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To: d:oug who wrote (37902)	11/14/2003 10:29:09 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110653

Doug, you are quite right: if your data is overwritten repeatedly, then it is really gone. The government does it that way. Gottfried

To: d:oug who wrote (37902)	11/17/2003 12:02:09 PM
From: Esteban	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110653

Regarding The myth of a DOS FORMAT C:/ command... Although it is true that the dos format command does not overwrite the data on the disk, apparently running a LOW LEVEL FORMAT does render the data unrecoverable. I found this response in the FAQ of a data recovery software package: Question: Can data be recovered from a hard drive that has been formatted? Answer: Yes, FinalData can in most cases recover data from a drive that has been formatted. During a quick format, only the drive's directory information is erased or altered, but in general all previous data on the disk remains intact and is recoverable. Although a "Low Level" format is not the common way to format a drive, it does completely erase the drive's data together with the directory information. Since all data sectors are overwritten during a low level format, recovery is impossible using the FinalData software. A low level format generally requires a utility disk, available from the drive manufacturer (or another third party vendor), and it is not the standard mode of format used under the Windows OS environment. Re-installing an operating system will furhter complicate the recovery process, please see Related Topics for more help on this matter. Note that the software to perform a low level format is usually available free from the website of the drive manufacturer. I found PowerMax at the Maxtor web site very easily, and performed a low level format on a drive that had errors on it. FYI, Esteban