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

[Aaron Konstam]

On Sun, 2011-08-28 at 00:21 +0930, Tim wrote:
> 
> 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. 
It does mean erasing the files on the disk or other media. Now what dews
erasing mean. It means that any program whose purpose is to list files
on the media will find no files. That is what most people mean by
erasing. In windows the system, tells you that all the contents of the
file will be lost. That is erasing in normal parlance.

You know a secret that you want us all to take note of. That the
contents of the files are not erased. Only the links that allow us to
find the files are removed. And if you are knowledgeable about the
structure of the file system you can recover those links and bring the
files back.
That is true but not generally useful. Or to put it another  way it is
only useful to people panicing that a file seems to have disappeared.

I also disagree with the statement: They're still there.  And easily
recovered with the most rudimentary of effort. They are not easily
recovered and the process is not rudimentary.
-- 
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I've finally learned what "upward compatible" means. It means we get to
keep all our old mistakes. -- Dennie van Tassel
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Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net