Ken;
Because the data on a Hardrive is magnetically stored in fixed locations, the data can only be removed by a magetic destroying device.

Since FDISK arranges the fixed locations where data is stored, every new FDISK operation rearranges the fixed locations of data storage- hence making previous data unreadable.  However, the magnetic data is still there, just unreadable for the common computer system.

So for most practical conditions, FDISK will "destory" data. In my opinion, one can fdisk a Hard Drive with out fear of the data being reproduced.

There are programs that can write numbers to the Harddrive until the data is just garbage and unreadable and unless such a program is used, the magnetically stored data can be always be read. (such as by the CIA, FBI & ect.)

Mike michel
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 --- On Mon 09/29, Ken Shearer wrote:
Subject: [PCBUILD] Wiping hard drive clean

There's a lot of dialog out there about wiping your hard drive clean before giving/selling the computer to someone else. Many responses say, "running FDISK and simply reformatting will NOT erase the data, and it can still be recovered."  Okay, how?

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