Cleaning encrypted USB drives
Cleaning encrypted USB drives
Using a magnet to wipe a USB flash drive doesn't work unless the magnet spins quickly enough to generate a voltage across the copper wires. Without extraordinary abilities like superhuman strength or the device itself, this won't happen.
Based on my experience with these USB sticks, their firmware and crypto chips are tightly restricted. If you can't get past the lock using disk management tools, it’s probably best to skip them and opt for a new device. These sticks tend to be slow and have limited capacity, and bypassing them adds significant effort. Even if you manage to unlock them, I’m unsure about their internal firmware or what usage restrictions they enforce—something I learned the hard way with certain security drives years ago.
I utilized a PC case fan to warm up the magnet, followed by placing the USB near it.
I'll consider this option too. Many motherboard bios include a feature to erase a drive directly from the UEFI page. ASRock likely refers to it as "Secure Erase." If your BIOS identifies the USB drive, you might attempt to use it—perhaps verify if your BIOS supports such functionality. It may not be foolproof, but it could be less strict than the software you tried. Good luck!