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

[Tim]

Tim:
>> To be pedantic, that's a complete misconception about what "formatting"
>> means...

Fernando Cassia:
> I disagree. I think that is exactly what formatting means, laying out
> a new file system, and erasing the contents in the process.

You can think what you like, it doesn't make misconceptions true.

And my comment was specifically about what I quoted, but...

Formatting means preparing a file system, it doesn't *mean* erasing the
contents.  It's a side-effect that your files are seemingly erased, but
they're not.  They're still there.  And easily recovered with the most
rudimentary of effort.

Only if you do a full format, writing zeroes to all sectors, will the
drive contents be erased.  Not erased against forensic recovery, though.

But for a very long time, many different operating systems have only
done quick formats, which just re-write the very beginning of a drive
(or partition).  Also, for quite some time, on various OSs, anybody
attempting to do the long format hasn't actually done so, the drive has
just gone through the motions, pretending.

So, to be precise, and not lead anybody down the garden path:

Formatting is about preparing a file system on a disc or partition.
Quick formats simply re-do the master record, ignoring the file
contents.  Full formats *may* zero the drive, or may just chug along.
Likewise with low level formats, which used to mean rewriting the medium
at the lowest level (akin to ruling the lines onto a blank sheet of
paper), but the drive often ignores the command.

Erasing the contents on the media is an entirely different thing.  It
may be merely reclaiming the space for re-use, it may be secure
destruction against someone else reading the content.  It will depend on
the type of erasure you do.

With computing, deluding yourself that something actually means
something else is an action that will come back to haunt you.  Lying to
other people is an action that may well cause someone serious problems.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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