How to securely erase external USB drive

[shredman]

I bought an external hard drive with a USB connection and I need to return it to the store. Before I do so, I would like to securely erase it (not just format). Is there a free program that will do this for me? Something like DBAN that will work with a USB only drive?

 

[shredman]

Well, I found what could be my answer...a program called eraser. It's free and works on external media. Hope this helps someone else out.

Here is a description of how nd uses it: http://secure.nd.edu/disposal/eraser.shtml

And you can find eraser on download.com

 

[Gillbot]

I think dban works as well, but it's been a while since i;ve messed with it.

 

[Net]

what if you unplugged all your internal drives / what you don't want to be formated.
plug in your external then pop in dban and tell it to auto nuke all detected drives.