What does formatting a floppy or hard drive do?

Answer 1

The headers on your file allocation table files are replaced with a special character. This character tells the operating system not toread any files still on the disk. At this point, files can still be recovered. Only if the files are written over will the files be altered and rendered unreadable. If an algorithm is used to write over the files, it may be necessary to write more than once. Otherwise, a decryption algorithm can be used and the files reconstructed.

Answer 2

There are two different ways how you can format a floppy drive (virtually any drive which can be formatted). The first way is so called "quick formating" which clears the file table (marks each sector such as it's available for writing) on the formated disk but files are still on the disk. Operating system cannot see them because the file table is empty but using a special software you can restore those files if nothing was saved on the disk after formatting (it's exactly how restoring software works). The second way is actually a low level formatting which is actually erases information from drives forever. There is no chance to restore information after such formatting.

Even a full format will not necessarily destroy the data, as some file recovery utilities can detect magnetic patterns on the media from weakly deleted files. The only method to securely eradicate the data is to use a utility that redundantly overwrites the data with other data (usually overwrites every byte with a zero value byte). A good such utility will allow you to select the number of times the data is overwritten, and the method used to do so.

Read more: What_happens_to_any_data_stored_on_a_floppy_disk_if_you_reformat_it

Answer 3

the same thing that happens when you format anything. all data is deleted

Answer 4

It means writing the electronic information on the disk so that the computer can recognize the disk as being valid

Answer 5

All the data in the floppy disk will be deleted permanently.

Answer 6

Removes all data.