Will microwaving a flash drive destroy the data on it?
Yes, a microwave should be very effective at destroying the gates in a simple flash chip, unless the flash chip was "shielded" like a PCMIA type flash chunk or a SDD, in those situations it would probably destroy the controller, push power back into it well, and might not destroy everything.
Why? Both of those items can be effectively destroyed with a rock caveman style or a hammer for the more civilized individuals
What better location to find it already tried:
- USB Drive + Microwave 9 seconds
- SD flash drive in microwave
The very popular YouTube show, “Microwave This?” has microwaved many products with flash in them, but strangely enough, they haven't done the flash card. (and probably need another episode)
More Data:
Remember that electromagnetic theory is not a fact, even if certain outcomes/examples are. With that said, here are 2 articles that discuss it. The first being more simple concentrated on electromagnetic specific, and the second going for the whole picture from end to end. And no I did not read all of them.
Here is a presentation on “Electromagnetic Waves” from the University of Texas, Arlington.
Here is a chapter on “Electromagnetism” from Simple Nature, by Benjamin Crowell.
This is a bit different, and wouldn't be in "the Book".
And here are some pics of the nand gates.
I just microwaved a MicroSD that was defective (could read data, but couldn't write or format anymore) and I was trying to destroy it in a way that you could still read what the card is per SanDisk instructions.
I tried 10 seconds, 30 seconds twice, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, and finally 5 minutes. I could still access all the data that was on there as if I did nothing. So no, Microwaving a SD card is not effective in destroying the data.
What I ended up doing was using a flame to heat the back allowing the plastic to easily come off which exposed the chip. The chip was then easy to physically destroy using a knife tip to gut most of the chip out as shavings. This allows me to still get a warranty replacement without risk of confidential client information falling in the hands of someone else.