Secure destruction/deletion of data on a USB memory stick

Thanks for all of these, any ideas on a mass non connected method similar to magnetic destruction for floppies.

Thanks

Due to the fact that a USB stick actually has electronics in it, you won't have the option of an external mass-erase like a "magnetic eraser" that is typically used for tapes/floppies.    You would end up toasting the stick and it would be permanently unuseable.

The reason to overwrite the the area with something else is not because of a microscope or anything. When you delete a file on a memory stick or hdd you don't actually delete anything except the reference to the file in the file allocation table. In order to really delete the file you need to zero out or modify the existing data that the file allocation link pointed to before the deletion. Thus by copying a file over the saem area few times you are ensuring that what you deleted can not remain or leave remnants since you have since reused the same area of disk with new data thus overwriting or totally removing the old data.

When you format a disk sometimes the format does nothing more than wipe out the file allocation table and build a new blank table. Notice I never said that it erased the data on the disk! All of the data remains in place and overwritten as needed by new files placed on the disk. If you were to ignore the allocation table and read the disk raw then you will find most if not all of the data that was on the disk before the format, of course minus any new files or modified sections of disk.

Thanks for all this, I'll increase the points in this question and PAQ with split points then close/delete the question from the storage area. (Points there taken into acount by the increased points but saves you haveing to post else where)

M