Do I need a file shredder for my USB Flash Drive?

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Modern flash drives force new data to locations that have not been used (as much) as current locations to keep wear as even as possible. I suspect that these newer flash drives divert the shredder to locations that don't include the data you're trying to shred. The data from the file you're trying to shred stays intact while some innocent area gets "shredded". ;-)

SDelete is a little complicated for the casual user.

I use the freeware Eraser which gives you the option to write once with Pseudorandom Data. After installing the software, you can do a right click on the file name and select ERASE.

http://www.brothersoft.com/eraser-12113.html

it is very good when delete function not work

Wouldn't East-Tec Eraser be the best option for USB and disk?
http://www.east-tec.com/

i want to view & recover my picture files but how can i recover picture files on my USB if i have already cut them from my USB and paste it on a folder who happens to be inffected by a virus giving it the cause why i cannot view my Picture files anymore.

Wear leveling means it is writing the shred to other parts of the memory drive, thus it does not overwrite the original file remnants.

And, voila, the old file remains intact to a file recovery program.

contig is "complicated"??? sheesh.

It would be better to use a truecrypt volume to keep private stuff private on a flash disk. Perhaps the only way.

Wear leveling would increase the chances of recovery if the recovery program is looking at ALL of the free blocks... as there is still a block on that USB that contains that data.

What about other forms of flash memory? Like SD cards and their ilk. Do they wear out as well?

As someone with a scienctific background it would be easier to recover data from from many passes than from a few and here's why...

Granted the signal of the original files will become weaker the more passes one does, and more difficult to recover, but in essence the file would be less corrupt. The more random passes one does the more the scrambled signal evens out. Everyone should know this from statistics, flip enough heads and tails and you'll get a 50/50 split. It's kind of like cryptography in a way if you visualize each track as a column, but I digress, similarily if you only do a few passes the original signal will be stronger but more corrupt. hd only though not sure about flash.

Hello,

does "Wear levelling" consider about partititions?

Example: 4 GB USB Stick with two partititions

1. Linux Ext2 - 8MB
2. Windows FAT - Rest of it

If I overwrite partitition 1. once with random data, will there be left data from that partitition somewhere on the stick because of "Wear levelling"?

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