Brain fart: no format option on a pen drive pop-up menu?

[Joe Zeff]

On 08/26/2011 10:22 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 08/27/2011 12:24 PM, Tim wrote:
>> To be pedantic, that's a complete misconception about what "formatting"
>> means...
>
> The other utterly funny thing is the very last paragraph.
>
> "Once the drive has been formatted, the files on it will have been
> completely removed, so you can't get them back. It is possible that
> special recovery software could retrieve the files, so formatting a disk
> is not a completely secure way of wiping a disk."
>
> The writer has managed to contradict themselves in the space of 2
> sentences.....
>

Yes and no.  The average user won't have either the specialized software 
needed for forensic data recovery nor the skills that Timothy McGee and 
Abby Sciutto have in the use of those programs.  Therefor, as far as the 
average user is concerned, gone is gone.  However, people with the 
appropriate programs and skills can sometimes get things back.  As it 
happens, I know a man who used to earn his living doing exactly that, 
although he retired a number of years ago.