thanks for reading!

question is:

when a disc has been used, and later reformatted by a utility to make it compatible with say a MAC or PC, what is actually written onto the entire disc?

And are the original contents, after the reformatting, written over and unavailable?

Thanks for your comments!
Ed ZIPZIP sends

: thanks for reading!
:
: question is:
:
: when a disc has been used, and later reformatted by a utility to make it compatible with say a MAC or PC, what is actually written onto the entire disc?
:
: And are the original contents, after the reformatting, written over and unavailable?
:
: Thanks for your comments!
: Ed ZIPZIP sends
:
:

actually the main thing formatting a disk does is that it
alters the file allocation tables...
dos had a different fat than lets say linux or MAC.
eventhough same ammount of data is saved in both the cases
the way in which it is saved is different for different os.


freeza

Hi,

when you format a disc with say DOS format this disc is formatted with DOS file system. Like it is with raiserFS or Ext2,3 if you format it under Linux. The data on this disc is hopelessly deleted because formatting means = prepare storage medium to be modified with new file format.

PS: Never ever try it with harddisk unless its a new one!!!
Alex

: thanks for reading!
:
: question is:
:
: when a disc has been used, and later reformatted by a utility to make it compatible with say a MAC or PC, what is actually written onto the entire disc?
:
: And are the original contents, after the reformatting, written over and unavailable?
:
: Thanks for your comments!
: Ed ZIPZIP sends
:
:

Hi!

A floppy disk actually goes through two formatting steps: Low-level formatting, and high-level formatting. The low-level format marks out where the tracks begin and end, and where the sectors are in each track. The high-level format then writes out the boot track, the File Allocation Table (FAT), and the root directory.

If you do a "quick" format in DOS, then only the high-level format is done.

The formatting process does not actually overwrite every bit on the disk, so it is possible to retrieve data that was previously written on a floppy before it was formatted. It is a difficult and expensive process, but it can be done.

If you are trying to erase all of the contents of a floppy, then you'd need to overwrite every bit on the disk, and rewrite a series of patterns on it, to ensure that the data is fully erased.




Melissa