Can a thumb drive [aka flash drive, jump drive etc.] be reformatted? My reason for asking this question lies in wanting to ensure that a thumb drive is "clean" [as opposed to all files being deleted] before passing the drive to someone else.

Yes they can be.

Some of the data can still be recovered from a re-formatted drive, if one puts in the effort, though the average person wouldn't bother. If you really want it clean, you need to "wipe" the drive as well, such as by using a feature of hard drive manufacturer's free drive preparation utilities that write 0's to everywhere on the drive.

Okay, kind folks. So then how do I reformat the thumb drive? Can I use the DOS format command, or is there a better utility? Thanks.

Well, if you had filled in the bleanks concerning your system we would be beeter ableto answer that. You should be able to format from withing Windows. How you do that depends on what version of windows. You could download a utility like killdisk that will wipe the drive. Take care with anything you do that you are sure to apply to the correct drive. It is easy to format the wrong drive/ partition.

Thanks again, OtheHill. Coincidentally, I emailed the folks @ KillDisk, asking whether their SW has the capability of selecting a drive other than the HDD for cleaning. Regards, howagood

A reformat may leave traces. You may wish to consider a program that writes 0's and 1's back and forth 9 times to have a more secure wipe of data. I'd just smash it with a hammer to be sure. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.