USB Neutralizer is a bootloader/partition table killer designed to wipe just the minimum number of data blocks to render the USB Drive unusable by the operating system. Then without worrying for any malicious code, the USB can be safely plugged to your Operating System, reformatted and used for file storage.
USB Neutralizer is a "portable device" oriented and functional with the two dominant partitioning schemes the legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) and the "modern" GUID Partition Table (GPT). Logical Volume Manager (LVM), Zettabyte File System (ZFS) zpools, Btrfs subvolumes, Intel Rapid Storage Technology(Intel RST) are out of scope.
Every storage device requires a "partitioning scheme" to know how the available storage space is divided up. A partition structure defines how information is structured on the partition (File System), where partitions begin and end, and also the code that is used during startup if a partition is bootable. This information is required by the operating system to know which sectors belongs to each partition and how to interact (boot, mount) with them.
- Waveshare RP2040-Zero Pico-Like MCU Development Board (amazon.com, aliexpress)
- 2-in-1 USB-C Splitter (amazon.com, aliexpress.com)
- Keychain Case [optional] (thingiverse)
- 3 x M2 x 4 mm self tapping screws [optional]
- 3 mm length x 2 mm diameter transparent acrylic rod (if you plan to print the custom case) amazon.com
- A USB-C power plug to power the device (it could be powered either from external source or from a computer/mobile device)
- Go to the releases and get the latest build of the firmware.
- Make sure your Raspbery PICO board is completely disconnected from power and computer.
- Press and hold the white BOOTSEL button on the board.
- While still holding the button down, plug the USB cable into your computer, then release the button.
- The Pico will mount as a USB mass storage device named RPI-RP2.
- Copy and paste (or drag and drop) the usb-neutralizer.uf2 file directly into the root folder of the mounted RPI-RP2 drive.
- Congratulations, your USB Neutralizer is ready!