selling shortly since I no longer have a use
for. My question, I know with a hard drive it's important to securely
erase it. I use a program called KillDisk but is the same necessary
for a SD Card? I already used Windows Explorer to erase all files and
then as well did a format on it. Will that do the job?
 
I have a SD Card that I'm selling shortly since I no longer have a use
for. My question, I know with a hard drive it's important to securely
erase it. I use a program called KillDisk but is the same necessary
for a SD Card? I already used Windows Explorer to erase all files and
then as well did a format on it. Will that do the job?
Click to expand...

If you delete the files (I don't know what "erase" is
supposed to mean) then formatted it, that is not enough to
keep a skilled technician from recovering parts if not all
of it. Would anyone care enough to try though, and is the
data sensitive? If not, don't worry about it.

You don't need a comprehensive program like used for HDD to
overwrite random passes several times or anything like that,
just put something on the drive that complete fills it, to
overwrite all of it. For example on a 512MB drive, copy a
512MB (actually slightly smaller due to marketing
terminology for "MB) file to it, then when that finishes,
delete it. Anyone who could recover your data after that
would not bother, they would already have you bugged and
just raid your home/office/car and take what they want
instead.
 
MarkW said:
I have a SD Card that I'm selling shortly since I no longer have a use
for. My question, I know with a hard drive it's important to securely
erase it. I use a program called KillDisk but is the same necessary
for a SD Card? I already used Windows Explorer to erase all files and
then as well did a format on it. Will that do the job?
Click to expand...

You might want to ask on the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup to see if anyone
there knows of a freeware program that reportedly clears SD cards.

While the memory chips in the card do not retain a recoverable layer like a
hard drive or floppy disk almost any program that Microsoft OS uses to erase
them usually means there is a way to unease them. I'd look for a 3rd party
program in the freeware newsgroup for a more secure method of erasure.

You might want to ask on the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup to see if anyone
there knows of a freeware program that reportedly clears SD cards.
 
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