Wipe Out

[jayadev]

I was in the opinion that formatting a hard disk is the only way to permanently remove data from a disk. But I am getting some other views which says that data can be recovered even after formatting. Is it correct?

[Al]

Yes, if you format a disk the data is still there but the pointers to it are deleted. With the right software the data can be recovered. To remove data permanently you need a bit of software to overwrite it with lots of gibberish.

[keith]

That's right.
Formatting does not get rid of the traces those bits and bytes, instead it just set the header to "0" such that the software will just interpret the partition at empty space (despite there is still information underneath it).

[FourBear]

Just wondering...what software works to "erase" it by overwriting? You know, just in case I need in the future. You never know.

[mike007]

Well you can back up the hard drive and the data will be saved even after formating...