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

[les]

On Sat, 2011-08-27 at 15:54 -0500, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> 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.
> -- 
> =======================================================================
> I've finally learned what "upward compatible" means. It means we get to
> keep all our old mistakes. -- Dennie van Tassel
> =======================================================================
> Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net
> 
Actually I have used file recovery software.  And while you may not
think it is easy (it is not a trivial program to write is the meaning I
think you inscribe to the process), running the program was quite
simple, and it did recover my files.  It took about 4 hours on a very
large disk.  But I just started the program and came back to find the
disk recovered.

To me, that is relatively easy.

Regards,
Les H