Make memory card unreadable

[kletra]

Is there a way to make memory cards unreadable with software? Old cards can have personal stuff, family photos or text you don't want others to see. I've heard that there was a program that could make a hdd lose magnetization, thus making it unreadable. Is there something similar for memory cards, too? To ensure the card will be unusable.

 

[DSzymborski]

If you don't want to use it any more, and you want the data gone, just destroy it. Set it on fire, blow it up with firecrackers, shoot it, smash it, really anything that causes serious damage to it. You can't make it unusable with software as far as I know. I don't understand why you would want to destroy it without causing physical damage, but this honestly sounds kinda shady.

As I wrote before there were programs that made hdds lose magnetization, thereby making it unreadable. What was shady in that? I'm just interested if similar can be done with memory cards. For destroying the card, but now that I write this it came to my mind that I've had cards damaged by something and become unreadable. Is there some radiation, magnetic field that could damage irreversibly the cards? That would also be good to know, if I want to keep my data safe. And please spare me the microwave jokes, I've read a lot of them. If I want to keep my data, I won't put the card in the micro, and if I want to destroy it, I'd rather not where I heat my food.

Why? Would you destroy it in the microwave at the same time you're warming up your leftovers? That's weird. It's not like there's some magic chemical that will suddenly be stored by the microwave.

It sounds fishy because remember, we don't know you or what type of person you are. Being insistent on destroying the ability of an SD card to store data while leaving the SD card *looking* like it could store data sounds extremely suspicious. From a practical standpoint, it sounds more like something you would do to a third party's SD card to surreptitiously destroy data they have that you do not want them to have, without them suspected that you did anything. On the basis of your posts in the thread, I currently trust you about as far as I can throw you.

 

[camieabz]

Wipe it digitally until you are confident old data can't be retrieved. Put on rubber-soled shoes. Go into a room with a radiator. Scuff your feet up and down for 5-10 minutes while holding the contacts of the memory card. Then touch the radiator with one of the copper bits to induce static grounding.

Repeat for as long as your haircut will put up with it.

Will it work? No idea, but it makes me chuckle at the idea of it all.