Can Windows 7 cipher.exe securely wipe USB drive?

Question

Using the command line tool cipher.exe built into Windows 7, can it be used to securely wipe a USB attached drive?

Try sdelete instead? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443 — Zoredache, Jan 14 '11 at 01:11

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 09 '13 at 08:07

5

Yes, but it may be slow compared to other tools that do the same job.

cipher /w:X

Substitute the drive letter X for your flash drive.

Remember this only overwrites free space, so delete all files first.

edited Jan 09 '13 at 08:07

slhck

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answered Jan 14 '11 at 02:06

Moab

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Most free-space wipe tools I've seen, including `sdelete` and `cipher /w` work the same way: they create a really big file and fill it with random data (which they most likely obtain using `CryptGenRandom`). I don't see why would `cipher` be slower than others. – u1686_grawity Jan 14 '11 at 12:31
@ grawity, I did use the word "may"....http://www.somacon.com/p253.php – Moab Jan 14 '11 at 15:31
`cipher /w:X:` with double point at the end for drive X! – Jan 09 '13 at 06:58

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '11 at 03:06

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You can also use sdelete from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443

answered Jan 14 '11 at 03:06

jftuga

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 02 '16 at 21:19

Just commenting the answer given already (comments cannot be styled).

This is part of help printout for cipher.exe

Displays or alters the encryption of directories [files] on NTFS partitions.

  CIPHER /W:directory

   /W        Removes data from available unused disk space on the entire
              volume. If this option is chosen, all other options are ignored.
              The directory specified can be anywhere in a local volume. If it
              is a mount point or points to a directory in another volume, the
              data on that volume will be removed.

Is this true that only NTFS file system can be "cipher-ed"?

What about FAT32 format which is used lately for UEFI compatibility?

Seems better to use special utilities for wiping.

Can Windows 7 cipher.exe securely wipe USB drive?

3 Answers3