USB Flash Drive taking unreasonably long to wipe. Is this normal?

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm testing out some software to see what can effectively wipe out USB flash drives before I give them away/throw them away, and I gave RoadKil's DiskWipe a shot. This USB is only 16GB and I told it to do a random data wipe, 1 pass, and it's taken several hours so far and it's still not even at 5% complete. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I feel like this is unreasonably long for only a 16GB drive.

 

[zink1701]

Sounds like bad sectors on the chip in the USB drive. A full format of that size should take no longer than half hour on a slow stick and no more than 5-10 mins average for a USB stick. If its still not done chances are the stick is faulty

 

[Guest]

Sounds like bad sectors on the chip in the USB drive. A full format of that size should take no longer than half hour on a slow stick and no more than 5-10 mins average for a USB stick. If its still not done chances are the stick is faulty

Yup, still not done... I was wondering if maybe it's just the program I'm using. I'm guessing if it's bad sectors I need to toss it out? Is there any way to check it for bad sectors?

Edit: I did a format using the program recommended in the USB 101 sticky thread, called Disk Redecator by Cezeo, and that went by really quickly, which makes me think the USB is fine (the one I'm testing is fairly new), and maybe the program just isn't great.